“Dude…you all right? You’ve had your head buried in your computer for hours.”
Shaking off the hypnosis I feel like I’ve been under, I lean back in my desk chair and drag my hand down my face. “Yeah, just…got a lot on my mind.” My phone vibrates next to me, so I pick it up from my desk and see my sister is calling me. “Sorry, guys. I’ve got to take this.” I stand from my desk as I answer. “Hey. Aren’t you supposed to be leaving for your honeymoon right about now?”
“Yes. We’re on our way to the airport as we speak, but we just tried video calling with Vienna so we could ask Ellis what she wants from Bora Bora and she didn’t answer.”
“Okay, well, try calling again.”
“I did, Rhonan.” Laney clears her throat. “The first time it kept ringing, but then the second time it went straight to her voicemail, like she turned her phone off or something.”
Awareness crawls up my spine. “She never turns her phone off… Maybe it died.”
“That’s what I was thinking. I—I don’t want to worry you, but I just wanted to let you know. Maybe she’ll answer if you call, but…”
“I’m sure everything is fine,” I say, more to convince my sister than myself because my mind is spinning at the moment. “I’ll try calling her and let her know that you want to talk to them, all right?”
“Okay. I love you.”
“Love you too. Have a great time.”
After Laney ends the call, I immediately bring up Vienna’s number to call her, but unfortunately, I’m met with her voicemail.
A bad feeling races through me. “Fuck. Something’s wrong.”
Brody stops chewing as he watches me slide right back up to my computer. “What do you mean?”
“Vienna isn’t answering her phone. That’s not like her.”
He wipes his mouth with his sleeve. “Okay…”
“Hart!” Chief Banks enters the room, a worried look on his brow.
“Yeah?”
“You…you need to come back here with me.”
I follow him into his office and shut the door. “Chief?”
He blows out a breath. “I finally got an ID on that man that Mrs. Higgins was complaining about.”
“All right. That’s great, but why are you just telling me and not the other guys?”
Our eyes lock. “He’d been walking everywhere until this morning, when she saw him driving a black SUV. And then one of the office ladies at the school reported that the car was parked in front of the school virtually all day.”
Sweat forms on my brow the longer he talks. “Get to the point, Chief. Please.”
“Have you spoken to Vienna today?”
“Earlier.”
“What about now?”
“Respectfully, sir. What the fuck are you trying to tell me?”
He inhales deeply and says, “Your girlfriend isn’t exactly who she seems, and the man who’s been hanging around town might have something to do with her.”
***
By the time Chief Banks finishes telling me about Vienna’s husband and how the guy snooping around town is a private investigator, my stomach is churning so hard I can barely stand up straight.
