I tried to think of where Alfie would have gone. Would he have gone home? Maybe he went exploring. But where? He wouldn’t have gone in search of food. There was food at the event.
“Alfie!” I yelled.
Residents, attracted by the social media posts of the impromptu festival, were heading to the town square.
Though Harrogate was a small town, at that moment, it might as well have been the size of Tokyo. I had no idea where my brother was.
“Sebastian?”
I froze. I had heard his voice. I knew it.
“Alfie?”
“Sebastian?”
I looked around wildly. Light peered out from a storm sewer.
“What the fuck?” I took two steps then wrenched the top of the manhole cover off. Eight feet below me were Alfie and the two missing Svensson boys.
“What happened? Why are you down there? Did you fall into a sinkhole?” I asked in concern. “Hold on. I’m calling the fire department to get you out.” I took out my phone to dial 911.
“We don’t need the fire department,” Alfie scoffed. He jumped then started climbing up the thin metal rods that served as a ladder embedded in the concrete.
The Svenssons clambered up behind him.
“Yes, I’m calling about the missing kids,” I said into the phone when the operator answered. “I found them.”
After giving the operator the location of the storm drain, I grabbed Alfie by the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the storm sewer.
Then I grabbed the Svenssons and pulled them out.
“What were you doing down there?” I yelled once I was sure they were safe.
Alfie, who moments before had been happy, drew back from me.
“Why are you being mean?” He started crying.
I shook him. “You went missing. The whole town is looking for you. The police are looking for you. Have you lost your mind?”
“We were searching for alligators,” Alfie explained, sniffling. “We saw one, and we went to catch it.”
“I don’t care what you saw,” I said, grabbing the back of his shirt and hauling him to the town square.
The Svenssons trailed behind us.
“What did I tell you? You can’t just run off. You could have told me where you were going.”
“You were gone,” Alfie protested. “I didn’t see you.”
Fuck. Because I was with Amy.I shouldn’t have been with her. It was what I had always feared and why I hadn’t dated. I didn’t want to negatively impact my brother.
“Rest assured it won’t happen again,” I told him gruffly as we walked toward where the group of Svenssons had congregated.
Hunter glared at his brothers when he saw them.
“Do you know how much ThinkX is going to charge to hunt you down? Holy smokes, I even called Crawford, and you know how much I despise dealing with him.”
“We’re going home,” I told Alfie as Hunter’s brothers started arguing with him.
