Florence jerks her arm but she’s unable to free herself. “I’m not a monster! I heard what happened to her. It was horrible.”
“But why wait so long?”
Florence frowns. “I didn’t wait. I’ve been bringing her flowers every week since I heard what happened. We both lost him, and I’m not there to ask her for forgiveness or anything, but I loved Camden, okay, and he’s gone! He’s been taken from me, so the last thing I can do is care for herforhim. Because that’s what he would do. All I can do is bring her flowers and tell her I’m sorry. That’s it!”
Gazing into her eyes, I don’t see any lies buried there, but I’m not going to believe her immediately. I release her arm and she immediately clutches it to her body, massaging the red mark my grip left on her skin.
Exiting the room, I pull out my phone and dial Raven’s number.
“Joker,” she answers cheerily.
“Hey, I need you to confirm something for me.”
“Gotcha.”
“We found Camden’s woman. Florence Marino. She says she’s been bringing flowers to Ivy’s mother for the past few weeks. Can you verify?”
“Sure thing.”
Silence falls so I glance down the corridor. No sign of Ivy. She must have walked out into the store. As I start to follow, Raven’s voice fills my ear once more.
“Yep, I have her on CCTV. Every Thursday for the past month.”
“Anything on her?”
“Nah. Cassian thinks her father used to be a gun runner, so he’s calling a contact. The name’s familiar only because his father’s uncle was neck deep in guns and would always brag about using smaller families because you could pay them less until one idiot smoked too close to a warehouse of gunpowder and let me tell you, that was hell.”
I’m only half listening because out on the shop floor, Ivy isn’t here either. Three security guards mill about the store, casting their eyes around like roving cameras, but Ivy’s absence immediately sets me on edge.
Did she go to the bathroom?
“How is she?” Raven asks. “Ivy, I mean. I can’t imagine how scary it is seeing the woman your dad was leaving the family for. Does she know anything? The woman? You don’t think she’s involved, do you? That would be fucked.”
I don’t reply as I stride across the store toward the other staff room. Inside, two staff members jump in alarm at my sudden entrance but they don’t get a chance to speak as I see right through the open door to the bathroom.
It’s empty.
“I’ll call you back.” Hanging up, I charge back into the store and grab the collar of the first security guard I see. “Where the hell is she?”
“Huh? Who?”
“Ivy!”
“She’s outside. She needed some air.”
Throwing him aside, I sprint toward the door. The windows don’t show anyone standing outside, but there’s a chance she’s lingering just past the building. Skidding into the sidewalk, the street is filled with a scattering of people and I scan each face in half a second.
None of them are Ivy.
She’s not here.
Footsteps thump behind me as security joins me and tension tightens so rapidly across my shoulders that my breath catches in my throat.
Not again.
It can’t have happened again.
I told her not toleave.
