Liam
I satat the small table in my kitchen and stared down at my glass. The cabin had that particular quiet it always had in the evenings. Pine Hollow sat far enough away from town that the night settled into a comfortable stillness once the last lights from the guest cabins had dimmed.
Normally, I appreciated that quiet, but tonight it only gave my thoughts more room to move.
I poured another drink just to give my hands something to do while my thoughts continued their very efficient campaign against my peace of mind.
My phone buzzed on the table.
I looked down at the screen without much interest.
Then I froze.
Zoey.
Her name sat there in bright white letters.
I simply stared at it. My brain moved through several possibilities at once. Maybe she had changed her mind. Maybe she had decided we could talk.
Maybe—
The phone buzzed again.
I answered immediately. “Zoey?”
There was a short pause on the other end. “Liam. I need your help.”
Something in her tone pulled me upright in the chair.
Fear. Not irritation or guarded politeness.
Fear.
My body reacted before my thoughts caught up. I was already standing. “What’s wrong?”
“Bobbi is missing.”
My mind tried to place the name, then the image of the small girl with dark hair and serious questions about birds and emotional regulation sprang into it.
My stomach dipped. “What happened?”
“She slipped away from her babysitter,” Zoey said. “We’ve been searching for over an hour. Her tracker stopped working.”
The room around me seemed to narrow.
I moved toward the door automatically, grabbing my keys from the counter without breaking the phone connection.
“Where are you?”
“We’re near the canal.”
My hand stopped halfway to the door handle. The canal. Cold understanding moved through me.
That area had water access along several sections of the path. People walked there often. Kids explored there. If a small child wandered too close to the edge?—
“We’re worried she might have gone this way,” Zoey continued. “I thought maybe you could track her. I have some of her stuff.”
Her words came out controlled, but I could hear the strain beneath them. Zoey was afraid.
