“Where’s Julia?” Leland demanded.
Cari stilled. Her gaze shifted to the water, confusion sharpening into something else. “We were together,” she said, voice uneven. “I-I went in—”
“You fell?” Dev asked.
Cari shook her head, frowning. “No. Julia bumped into me. I think. It happened fast.”
“Did you see her go in?” Alec asked.
“No,” Cari said, more certain now.
“There are gators everywhere,” Emily whispered.
Alec cut in. “We only heard one splash.”
That registered. Leland scanned the dock, and the moored boats. One slip sat empty. His stomach dropped like a rock.
“Who left?”
Dev turned and looked, too. “Are you sure someone did?”
Rafe, who’d been on perimeter patrol, answered, “Last round, every slip was full.”
“When was that?” Alec asked.
“Thirty minutes at most.”
“Who left?” Leland repeated, quieter now but honed to sharpness.
“Check the feeds,” someone said.
“Can’t,” Dev said immediately. “System’s down.”
Cari’s voice cut through the heaviness, sharp despite the tremor. “That seems a little too convenient.”
Dev turned, command snapping into place. “Lock us down. No one leaves. No one comes in. We account for everyone.”
Leland was already moving. Up the incline, past the house. Every step fueled by a certainty setting like concrete in his gut. This wasn’t an accident. This was targeted. And he’d let her walk right into it.
He took the stairs at the side of the garage two at a time and burst through the door.
“Julia is missing,” he announced, his voice cracking like a gunshot in the stillness of the small room. “Last seen on the dock.”
Callan was already there, his attention fixed on the screen.
Dev came in right behind him. “Bring up whatever you’ve got from the dock and backyard before the system dropped.”
“I would…” Callan glanced at the screen. A progress bar crawled across it, at only 50 percent. “Rebooting after the crash is going to be ten minutes, at least.”
Anger and frustration surged, and he gritted out between clenched teeth, “Julia may not have ten minutes.”
“That’s the absolute best I can offer, my friend,” Callan stated softly.
His first instinct was to break something, but he resisted, planting himself firmly beside the main screen with his arms folded, his focus narrowed to one thing only: finding her.
The security office filled fast, bodies crowding in. Wet footprints tracked the floor as Cari followed them in, still dripping, a towel hanging off her shoulders like an afterthought. No one told her to sit. No one tried to stop her.
The progress bar crept forward. Now 70 percent. Too fucking slow.
