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Brett shook his head. “I haven’t seen her since I got here. Not supposed to, remember? Bad luck.”

“Right... Well, if you see a white-clad woman around, just cover your eyes and tell her to come find me, okay?”

“You got it. I’ll tell the other guys to help you look.”

Within minutes, the whole wedding party sans groom was scouring the house for Evie, and the unease in my stomach gradually returned. The boys went outside, asking around, but they sent one back a minute later to tell me, “The Winters said they haven’t seen her either. You were the only one who was out to see the set up this morning.”

My stomach clenched, an invisible fist squeezing, twisting, and threatening to cast breakfast back up on the nice groomsman’s dress shirt.

“Did you check the bathrooms?”

His suggestion rang dull and muffled in my head as I turned away. Of course we checked the bathrooms. We checked the basement, the kitchen, the attic. I even checked crawl spaces and the roof.

Everly wasn’t inside. Anywhere. And I was starting to panic.

“Where did you see her last?”

“Who saw her last?”

“Could she have gotten cold feet and fled?”

The questions were a barrage, stinging my skin and twisting the knot in my stomach tighter and tighter until I thought I might throw up.

“Breakfast,” I said shakily, wringing my hands together and twisting the front fabric of my dress. “I think I was the last one. She went into her room to take a shower. No one’s seen her since, and I definitely don’t think she’d run off without telling me first. Cold feet or not...”

I cast Brett an apologetic look. It wasn’t that I thought she wanted to get away from him, but I wouldn’t write it off. They were young and still so fresh as a couple.

Shit happened.

What worried me though, was that she seemed perfectly fine and excited in the morning. I hadn’t so much as sniffed any hesitation on her. She’d been talking about how excited she was for the photographer to arrive.

A knock on the door made us all jump. Said photographer had just arrived, and right behind her...

Mr. and Mrs. Bennett.

I shot to my feet, running to the bathroom where I threw up for real.

After wiping my mouth clean and flushing away the evidence, I shut off the water and leaned heavily against the sink while listening to the muffled voices outside.

“She did what?” my father asked in his typical fashion. Harsh, arrogant. Like he might start firing people for the slip up.

“That just doesn’t make any sense.” Mrs. Clara Bennett’s voice was as high and delicate as ever. Falsely innocent. “Everly would never.”

“Where’s Rae?” Dad demanded. Two seconds later, he was pounding on the bathroom door, making me jump like a ten-year-old, afraid to get in trouble. “Rae? Come out. We need to talk. Right now.”

Staring at the wallpaper of white birches, the back of my head against the sink cupboard, I would have preferred to crawl out the window, but I had to face this head on. For Everly.

When I emerged, I found the living room as full as a small concert. The whole wedding party, the Winter family of about fifteen young men running the event, the photographer, a few early guests, and my parents. Although, calling my father and his wife that had no relation to me whatsoever my parents was a stretch. Clara made sure I knew it growing up, too, so it was hard to forget.

Dad stared me down, hazel eyes that mirrored my own blazing. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” He sounded like he wanted an apology. Like it was my fault Everly was missing.

I sputtered, gaping, feeling all eyes on me.

Fox was in the back corner by the hearth, eyes dark as he watched the scene unfold. I wanted to throw myself into the burning hearth to escape the Bennetts, but I had no clue if he would let me do that. Probably not for insurance reasons.

“I—I don’t know what you want me to say, but I have no clue what happened, and we really need to get back out there to keep searching—”

Dad grabbed me by the upper arm when I tried to breeze past him. “Not so fast.”