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“I’m going to start driving around and see if I can find her.” I start walking toward my car, purpose and panic alighting every step. “Will you stay here and see if she comes back?”
“Of course,” Beth says with a firm nod. She calls out her number to me, which I quickly type in my phone and shoot her a text so she has mine as well. “Let me know when you find her.”
“You too.”
I reach the car and unlock it, jumping into the driver's seat and turning it on when I’m hit with a wave of her perfume, so strong it’s like she’s sitting right next to me. But as I quickly scan the car, she’s nowhere to be found, her scent still clinging to the leather seat from our ride here.
Throwing the car in reverse and backing out of the spot, I turn onto the road and start driving, eyes scanning the road as I go, hoping to see her walking along the sidewalks. I pull out my phone and call Boone.
“Hey man, how’d meeting the parents go?” he says as soon as he picks up.
“Fucking horrible. But not what I called to talk about. Have you heard from Scar?”
He must hear the panic in my voice and I can picture him on the other line, jerking to attention, his care for Scar taking center stage. “No, why?”
“Damnit,” I say, the little spark of hope I had in my chest that maybe she called him, needed his words of encouragement and a moment alone squashed. “Things went bad at dinner and she left and now I can’t find her.”
“Did she drive off?” he asks, trying to stay calm but I hear the worry edging its way into his tone.
“No, I have the car,” I tell him, turning right down a street filled with grocery stores, big box buildings, coffee shops darkened and closed for the day.
“Did you try calling her?”
“Of course. Keep getting her voicemail.”
Boone starts whispering away from the speaker, presumably filling in Naomi.
Tears start to crest in my vision, blurring the road in front of me but I refuse to let them fall. The worst-case scenarios flash by in my mind and I violently rub my eyes, trying to wipe the images away. I need to stay focused and there’s no time to lose it right now, even if the images of Scar off somewhere in a ditch, or being hit by a car, or sitting at a bar throwing back a line of shots flash through my head.
“Can you call Vik and see if she’s heard from her at all? I’m gonna call Hayden and see if he can track down Carter.” Maybe she called one of them, needing comfort or a way home.
But even as I think it, I know the chances are slim. If she was going to call anyone besides me, it would be Boone.
“Sure thing. I’ll let you know if I hear anything, but keep me updated too,” Boone says.
“Will do.”
“And Walker?” He pauses. “I know you’re scared, but I’m sure she’ll be fine. She’s done this before where she just needs time to herself and isolates from everyone else.”
I grit my teeth, voice threatening to break. “And was that before or after she stopped drinking?”
Boone’s silence is the only answer I need.
* * *
The low fuel light pops up the dash, letting me know I have thirty miles to empty. I look at the clock, seeing that almost three hours have passed since I started driving around.
Three hours of fear, dread, and frustration as I turn corner after corner, stop at bar after bar, and come up empty.
Hayden found Carter and she hasn’t heard from her, neither has Arun or Vik. Nikolai called to be filled in on the situation and said he’d keep an eye out if she turned back up at the buses or hotel, but so far, no luck.
I can tell with every call Boone makes to check in, that his own panic is rising by the hour.
My phone buzzes in the console, rattling around, and I rush to pick it up, seeing Beth’s name across the screen.
“Did you find her?” I spit out as soon as the line connects.
“Not yet,” Beth says, and I slam my hand against the steering wheel in frustration. “But Christopher just got an alert on his phone that the front door sensor was triggered twenty minutes ago at the church.”
