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Very good, very world-changing sex.

The others just don’t need to know how I’m going to let Rune wreck me. And I’m going to beg for him to do it again.

I’m seconds away from clocking out when my phone begins to ring. And never in my life have I or anyone else called me an overly perceptive person, but for some reason, the ringing sounds frantic.

My fingers tremble a little as I dig my phone out of my pocket, and I see Rune’s name. I’m just excited to hear his voice. That’s it.

That has to be it.

I take a breath and answer. “Hey, sweetheart⁠—”

“Are you at work?” His voice is too loud, and it’s trembling. “Easton, where the fuck are you right now?”

“Uh, just clocking out. What’s going on⁠—”

It’s in that second that Camilo comes into the room, feet skidding on the polished floors. “Police just got called in on a missing child.”

I don’t need time for all the pieces to click into place. It hits me all in a rush, and I turn around, immediately rushing for my car. “Rune, I’m getting in my car. Where am I going?”

“I don’t—” he says, then cuts himself off. “I don’t know. The park? Maybe my fucking condo. He has him. He has him, and I am going to burn that fucking school to the ground for letting him go with Neal!”

I’m already on the road by the time I speak again. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

Rune lets out something between a sigh and a sob, and I can hear the heavy revving of his engine as he floors it. “Neal went to the school and picked him up. He’s not even on the fucking paperwork! The incompetent fuck at the front desk told me that she asked Elio if Neal was my husband, and of course he said yes, so she let him go!”

Rage hits me, coursing through my veins along with the panic I’m feeling. “How long ago?”

“About an hour before pickup. I didn’t…fuck!” he screams, like he couldn’t hold the word in any longer. “I didn’t know until I got into the car line and one of the monitors recognized me. She said that Elio had gone home with his other dad. For a second, I hoped it was you, but I also knew you wouldn’t do something so stupid.”

I take several deep breaths, and that’s when I realize I’m pulling into the parking lot of his condo. I’d seen Neal’s little car when he was sitting in the driveway at my place, and it isn’t here.

“I’m at your place. No sign of them.”

Rune sucks in a breath, then says, “Shit. I have to go.”

The line goes dead as I pull into his usual spot and close my eyes, pressing my forehead to the steering wheel. There are no words to describe the way I’m feeling. My adrenaline is firing uncontrollably, and a part of me wants to get out and start running until it stops.

Or I collapse.

But I can’t do that. I need to focus.

Picking my phone back up, I punch North’s number into the phone and hold my breath as I wait for him to answer. It rings and rings, but nothing happens. And just before I’m about to put my fist through the windshield, my phone starts to buzz, and Westin’s name pops up on the screen.

I do not fucking have time for this, but I answer anyway. “Hey, hon. I can’t talk right now. I’m in the middle of⁠—”

“Hey. You know that kid who really liked you? From the pool?”

I suck in a breath. “Yes.”

“He’s here right now, and he looks pretty freaked-out.”

My heart leaps into my throat. “What? Where are you?”

“Work,” she says. It’s then that I notice she’s whispering. “He came in with some guy who was carrying him. He doesn’t have his wheelchair, which I thought was weird. He recognized me, but he didn’t say anything. His eyes got really wide though. And he keeps asking the guy for his phone, but this douchebag said he left it at school. This is weird, right?”

“The cops are looking for him,” I say, breathless and on the verge of laughing. Or maybe crying.

“Oh shit. Should I call them?”