Page 16

An ache builds in my jaw as I clench hard. “Five minutes. Then I want to know the next fucking steps.”

Once we enter my room, I place the carrier on the floor by my bed, and Bry places everything he’s carrying over on the other side of it.

“I’m going to go back and help Noah and Logan,” he says, and I nod.

I’ll get the little beast settled, then find out what they’re doing to look for her. I’m not taking no for an answer this time. No more waiting. We’re doing something.

The longer I’m away from Rosy, the more it feels as though I’ve lost some vital part of me.

NINE

BRYNN

“Can Felix get into her laptop if he’s not here?” I ask Logan.

I’m struggling to understand what’s going on. Rosy’s not…anywhere. We’ve searched; we’ve waited. I don’t know what the next steps are for someone who has gone missing. It feels unbelievable to be in this situation, to have a detective sitting here with Rosy’s belongings and talking while searching them.

“This will be easy for him. It’s all part of his job. If there’s anything on there that can help, he’ll find it.” Logan nods, placing the phone to his ear.

“Find what?” Nate asks, coming to stand behind me.

We’ve all gravitated towards the central kitchen island in Rosy’s flat. Everything we thought might be useful is spread across the surface.

I update him, but my focus keeps going back to the items on the table. Her laptop, her phone, and a tablet. Something’s missing… “Her bag? Did you find her bag? Her phone’s still here, but her bag isn’t. Did anyone see it?”

We all look around, lifting things up to check in and around them. “So if her phone’s here, but her bag isn’t, then she must’ve left the house?” I ask.

“It’s possible. If she was truly wanting space, and not having us blow up her phone, she might’ve gone out without it.” Noah nods, his focus moving around the room as if trying to picture it in his mind.

“Felix is in,” Logan updates, placing the phone on loudspeaker.

“Hey, guys,” Felix greets. We all move closer to the laptop screen, watching the cursor move around, apparently by Felix’s doing. “I’ll take a look around and see what I can find. It looks like…yep, she has everything linked up on here, which makes things a lot easier.” More things fly open on the screen. “Okay, messages…you might want to look away, and I can just flag anything. I don’t want to cause any sort of fallout if you see something she doesn’t want you to.”

Noah and I avert our gazes, but Nate’s gaze remains fixed on the screen. “Look for Steph or Stephanie. They live together, but neither is here. We’re wondering if they’ve gone somewhere together,” I add, hoping it will be that easy.

“Coolio, let me find…ah, there she is. Steph said she’s staying a little longer at Faye’s house, and that she’ll be back next week. Rosy replied, saying she’s happy that the trial’s going well, and she can’t wait to hear about it. Steph replied that the sex…oh, oops. Never mind that. It was the last message between them.”

“Can you give me Steph’s number? I’ll give her a call whilst you keep looking, that way I can see if she knows anything,” Noah asks, pulling out his phone.

We’re both still avoiding looking at the screen, and based on the message Felix almost read out, I’m glad. My ears already feel hot. I don’t want to pry any more into Rosy’s private life than we have to.

Once Felix reels it off, Noah steps away to make the call.

“Okay, if you can give me any other details about Rosy, I’ll look around a bit more,” Felix says through the speaker.

“You said you argued about her job the last time you saw her, because she was fired?” Logan asks, and Nate stiffens beside me.

“Yes, we were worried because she was coming home upset and stressed more and more, so we discussed things with her employer. It…didn’t go so well. Understandably, they were not happy about us getting involved. Rosy didn’t tell us what happened, but she came home and said they’d let her go. She was rightfully upset with us,” I add, my chest still tight at the memory of what we did.

“Peter. He fired her,” Nate says tersely.

Faint tapping can be heard through the phone, and the air’s charged as I hold my breath, waiting for Felix to find something.

“Steph hasn’t heard from her either. She thought she was with us and explained she’s at her girlfriend’s house to trial living together…because they received an eviction notice,” Noah says as he returns.

Nate leans forward, growling. “A fucking what?”

“Apparently, they received it recently. The landlord wants to sell, so they have to find a new place to live. Steph is considering moving in with her girlfriend, but she doesn’t know Rosy’s plans yet.”