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“Me too,” Joss said, her face pinched with worry. “I’ll help however I can.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t bother heading back to my office for my computer, only rushed out of the building to my car. I sped through the city streets as fast as I could, pulling up out front of the safehouse and running to the door. I threw it open, raced inside. Ran up the stairs to her bedroom, then down again, to the kitchen, to my bedroom.
But she wasn’t there.
Kelly had gone missing, and I had no way to get ahold of her.
I’d failed her once again.
13
LEE
“What in the hell were you thinking?” Frankie Sarcone burst into my office, the scowl on her face the only thing detracting from her just-back-from-vacation look. She flung her coat on the chair and crossed her arms over her chest. Ignoring my raised finger, she went on as if what she had to say was the only thing that mattered. “My cousin almost died, my sister-in-law was abducted, and my name was splashed across the news on every damn station in the city, but I didn’t hear one damn word of it until I landed back in the state?”
My brow rose and I pointed at my phone. “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. O’Connor. Could you repeat that last bit?”
Hesitation lined Donovan’s tone as he asked through the speakerphone, “Do we need to call back?”
“No. No, not at all. I left my door open, that's all.”
Frankie blanched, but I turned my attention back where it belonged.
“We still haven’t heard anything,” Erin went on, and the pain in her voice was like a knife to my chest. “The police keep saying they’ll let us know when they know, but it’s been two weeks.”
“I know,” I murmured. Two weeks of hell, looking for Kelly. Missing her. Waking up in the middle of the night, sure it was her screams I was hearing, even though when I ran upstairs, she wasn’t in her bed.
Each night, I stayed at the safehouse, hoping she’d come back home.
And each morning, I awoke with a broken heart.
“I’ve got Vinny’s team searching for her, but it’s like she up and disappeared.”
“Do you think they came back for her?” Donovan might as well have gutted me with the knife his wife left lodged in my chest. “The men from the boat? Whoever took her last time?”
“Not sure,” I managed to choke out. “But we’re looking into them too. We’re chasing down every lead we come up with, no matter how small.”
There was a moment of silence, and I drew my attention from the phone to Frankie. She had her hands covering her mouth, and tears glistened in the corner of her eyes.
“She missed my birthday,” Erin cried, and Frankie’s color drained straight from her face. “This is the first time we haven’t had her home since she was born.”
That knife twisted in my gut. “I’m sorry.” I couldn’t say it enough. “We’ll find her.”
“Promise?” I could barely hear Erin’s whisper. Missed whatever Donovan said to her as Frankie tried, and failed, to stifle a sob.
“I’ll do everything I can to bring her home.”
Home.
Felt like I’d been without her longer than I’d had her.
I hadn’t even had her.
But she’d burrowed her way inside me. Her every cry tore at my soul. Her every smile stole a piece of my heart.
I wouldn’t rest until I found her, even if I never had a chance. Even if all I ever got were crumbs.
“I’ll do everything I can.”
