Sweet Liar (Dirty Sweet, #1)(25)

I snatched the phone from Audrey’s hand and answered it as I brought it to my ear. “What’s wrong?”

“Thank God you finally answered. I didn’t remember you being such a sound sleeper.” Ellen sounded both worked up and accusing.

I had no interest in addressing the latter. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s Aaron. He’s not in his room. I can’t find him.”

Cold panic washed over me replacing the heat that had blazed through my veins only minutes before. I stepped away from Audrey and ran a hand through the flop of my hair. “What do you mean you can’t find him? It’s—” I glanced at my watch. “Nearly three in the morning. Where the hell would he have gone?”

“I don’t know, Dylan!” She was terrified. I could hear it in the shrill pitch of her voice. Ellen was never terrified. She was cool as a cucumber, that one. Her agitation fed mine, urging me to act.

“I’ll be right there. Ring the police.” I glanced at Audrey and found her already putting herself together, hiding away the soft silk of her luscious breasts, covering the damp curls of her stunning pussy.

“I already have. Please, hurry,” Ellen said, and I hated her in this moment more than I’d hated her in years. Hated the reminder that we still shared our son, though we’d never share anything else again. Hated that she’d asked me nicely, as though she assumed I had a choice in my own child’s safety. Hated the intrusion of harsh reality into my perfect lie of a fantasy.

I hung up on her in reply.

Without pause, I headed straight to the coat cupboard and pulled out the cashmere Ted Baker hanging inside. I put it on, then turned back to my guest. She was just slipping an arm through her own coat. I rushed to help her, brushing her long caramel hair off her shoulder before moving to button her up.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wishing I had time for other words, sweeter words. She deserved better than this.

She shook her head adamantly. “No, you have to go. I get it.” She brought her hand up to stroke her knuckles against my cheek.

I caught her hand as she dropped it and brought it to my mouth to kiss her palm. “I’m still sorry. There’s so much more…” I closed my eyes, forcing away the thoughts of all the more I’d meant to address with her this night. When I opened them again, I couldn’t look directly at her. “I’ll walk down with you.”

We were silent in the lift. I was too worried, too frantic, too furious at Ellen to make conversation. Whether Audrey was respectful of my situation or peeved about the interruption to our plans, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t allow myself to think about it. I could only think about Aaron.

Halfway across the lobby, I stopped suddenly. “What am I thinking? You need a ride.” I pulled out my phone and dialed my driver.

Audrey put a hand up as though to stop me. “I can Uber. You take the car.”

“It will be faster if I walk. It’s only a couple of blocks. I’d prefer if—” I cut off when the driver answered the line. “Yes, she’s ready to be picked up now. Same address as earlier.” He gave me an estimated time of arrival, and I hung up.

“He’ll be here in seven minutes.” I looked out the front doors to the snowy street beyond then back at my companion, longingly. “I wish I could stay.”

“No, please don’t. Go. Text me when you find him safe.” A thought seemed to occur to her. “Oh, and Dylan. When you find him...listen to what he has to say. Kids don’t usually do crazy things like this without a reason, as silly as their reasons might seem.”

My brow furrowed as I endured her advice. I didn’t generally like counsel without invitation, particularly from someone without any kids of her own.

She sensed she’d overstepped. “I’m sorry. It’s not my place. Just...it wasn’t that long ago that I was sneaking out of my house, and I thought I could help.”

She was genuine and utterly enchanting, and I realized, I wasn’t bothered after all by her intrusion. I was grateful.

I wanted to kiss her for it. Because she had perfect plump lips. Because she tasted like honey. Because she was warm and the night was cold, and I’d been in the dark for so long.

But casual kissing wasn’t what we were about, and I was in a rush, so I nodded my goodbye, and dashed out the door.

It took less than ten minutes to walk from my building to Ellen’s. The doorman let me through, having been alerted that both I and the police would be arriving. When I got to her unit, I rapped quietly on the door, aware of the wee hour of the night.

She answered right away, ushering me in quickly.

“Tell me what happened,” I ordered, already heading to Aaron’s room to see for myself that he was indeed not there.

She followed after me, tripping over herself to keep up with my wide gait. “He went to his room right after dinner, around seven, saying he had homework he wanted to get done ahead of the weekend. I did some work, changed into my pajamas, then curled up with a glass of wine in the living room to watch a holiday thing on Netflix. I meant to check on him when I went to bed, but I guess I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I looked then, and he was gone.”

“So you have no idea how long he’d been missing?”

“No. But I couldn’t have fallen asleep before nine-thirty or ten. It was probably after that when he…”