Whispers of You (Lost & Found #1)(82)

“That’s not true. He—”

Jude’s hand shot out, slapping me across the face. “Shut up! You don’t know! He had everything. And I had nothing. But for a while, I had the Hartleys. Until you came along and stole them all, too.”

My head rang, and my vision doubled. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I tried to sit back up, but between Amber’s hit and now Jude’s, everything swam around me.

“You wanted to kill us both that night. Because we’d hurt you.” And now we were all hurting. Lives were being torn apart yet again. Why, for some, was the answer to pain to create more? To pass that burden in an effort to pretend it hadn’t scarred them? It never worked. It just left twice the destruction.

Jude’s gaze went glacial. “I wanted you both to suffer. But Holt most of all. I wanted him to watch the life drain from your body before I took his. Slowly. So he felt it all.”

Bile surged up my throat, and I struggled to swallow it down. “Jude…don’t.”

That grin was back. “Sorry, Little Williams.”

He pulled a phone from his back pocket. “It might be ten years too late, but we’re going to watch him suffer now.”





41





HOLT





Shadow let out a whine from the back seat as Nash drove like a bat out of hell down the mountain.

Grae’s phone rang for the third time before she picked up. “If you have my best friend in some sort of sexual haze and that’s why she’s late to lunch, tell her she’s being demoted.”

“G?” My voice was so raw I barely even recognized it.

Grae’s entire demeanor changed in a flash. “What’s wrong?”

“Wren isn’t with you?”

“No, I’ve been waiting at Dockside for the past fifteen minutes. I thought she was with you.”

My gut twisted in an ugly tangle of fear and rage. The camera feeds at the cabin were dead, and the backlog of video for the past two hours erased. Everything was wrong.

I tried to speak and couldn’t. How could I find the words to voice what I feared most in the world? I cleared my throat. “I can’t get ahold of her—”

“I’ll go to the cabin—”

“No,” I barked.

“Holt,” Grae whispered.

“I’m sorry, G. I just—Law is on his way there now. Until we know what’s going on, just go to the station.”

I didn’t want Grae anywhere near this if it ended up being my worst nightmare come to life.

“Holt—”

“Please, Grae. Just go to the station.”

“Okay.” She was quiet for a moment. “Call me the second you find her. And tell her I’m really freaking pissed she missed our lunch. And that she owes me two viewings of Little Women and at least three desserts.”

I wanted to smile and give my sister the chuckle I knew she was trying for, but I couldn’t get there. “I’ll tell her.”

Grae didn’t say anything, but she didn’t hang up either.

“Go to the station.”

“I’m going.”

I hung up. I couldn’t even find it in me to say goodbye.

Nash sent a quick look in my direction before taking a sharp curve like a Nascar driver. “G hasn’t seen her?”

I swallowed, trying desperately to clear the lump in my throat. “No. She never showed at Dockside.”

Dad leaned forward and squeezed my arm. “I’m sure there’s an explanation—”

My phone ringing cut off his words. Lawson’s name flashed on the screen.

“Do you have her?” I clipped.

“She’s not here.”

I cursed. “What do you see?”

“Someone’s been here. The hub for all your cameras and security system is smashed to hell.”

My pulse pounded in my neck. Wren was okay. She had to be. I would know if she weren’t. I would feel it. She was still on this planet. Still breathing.

“They would’ve needed access to her phone to erase the video.” Even I could recognize the robotic air to my voice.

A million nightmares played in my mind. All the ways someone could’ve gotten Wren’s phone. How they could’ve unlocked it.

Dad squeezed my shoulder, hard. “Don’t go there. We’re gonna find her.”

We had to. There wasn’t another option. Because I couldn’t live another ten years without Wren. I couldn’t live another second.

“We’ll meet you at the cabin,” I told Lawson.

“The crime scene techs are on the way. I put out an APB for her, too.”

“Thanks,” I said, a gruff edge coating my voice.

I hit end on the call and stared at my phone. It was the same photo background. The one of Wren, her head tipped back, taking in the rise of twilight.

“Dad’s right. We’re gonna find her. Law will have his people on it and—”

Another incoming call cut Nash off. Jude’s name flashed on my screen.

Hope sprang to life in my chest. Maybe he knew something. Had a lead. Anything.

I hit accept and pressed the phone to my ear. “Is Wren with you?”