Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“You need to take a break and sit down,” Charlie advises from beside me. “You are better if you rest.”
“I’m not resting until I have her back,” I hiss, turning and seeing his face as tired as mine. He hasn’t left my side. “It’s been three fucking days and nothing. Not a single fucking thing.” Three fucking days of closing my eyes, and the only thing I see is the pain in her eyes after I let her go. Guilt from her not being with me is slowly eating me alive. Nothing will take me away from here. Nothing will stop me from looking for her. “We need to find her soon.” I shake my head, not willing to think of what might come after. The pain in my chest when I think of never seeing her again is too much to bear.
“You are going to fucking fall soon,” Pops interjects, coming into the barn where we’ve set up a sort of command post. People have been coming and going since we informed the sheriff that she’s been missing. They of course didn’t want to do anything until it was twenty-four hours, but I wasn’t going to wait. So we set up in the barn. “How can she just fucking vanish?” He looks at the map I’ve been studying in front of me.
We have the timeline from when she left her house and then nothing after that. A couple of Ring cams caught her going through the streets, and from what we can gather, she made it to the barn, but apparently, all feeds were cut off at one a.m. No one noticed since it was the middle of the night. “We’ve set up extra search parties to the town line,” Pops tells me as he pulls up a screen of the town map. “After that, I don’t know where else to search.”
“There is this whole area here.” Charlie points at the map. “Has anyone been there?”
“Yeah.” Pops nods. “Sammy went since he lives not too far from there.”
“Did they get anything on the cameras?” I turn and look at Charlie, who shakes his head.
“He said he is going to swing by the houses again tonight when he comes back.”
“Comes back?” I look over, confused by this.
“Yeah, he was having a nervous breakdown,” Charlie informs me. “Bobby came and said he needed to take a break, and I forced him to go home for a bit.” I turn back and look at the map.
“There are four businesses up there,” I note, “and two gas stations.”
“The BOLO is still going on and people are also looking for her truck,” Brock announces when he makes his way to us. “Everleigh sent coffee and donuts.” He motions to the table on the side where people have been dropping off food and such.
“Lucy and Saige are going to go to the store to pass out flyers,” he says, and I nod.
“Thanks for taking her in, man,” I say, bending my hand to hold my neck. “How’s she doing?”
“She wakes up crying and asking for you and then Lilah,” he shares, and I exhale deeply. “It’s okay, man. You’ll find her, and everyone will be okay.” He slaps my shoulder. “You guys need to get away for a bit after this”—he takes a sip of his own coffee—“visit a beach or something.”
He turns to walk away, and I watch him go, the cup in his hand. “Her mug.” I snap my fingers. “It was on the counter, right?” I ask Charlie, who is holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other.
“Yeah,” Charlie answers while he chews his donut.
“And Benny said he put it in the dishwasher the night before when he left.” I look back at the timeline. “And then when we came in, it was the only cup taken out.”
“Okay,” he says, not following what I’m saying.
“Someone took it out to give it to her,” I tell him. “Someone who knows her. Someone who she knows.” His mouth hangs open. “It’s one of us,” I say, looking around, feeling like the floor is spinning under my feet. The hair on the back of my neck sticks up when I think of all of the men.
“Emmett,” Charlie says, “you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bobby!” I shout, and he comes running over. “Where is Sammy?”
“Sent him home,” he replies. “Man had a nervous breakdown, saying she’s probably dead.”
I look back at the map. “Who went with him to see the businesses?”
“I think Jeremy and King.” He motions with his chin toward the two guys who work the night shift.
“Jeremy, King,” I call them, and they come over. “You went with Sammy to canvass the area?” They both look at me like I’m crazy. Charlie turns and rushes over to Pops. “This area.” I point. “It’s next to his house.”