I’ve been here for three hours. No one has come or gone.
Me
Get eyes on them. Do it now.
Colby
Yes, sir.
My heart ravaged at my ribs while I waited. Waited for too fucking long before my phone rang. I answered it before it made it through the first ring.
“What’s happening?” The demand whipped off my tongue.
Distress radiated through the line, dumping directly into me. “Prez…fuck…Brinley isn’t in the house. She hasn’t been the whole day. I thought…”
“What?” I spat it, turning a circle as my eyes began to race.
“I saw her leave the office at right before noon. She took the trail through the trees the way she always does. I thought?—”
I didn’t give him time to finish his sentence before I started running for the office, shouting at my crew who was already tromping for their bikes, “Find Brinley now!”
I knew giving that order put a wrench in every plan.
It was time for us to move.
But I could move in only one direction. Toward the last place that Brinley had been.
Brody was standing guard at the backside of the office, and his expression warped into worried confusion as I came blazing up.
“Check the trail between the office and house. Brinley is missing.” The command struck like a roll of thunder.
Dread covered his features, and he shook his head once before he jumped into action, his voice ragged when he promised, “We’ll find her.”
We had to.
I blew in through the back door of the shop, attention skating, knowing I wouldn’t find her within the piles of contorted metal and the stench of oil.
I burst through the connecting door.
The one that had brought me to her so many times. Where I’d find her leaned over the desk with her perfect ass exposed.
That’s what I was praying for. That she was still here, doing her thing, molding this place into shape.
But it was empty.
Void of the warmth she emitted.
My attention skated the area, and it snagged on the laptop on the desk.
The lid had been left open, something she never did when she left. She always shut it down, closed the lid, and turned off the lights, thoughtful of the way she left things.
My eyes skimmed the room. Over the bright lights that blazed from above and the office chair that sat at an odd angle where it’d been pushed back from the desk.
Heart hammering, I moved for the laptop, finger shaking it as I ran it over the pad.
The screen came to life.
I squinted when I saw the document that was open.
