Seb burst through the door. “Lennon?—”
My blood turned to ice. “She’s not here. She’s in the kitchen.” I looked at the app again to verify. Still hadn’t moved.
Seb’s gaze swiveled around the room like he didn’t believe it. “She’s not in the kitchen. Fuck! Amos is down. Liam is calling paramedics. There’s a man—he’s dead. I don’t know who the fuck he is, but he’s dead.”
Lennon. My lips parted but I couldn’t force her name past them.
“Lennon is gone. Cecily, too. I don’t know if they managed to hide, or if someone took them. But they’re gone, Jay.”
Panic punched my chest hard and fast. I tried to breathe around it and only managed a shallow gasp. In through the nose, hold, out through pursed lips. I repeated the instructions to myself that I had given to others countless times. Lennon needed me to focus. I wasn’t any good to her if I passed out.
I breathed.
And then I was on the move, Holly at my heels. “Stay,” I barked to Mateo. “Keep looking. We need faces.”
I burst through the kitchen doors at a run. My head swiveled as I took in the scene. A body on the floor. Blood everywhere. Amos slumped against the wall, holding an ice pack to his head, his knees drawn up to his chest and his feet flat.
Liam stood next to him, his phone pressed to his ear. He covered the mouthpiece with his palm. “Sheriff,” he said.
I nodded and kept moving to the back door. There were a few cars parked in the gravel lot behind the lodge. I took a photo of what was there to check against our records. My gaze roamed over the ground. Gravel didn’t tend to leave footprints, but I could make out the faintest disturbance leading away from building. I followed it, my gaze sweeping back and forth.
And then I saw it, two feet away, glinting in the sunshine.
Lennon’s phone.
Everything in me seized. For a moment I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. All I could do was feel. Terror. I was consumed by it.
Focus.My training kicked in. I picked up her phone and scanned the area again. No blood that I could see, other than the little patch by the door. It was from Amos. On autopilot, I headed back inside.
“Amos.” I dropped to a squat next to him. “You okay?”
He grimaced. “Got hit from behind. Didn’t see him. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. Was Cecily here?”
He nodded, wincing. His eyes closed. “She was here. If he hurt her, I’ll kill him.”
I glanced over at the body. “I think that’s been taken care of. Looks like someone whacked him with a ham hock.”
His eyes squinted open. “Myham hock? I had plans for that.”
His words were slurred. I straightened and looked at Liam. “Concussion.”
He nodded. “His eyes couldn’t follow my finger.”
“Come get me when the sheriff arrives.”
I stalked back to the office. My throat felt like it was closing up. My limbs felt heavy and numb. Where the hell was Lennon?
Mateo looked up as I entered. “I printed out three IDs. Didn’t recognize any of them. Working on getting into the Texas DMV now. Here we go—I’m in.”
Mateo’s fingers moved quickly over the keyboard, and a moment later, Dana Matthews appeared on the screen.
All the air left my lungs.
“Fuck,” Mateo whispered.
The license said Dana Matthews.
