“Tabitha!”
Daddy’s voice jolts me fully awake and I look around but I don’t see him. Other voices join his, too quiet for me to hear them, but it sounds like our whole family might be out here looking for me.
Okay, you got what you wanted. They noticed you’re gone and they’re clearly looking for you. Show yourself.
Maybe I should. But what if I show myself too soon? What if they just give up after an hour or so and leave me to my fate? How will I know if I end our one-sided game of hide-and-seek now?
No. Best to wait a little while longer and see what happens.
Just a little while longer.
CHAPTER 26
COLT
Nearly an hour has passed since I woke up to find my Little girl missing, and I feel… nothing. I’m too numb with fear and worry to feel anything other than the emptiness of my arms without my babygirl in them.
My siblings and I have scoured the edges of the woods, but without the proper equipment it’s too risky to go much farther than that. Dane knows our woods better than anyone, so he’s been going as deep as he dares, but he’s only one person and our land encompasses several acres of forest, not to mention the land of the surrounding homes.
I’m trying not to think about the odds of finding my babygirl again if she’s in there.
The crunch of tires on gravel has me leaping to my feet from the chair I collapsed into a few minutes ago. A door slams, and a moment later Sheriff Donnelly appears, her expression deliberately flat, not giving away anything she might be feeling.
“Heard we’ve got a runaway bride situation,” she says, her voice equally flat and even.
Gray snarls at her. “This isn’t a fucking joke, Reese.”
“I never said it was. But I have to warn you, there’s not much I can do in an official capacity right now. She’s a grown woman and unless there’s any evidence she didn’t leave here of her own volition, my hands are tied.”
“Jesus Christ. You really are fucking useless, aren’t you?”
Now a hint of emotion does flicker across the sheriff’s face. “I said I couldn’t do much in anofficialcapacity. But if you need an extra set of eyes or just an outside perspective, I’ll do whatever I can to help you find her.”
Suspicion fills my sister’s eyes. “Why would you do that?”
Reese shrugs. “I met her in town the other day. She’s a sweetheart and I don’t want to see anything bad happen to her. But I swear to god if we find this girl and it turns out she ran to get away from you all because you hurt her, I will make it my life’s goddamn mission to make sure you never see the outside of a jail cell for the rest of your natural lives. Got it?”
“She didn’t run.” I may not know exactly what happened to my sweet little Tabby, but I at least know that. “Just please help us find my babygirl, Reese.”
The sheriff’s expression softens somewhat. “All right. Walk me through what you know.”
Bram shifts, aligning himself beside me, and I already feel steadier for it. Dragging in a deep breath, I tell the sheriff everything I can remember from waking up to an empty bed to right now. Reese jots down notes, her brow occasionally drawing together as I walk her through our morning.
When I finish, she looks up at me, then glances around. “Was the door locked?”
My brain, which is frazzled with worry, stops cold. “What?”
Reese returns her level gaze to me. “The front door. When you came outside to look for Tabitha, was the door locked?”
I blink, trying to piece together my chaotic memories. “I… I think so. Yeah, I remember being pissed off that I had to flipthe deadbolt and the lock on the doorknob before I could get outside.”
“Are all the house keys accounted for?”
“I’ll go check,” Bram says, already turning back toward the house.
Pacing the deck beside me, Gray lets out an impatient huff. “What the fuck does it matter if the door was locked? She’s stillmissing.”
The withering look Reese sends my sister’s way says she clearly isn’t impressed with Gray’s critical thinking skills at the moment. “If all the doors were locked and all the keys are accounted for, then she didn’t leave out of a door. And nobody came in through a door.”
