Page 120 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

She put the car in gear and called Esther, who answered on the first ring. “Did you hear from him?”

“No,” Jory answered. “I’m leaving Seattle now. I’ll go straight to the house and see if he’s there.”

“Should you call Callum?”

“He’s probably asleep,” she said with a groan. “And he can’t do anything anyway. It’s not like he can go upstairs and check.”

Esther sighed heavily. “Okay. Drive safely. Call me when you get there.”

Traffic was blessedly light, and Jory made excellent time, driving faster than was legal but not so fast that she was likely to be pulled over. Her heart pounded as she drove past the “Welcome to World’s End” sign and still as she turned onto the gravel drive that led to the cabin; it was so loud that she could feel her pulse in her ears.

“Fuck,” she said as she got far enough down the drive to see that Robbie’s car was gone.

She parked the car, turned it off, and hurled herself out of the car, racing up the steps and across the porch. She threw open the door and shouted, “Robbie? Robbie, are you here?” She raced through the kitchen and down the hall, seeing that his bedroom was empty.

Her phone rang.

“Jory,” Callum said sleepily when she answered. “What’s the matter? I heard you shouting.”

“Robbie didn’t show up to work and isn’t answering his phone.”

Callum cursed loudly. “I’m coming up. Goddamnit. Goddamnit!” he shouted, no doubt remembering that he couldn’t.

“Hang on,” Jory said. “I’m going to add Esther to this call.”

Again Esther answered on the first ring.

“Is he there?” she asked without preamble.

Jory sighed heavily. “No. He’s not.”

“I called Hank. He said he’d drive by Nadja’s office and see if Robbie’s car is there. If not, he said he’d ask her if she’d seen him. I’ll call you when I hear from him,” she said before hanging up, leaving Callum on the phone with Jory.

“I’m coming down,” she said.

Callum was sitting on the side of the bed, wearing red plaid pajama pants and nothing else. His jaw was clenched, his knees gripped tightly in his hands, tension radiating off of him like heat from a flame. Robbie was his best friend.

Maybe Callum wouldn’t have used those words. Maybe he didn’t need to. Because the fact was that aside from herself, she’d never seen Callum so at ease with anyone. She had watched them laugh and rib one another. She’d watched them hug, chest to chest, not the way so many men hugged lately, with two forearms between them.

Jory wrapped her arms around him. He pressed his face against her chest. After an eternity of ticking seconds, Esther called.

“Fucking finally,” Callum hissed and answered. “Esther? What news?”

“You’ve got both of us,” Esther said, and Jory could hear her panic. “Hank came here after driving by the office.”

It turned out that Robbie’s car was not at Nadja’s office. Hank had driven behind the building and found Nadja’s little electric vehicle in its normal spot. But the building’s lights were off, the CLOSED sign flipped.

“He’s not at home?” Hank asked. “No note? Nothing out of the ordinary?

“The kitchen’s a mess. Dishes piled in the sink,” Jory said. “And Robbie’s room looks like a laundry bomb went off, but?—”

“That’s normal,” Callum said softly. “He likes to say that dishes are nae his spiritual gift.”

Jory turned her face into Callum’s shoulder.

“I figured,” Hank said. “And the clothes?”

Esther sniffled. “He’s a chaos goblin like me.”