Page 92 of Drifter’s Heart

“Good.” I wrap an arm around her and tug at the hoodie she’s wearing. “At least you stole something warm of mine. Let’s get something useful into you and start calling Sally’s friends’ parents and the school.”

“I checked the school. She’s not there. They—They marked her absent.”

“Okay.” Shit. I’d been hoping. “Let’s still check with some friends’ parents just in case Lanie dropped her off there and went somewhere for whatever reason, okay?” My mind niggles. I don’t want to drop this bomb on her, but I’m about to.

“Okay.” Winnie downs more water and grabs her phone. “All right. Let’s go.”

“Winnie.” I press my lips together and pray she’ll forgive me.

Winnie turns to me, her eyebrows raised in her classic hurry the fuck up, cowboy, look. Any other day, it’d be cute as hell. Today… I just want to hold her forever.

“Is there any chance that Brad is around?”

Those pretty eyes I adore glaze with fear at the simple mention on his name. I grip her arm as she backs up, already shaking her head. “No.”

“Win—”

“I said NO.” Winnie yanks herself free of my grasp, her chest heaving. “Why would you even⁠—”

“You said the door was unlocked.” She’s going to hate me forever. I actually don’t care, as long as I’m wrong. If I’m right, then we need to act, fast.

“Sometimes it sticks.” Denial juts her chin out.

I nod. “Okay. Who do you need to call to confirm that he’s still in rehab? It’s within operating hours.” Not that a place like that ever really closes. “Place a welfare call.”

Winnie meets my stare head-on. For a girl who wanted to move moments before, suddenly, she’s rock-solid in her stance. I know this version of her and I understand her. But I also don’t have the time to wait for her like I usually do.

My mouth opens to fight her, knowing I might shatter everything we’ve built. The trust, the peace, the calm—all of it feels like a Band-Aid fix over the trauma of a man who’s still haunting her.

“I’ll call. I’ll call now.” Defiance wars with desperation in her sapphire gaze.

Desperation that I’ve seen in eyes just like hers before when the world spun out of his control. Rand’s. A different sibling, looking up at me like that. Cordell’s face overshadows hers, and it takes me a moment to shake the vision away.

I nod and hook my ankle around hers. Not to hold her in place, but to show her I’m here. “All right. I’m not going anywhere until you’re ready.” My thumb already taps out a message to Cord.

Because we both know the outcome of this call, even though our hopes are the same.

And four minutes later, after waiting through every excruciating second, Winnie hangs up and stands. “Let’s go back to my place.”

I watch her warily. “Are we waiting for Lanie to come home on her own?”

She shakes her head, her eyes blazing. “No. Because I need the police to meet me there. Brad was released yesterday afternoon.”

THIRTY-ONE

WINNIE

The Ears That Never Hear

Both hollow and not, I sit between West and Cord as the police mill around my townhouse, taking prints and doing random police things. My hands tremble, caught between trying to occupy themselves and restraining myself from interrupting the professionals around me, keeping them from doing their job. The job that I can’t do. My voice is raw from the amount of times I’ve told my story, and guilt assaults me every time I think about the nights I’ve spent in West’s arms instead of here, with Sally. Then none of this would have happened. True or not, that’s what my head thinks and no one has been able to change my mind so far.

What doesn’t help is that my brother had to throw his enormous financial and powerful influence about in the form of several hasty phone calls in order to get the local police to listen to us. For the first time, I am grateful for his interference even while my independent streak chafes that he had to step in at all. Mind, he has a vested interest. It’s his girlfriend and baby-to-be who are missing, along with my own offspring. Still, the police will help, but there are conditions.

We’re not allowed to interfere, and, according to Cordell, we’re to stay put. Right. Here. Which seems extreme, considering my daughter is missing, but also I was quite noisy earlier and there might be a good reason why the three of us are jammed onto my sofa and why I’m clutching a stuffed capybara dressed in a pink velour axolotl suit. Its feathery gills tremble along with my hands as I stroke the wilted pastel creature.

My phone buzzes, and I barely glance at it, reading the message as it comes through on preview. “Oh. My leave is approved, but because I’ve taken so much and have had lots of family drama recently, I might be given a warning. That’s nice.” I don’t care. My loyalty is fast fading under the pressure. Find Sally. Locate Brad. Do something.

Anything is better than sitting here.