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His hand squeezes my shoulder, and I hiccup around the weird lump in my throat.

“Just eat the sandwich, Maxi. We can talk tomorrow,” he says, then heads to his room.

I don’t want to talk about anything. I just want to float away. To have no more thoughts, no more feelings, and just be empty.

Except about samwiches. They can stay.

EIGHT

NATE

I’m done waiting.

Every cell in my fucking body has been screaming at me that something’s wrong. Noah’s old friend, Felix, has apparently sent a detective from his team to help, but they haven’t arrived.

“What’s taking so fucking long?” I demand, and brace my hands on the back of the sofa.

“We need to give him time to get here, Nate.” Noah sighs, rubbing a hand across his eyes.

We’re all tired, but it feels like I’m the only one giving a shit. Where’s their frustration? Their anger?

“Wouldn’t have to if you all fucking listened and did this when I said to.” My voice rises at the end.

Noah picks up his phone. “Logan’s parking.” He doesn’t bother to address what I said, leaving the tension to sit between us.

I offer a grunt in response, with nothing polite to say back. It feels like I’ve been waiting hours, even though it’s still early in the morning. Bry’s in the kitchen, doing something; Max is asleep after fuck knows what he was up to last night. Nothing’s productive. It’s all moving too slow.

As soon as I hear a knock on the door, I yank it open.

“Morning. Detective Thorne.” He offers a hand for me to shake, but I don’t take it. I’m about to tell him to fuck off when Noah pushes me aside to greet him.

“Hi, Logan. It’s been a while. Come in, and thanks for coming.”

“Don’t worry about it. Get me up to speed on what’s been happening,” Thorne says, then makes himself comfortable on one of the sofas. I can at least appreciate that he’s not wasting time catching up with Noah. They can do that later after we find my girl.

Noah respects and trusts Felix, but it’s hard for me to trust that this Logan will do what he needs to. My knowledge of him is basic, if that. Other than he is a detective on Felix’s team, and his long-term friend and partner, I don’t know shit. Blind faith isn’t something I’m fucking good at.

I stand, listening as they run through everything from before we upset her, right through the last few days.

“You don’t think she’s just gone to see a friend for a few days?”

My teeth grind. “No. She’s not like that. She wouldn’t do that to the rescue. It’s important to her. However pissed she is at us, she wouldn’t do it to them.”

Thorne nods, accepting my answer without giving me shit. He might not be too bad. Still, he’s taking too long doing all this talking.

“Okay. Take me to her place. I’ll get us in and take a look around,” Thorne says, rising from his seat.

“Thanks, we really appreciate it.” Noah smiles, squeezing him on the shoulder.

All of us, other than Max, reach her door. Thorne crouches, dropping a small bag to the side. He rifles through it and picks out some tools.

“Do you cover missing persons?” Bry asks as the three of us watch him poke around in the lock.

“Not directly, no. I’m unofficially helping you,” Thorne mutters, hardly focusing on us.

“Oh,” Bry responds. Probably unsure what else to say to that. Not that I give a fuck if we have to do things in the grey area.

A click sounds, and Thorne pushes the door open. I pull him back when he steps forward and shoves through first.