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I was definitely taking pictures later. I called Bryan’s phone and there was no answer. My worry slipped back—the twins were required to pick up when I called, unless they were driving or working. It seemed unlikely Bryan was still asleep, and he might be driving home, but not if he was mad enough to storm out last night.
I just needed to know he was all right. I called Lucas’s mother.
“Morning,” Kandace answered in a pleasant tone.
“Hey, it’s Brooke. I just need to make sure Bryan’s all right.” There was no reason to mask my worry, she’d understand.
The silence that came back wasn’t reassuring.
“I assume you think he’s here,” Kandace finally said. “Hang on, let me make sure.” I heard her muffled shout ofLucas.There was some mumbling. “I haven’t seen him in days, and Lucas says he’s not around.”
Crap. Okay, he must’ve given Paige the wrong friend’s name because he was sulking. “Okay, thank you.”
“Brooke.” Kandace’s tone stopped me before I could hang up. “Call me if you need h—anything.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. Thank you, though.” This wasn’t a big deal. I wasn’t the mom who freaked out about little things. Bryan had a lot of friends, and I’d only called one.
Ten of his closest friends later with no answer, and no call back from Bryan, and I was willing to admit this wasn’t a little thing and I was worried.
I set two plates of pancakes on the table in front of Paige and Jamie, and tried to think of what to try next.
“You could trace his phone.” Jamie looked as at home here as she ever had.
And she was a brilliant young woman. I should’ve done that first. I pulled up the finder app on my phone and told it to look for Bryan.
It pinged with a response telling me the device was less than fifty feet away. What the hell? Would I like to make the device ring? Yes, I very much would.
A muffled chime came from somewhere in the house, and I followed the noise to his room. His phone was sitting on his dresser.
Shit.
This was okay. Bryan was my straight A, never did anything wrong, baby boy. He was fine and I was missing something obvious. I called Colin, who hadn’t seen Bryan. None of my sisters had either. Or my parents.
Panic was setting in.
I called the police and explained the basics of the situation.
“He’s a nearly eighteen-year-old boy with a car, and it’s Sunday,” the officer said kindly but less than helpfully. “He’s fine. Call us again if he’s still not back tomorrow morning.”
“What? No. He could be dead by then.” Yes, that was where my mind was going.
Gregory laughed. “He’s not dead, Brooke. He’s probably just blowing off steam because of the rumors.”
“The… rumors?”
“You know. About you and the guys down on Main Street. You had to know.”
I didn’t listen to the town gossip, especially when my name was attached to it, but that wasn’t good. Apparently Travis had told everyone what I said after all, about sleeping with both Adam and Deacon. “You people need something else to do besides talk about your neighbors. My son is missing.”
“Call back tomorrow morning, and maybe stop acting like the town slut.” The line went dead.
I’d be furious about his commentary later, when I knew where Bryan was. I needed someone to help who wasn’t one of his friends possibly hiding him, but who knew most of the town and had a knack for getting answers out of anyone.
The town had been talking about me, and it had probably gotten back to the kids. The last thing I wanted. Shit, shit, shit.
I dialed Deacon, ignoring the twinge about how things ended between us last night. It didn’t matter. When he answered, I said, “I need your help.” It was impossible to keep the worry out of my voice.
“Of course.” His answer came without hesitation. Without ever askingwith what?
