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“Kiddo?” John frowned. “You okay?”
She nodded, a grin reappearing on her lips. “Oh! I know! Watching Josh fling Casey around on the dance floor! She looked terrified!”
Josh snorted. “No one told me she had a fear of dancing!” He giggled and wrapped his arm back around Mavis.
Lifting her gaze to him, Mavis frowned. “Hey, where are they, anyway?” She wrinkled her nose and tipped his wrist to glare at his watch. “We have to leave for the airport in like fifteen minutes.”
“It’s that late?” Josh flipped his wrist over as the grandfather clock in the hallway chimed, announcing the eleven o’clock hour.
“Didn’t you tell them ten, Lauren?” Susan sipped her coffee and eyed her daughter.
“Yeah, I did.” Lauren nodded and scooted her chair back. “Let me give Austin a call real quick.”
She left the dining room and retreated to the library. Sinking onto the ancient sofa in the middle of the room, its springs groaned with protest under her weight. With a quick tap on her phone, Lauren brought the device to her ear, each unanswered ring rousing unease in her stomach.
“Weird,” she murmured and ended the call as his voicemail picked up. Her heart hammered in her chest as she opened a text message and tapped out the words,Where are you guys? Is everything okay?
She eyed her phone, willing her brother to respond, but nothing happened. “What gives, you guys?” Tapping Casey’s name next, she returned the phone to her ear, listening to the same sequence of unanswered rings and subsequent voicemail.
Nerves gripped her gut. With an inhale, she pushed away the shiver threatening her spine and returned to the dining room.
“I can’t get a hold of either of them.”
Mitch tipped back in his seat, balancing his body on the back two legs of the chair. “They probably just overslept. Nothing to worry about.”
What if there is something to worry about though?
“Has anyone heard from them since they left last night?” Lauren circled her gaze around the table, all heads shaking back and forth.
“If we leave now, we can swing over to Austin’s real quick and check on them,” offered Josh, rising from his seat.
“No... no, it’s okay. Let me do it. You guys have a honeymoon to get to.” Lauren smiled and stepped forward to wrap her arms around the happy couple, sending them off with well wishes before dropping her butt into the driver’s seat of her Lexus. The engine hummed to life as she put the car in drive and maneuvered it out of the driveway.
“Come on, Austin...” she whispered, dropping the sun visor to block the blinding rays. “What the hell?”
Her mind raced as she cruised down the empty streets, navigating each turn with a belly full of anxiety, punctuated at each turn with Mitch’s voice echoing in her ear.
I’ll deal with you later, Mitch.
She pulled into Austin’s driveway. Snagging her bag from the passenger seat, she darted from the car and raced up the front steps. “Austin? It’s Lauren! Are you guys okay?”
Nothing.
With a frown, she punched in the code and stepped inside, the eerie silence raising the hairs on the back of her neck. “Austin? Casey?” Circling through the kitchen, Lauren bit her bottom lip, the unease in her gut forcing her heartbeat to double. “Are you guys here?”
She climbed the staircase and glanced back at her phone to check for return calls or texts.
Still nothing.
As she rounded the corner on the landing, an upended suitcase met her gaze, Austin’s clothing scattered across the carpet. “What the hell?” She picked up a blue shirt and eyed the half-open door to his bedroom.
“Austin?” The hinges creaked as she pushed the door open further, the sunlight from the hallway illuminating the aftermath of a tornado. Her foot tread on a shattered picture frame as she stepped inside. Dropping her gaze to the floor, her own face stared back. “What is this?” she whispered, bending down to pick up the broken glass.
Movement beneath the covers stole her attention. A muffled sob broke the silence of the room as her brother emerged. He swallowed and pulled his legs into his chest. “Lauren?” His hoarse voice gripped her heart as his bloodshot eyes zeroed in on her.
She stepped forward, her feet catching on a ball of yellow fabric in the center of the room. “Austin? What happened here? Are you okay?” Her knees bumped into the bottom of the mattress.
His gaze lifted to her face, each eye clouded from the sea of tears raining down his cheeks. He swiped at them and sucked air into his lungs as a sob escaped his lips. “She’s gone, Lauren.”
