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The other half of my bed is empty. Since she’s arrived, it’s never been empty. I run my hand over the sheets. Cool. Crisp. No body heat there. She’s been gone a while. Could she be downstairs?
She loves her coffee in the morning, but she always waits for me to make it for her. She says I make it better.
I picture her in all her just-woke-up beauty, sitting on one of my black leather barstools, wearing one of my white T-shirts, nothing underneath, her dark hair tumbling down her back, her hands wrapped around the same porcelain white mug, steaming with freshly brewed coffee.
It’s become the best part of my morning.
Funny, I don’t smell the intoxicating scent of coffee brewing.
My gut tells me…
She’s gone.
My gut has never let me down. Right now, I’m kinda hoping this is the time it does let me down and she’ll be curled up on my living room couch, waiting for me to wake up and make her coffee. I do a brief loop around the house, the back patio, the front porch.
No Rhett.
My stomach flips with dread, wondering where she’s gone, why she’s gone. At least I know there’s no way in hell she could have left the Village without me knowing. I’ve put every brother on high alert. No one new comes in, and she doesn’t leave our walls till I give the okay.
I force myself to chill the fuck out. She can't have gone far. There's no way she's left the Village. I just need to do a few laps around the place to track her down.
I pull on a pair of jeans and a white tee. Wait—the tracker I put on her shoe. How could I forget it? I run downstairs, ready to sprint to the Hub to check the screens, see where she's at. That's when I notice something small, silver, and shiny placed carefully, visibly on the hardwood floor right by the front door.
I pick it up, pinching it between my forefinger and thumb. "Fuck." It's the tracker I put on her shoe. How'd she know? She left this thing so I'd find it, so I'd know she'd found it, removed it.
So it would be perfectly clear to me: she doesn't want me to find her.
"Too bad, baby. I'm on the way." The door slams behind me as I leave my place.
I take off with a slow, casual jog, not ready to raise suspicions. It's a little soon to go through the painful humiliation of telling the other guys I've lost my girl.
The Village is quiet this time of day. Not many are out.A little more dead than usual, but I don't mind. It serves my purpose of keeping this little escapade to myself. The morning air is clean, crisp, and fresh, somehow devoid of the smells of the city. Like the new car smell, only better.
The smell of freshly cut grass.
Usually, the scent would calm my nerves, reminding me of easier times, playing sports on fields, the sun warming my back.
Not today.
The only thing that will settle me is finding her.
I search for her everywhere. In the ballroom, the schoolroom, the bar, the courtyard. I even check the Enterprises Business Offices. It's closed today, the front doors locked.
She's nowhere to be found.
I'm growing tired and frustrated and more worried. It's time to admit defeat, to head to the security office and check the video. It's a small gray building toward the front of the Village where we keep the surveillance equipment and all the screens that are linked to our hundreds of outdoor cameras that span the property. It’s a beehive of activity. We call it the Hub. I'll scan the footage and find out exactly where and when she left my place.
The Hub’s kept under tight supervision, and I have to pass through several levels of authentication to get inside. Passcodes. Thumbprints. Retinal scans.
Once inside, I'm in for a shock.
Where the hell is everyone? The Hub is abandoned, with no one around. Every monitor is silent and still. Black screens staring back at me. I've never seen it like this before.
I frantically search the room for some explanation for why there's nobody left to guard this place. I find nothing.
Then, I remember... This morning is the annual sunrise prayer brunch—a yearly fundraiser for local churches with poorer congregations. The head of our family, Rockland’s wife Tess, runs it. She’s a powerful redheaded woman and this is her favorite charity.
With the beautiful, intoxicating Rhett at my house, it must have slipped my mind. Let’s be honest, almost every thought that doesn’t have something to do with her has pretty much slipped my mind.
