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“Do you know where Willa is?”
Mara stood in her open front door, looking up into Barrett’s furious-looking face.
“What? Willa?” she asked, alarmed.
Barrett attempted to rein it in, knowing how intimidating he looked when he was scared or angry, and at that moment, he was both. Mara did not need that.
“Can I come in, Merry?” he gentled his voice, but the damage was done.
She opened the door wide. “Come in, Barrett, of course. Is it Willa? Is something wrong with Willa?”
He drummed his thumb against the side of his thigh and scanned the living area for Willa’s curly head.
“Have you heard from her? We were supposed to go out for dinner tonight. I haven’t heard from her all day and usually she texts at least once. Half an hour ago I got a text canceling. She said she needed to take some time to herself and that she’d call me tomorrow when she gets home.”
Mara stepped back and called over her shoulder, “Zee? Can you come out here?”
Zale loped in from the sunroom, his slow roll picking up speed and eating up the space between him and Barrett once he got a look at Barrett’s expression.
“What is it?” he demanded.
Mara spun her bracelets around her wrist. “He can’t find Willa. She hasn’t contacted him all day until just now and that was to cancel their date. She said she’d be gone until tomorrow!”
Great, he’d triggered Mara. He should have thought this through. It wasn’t like him to act without thinking.
Zale pulled out his cell at the same time as he pulled his wife tight against his side.
“Did you check Friend Finder?” he asked, pulling up the app on his phone.
“I did,” Barrett clipped, “her cell is turned off.”
“What?” Mara whispered.
Initially they had all gotten Friend Finder for Mara’s benefit, so that when any of them had Olivia, Mara had the assurance of knowing Olivia’s location. It wasn’t too long before the benefit of all of them having it became apparent, and none of them ever turned it off, as far as he knew.
Mara ran towards the sunroom to check her phone. When she returned she was walking slowly, reading her texts.
“She says she’s okay, spending the night at a hotel. Something came up and she needs a few hours to herself to sort it out in her head, but it’s nothing bad and she’ll be home tomorrow. She says she’ll call me tonight at nine p.m.”
Zale turned immediately to Barrett. “Her cell will be on at nine. If she says she’s going to call Mara, she’ll call.”
“She didn’t tell you that something had come up?” Zale demanded.
Barrett shook his head, his impotence over the situation threatening his usual control.
“Just that she loves me, and she’ll see me tomorrow. Has she ever done anything like this? Taken off like this?” Barrett asked.
Mara shook her head in the negative, “No, never. I can’t imagine why she’d ever want to do that.”
Dozens of conversations ran through Barrett’s head at light speed, and although he didn’t know where she was, he knew why she’d left.
Chapter 42
Fast Car
Willa
I keyed the information into the GPS and drove, following the illuminated line on the screen. For the past hour I’d operated on autopilot. I called the hotel and reserved a room, threw clothes and toiletries into a bag, and then escaped in my car. I didn’t even message Mara to tell her I was going out of town. I hoped she didn’t check Friend Finder.
