And, just before she could say anything more, the line went dead, and I found myself cursing my kid’s inability to charge her stupid phone.
Ever since she’d gotten her first one at the age of fifteen, it was a tossup whether she’d have it charged enough to use or not.
“Haggard, what’s going on?” Sophia asked from the dresser where she’d waited, watching me get dressed.
I glanced behind me to see her clutching the shirt in her hands, fisting it tight.
Mine.
Again.
I didn’t have a chance to tell her how much I liked it. Instead, I explained what was going on.
“Clem says she’s scared, and I’m going to go get her.” I shoved my foot into first one boot and then the other.
“Let me get ready.” She was out of bed in a flash, but I was already walking toward the door.
“No offense, honey,” I said as I snatched my keys up off the table in the dining room. “But you’re a little bit of a thing, what help can you be?”
She didn’t answer, which was good enough for me.
She really didn’t need to be there.
Grabbing my gun off the kitchen counter, I shoved it into my pants and headed for the back door.
Sophia was already in her sweatshirt and jeans as well as her Doc Martens by the time I was ready to go, and the look on her face was anything but compromising.
“We should take the truck,” she said. “Your bike may be faster and more maneuverable, but the bike can’t hold three people.”
She had a fuckin’ point. But if she stayed…
“I’ll just follow you,” she pointed out. “Not to mention the truck is a damn sight quieter than your bike will be. There’s no sneaking up on her in that fancy-ass neighborhood.”
And another point went her way.
Goddammit.
“Let’s go,” I ordered, pissed that she’d outmaneuvered me.
And that I knew that she would do exactly what she said she was going to do if I didn’t take her along.
“Where is this place?” I asked. “Do you know?”
She nodded. “It’s the campground that started up right along the time that your sister’s did.”
My sister had decided to focus on the old campground that my mother and father used to run a long time ago. She’d just gotten all the cabins and camp sites ready for campers right along the same time that another campground had opened all the way across the lake.
We arrived at this ‘campground’ twenty minutes later.
And by campground, I meant luxury cabins in the woods that were literally fancier than my fuckin’ house.
Parking the truck at the front since the gate was locked, I grabbed my gun out of my middle console where I’d placed it earlier and stuck it in my waistband. Sophia grabbed the fuckin’ crossbow out of the back seat and slung it over her shoulder.
Together we walked toward the cabins, where I could see fire burning.
“She’s not answering,” Sophia murmured as she hung her phone up. “Did she say where she was going to be?”
I explained about the room that she was in, which apparently was part of the very first cabin you got to once you got through the gate.
“She could be anywhere now,” she mumbled. “There’s no way Clem’s gonna stay in there if she feels unsafe.”
After my sister’s kidnapping, I’d taught all of the women in my life how to get out of a bad situation.
And Sophia was right. If Clem felt like she was in a bad situation—which she had to have felt since she wouldn’t have called otherwise—she might not be where she’d said she was.
“What does your app say?” I asked curiously.
Sophia and Clem had an app that they used that told them where they were at any given time in the day.
Since I refused cell phones that tracked where I was at, Sophia was the only one that could tell me where she might be.
“Oh, duh.” Sophia slapped her face. “It might not be perfectly up to date since her phone may be dead, but it will show us where she was last. Shit!”
“What?” I asked, coming to a stop.
“It shows she’s in the middle of the lake. Look.” She showed me her phone.
I looked, then glanced behind the fire to the lake beyond.
“Maybe there’s a dock or something,” I muttered as I walked in that direction.
I passed the fire and the first cabin but stopped and walked back to peek in the open window.
The cabin was a one bedroom with all the doors open.
No Clem.
I jerked my head toward the lake beyond and said, “Let’s check that out.”
Together we went through partygoers.
They were all fucked up.
Some had beer.
Others had pot.
Hell, I even saw one kid snorting cocaine off a fuckin’ log.
“This is some company party,” I found myself saying.
“It is,” she mused, wide eyed. “What smells like a skunk?”