“She what?” he demanded. He couldn’t be hearing this right. “How could that possibly happen?”
Behind Elliot, wind whooshed in the background. “We don’t know.”
Before he’d even made the conscious decision to move, Tione was at the table with his keys in his hand. He clenched his fists, the keys digging into his palm so hard it hurt, and forced himself to focus on the call.
“Go back to the beginning.”
“Not sure if you’re aware of this, but Megan has been working at The Shack and sleeping in Faith’s spare room,” Elliot said.
Tione’s heart squeezed. He had known that, but only because Kat had made sure to tell him, so he knew she was safe. “I know.”
“The girls ran out of cupcakes this morning, so Megan was in the kitchen, making another batch. When Faith hadn’t heard from her after half an hour, she went to check on her. Megan was gone, but nothing seemed to be out of place.” He was quiet for a moment, and Tione wished he’d hurry along, but Elliot worked at his own pace. “Faith called the station immediately. She’s hysterical, poor girl. We’ve gone over the kitchen, and visited her home, but there’s no sign of Megan.” He made a sound of frustration in the back of his throat, and Tione clutched the phone tighter to his ear. “I’ve walked the road between The Shack and Faith’s place myself, and there’s no trace of her anywhere.”
“That’s not good enough,” Tione barked. “How can there be no trace? She must have gone somewhere. Women don’t just disappear without their purses in the middle of a working day.” Not unless they were taken against their will—something he seriously didn’t want to consider. “Where’s her car?”
“Parked at Faith’s house. Apparently they’ve been walking to work.”
“Damn. That little idiot.” She should have known better than to make herself so vulnerable.
“Hey, now,” Elliot warned. “Don’t you talk about her like that, and there’s no need to panic. There’s a good chance she wandered off to one of the shops and forgot to let Faith know, or headed down the beach for a stroll. Faith tells me she wants to learn how to surf. We’ve checked the beach, but we could have missed her.”
Tione shook his head, and started to pace. He knew in his soul that she wouldn’t leave without saying where she was going. She wasn’t like that. Something had happened to her. The whole town was on the alert, the police were looking out for her, and something bad had still happened.
“For God’s sake,” he growled, stomping his feet and taking comfort in the dull ache that throbbed up his ankles. “You were supposed to be watching her. She was supposed to be safe.” She was supposed to be better off without him.
“Don’t you take that tone with me, young man.” In the space of a second, Elliot morphed from friend to authority figure—into the man who’d picked Tione up out of the gutter more than once when he first moved to the bay, and who had no patience for his crap. “A patrol has been going past every hour, as I promised. If someone has been watching her, they probably waited for a window of opportunity between the patrols.”
He couldn’t argue with that logic, although his skin crawled at the thought of someone spying on Megan as she went about her life, completely oblivious. Sweat broke out on his upper lip. This wasn’t Elliot’s fault, it washis. He’d pushed her away in a bout of fucking self-pity. Yeah, sure, he’d told himself he was doing her a favor, but the horrible truth was that he’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and as soon as it showed any sign of doing just that, he’d given her the shove she needed to strike out on her own.
He should have kept her close. He should have protected her, whether she wanted him to or not. His life would be worth nothing if his actions caused harm to another woman, especially Megan.
Megan. His heart seemed to echo her name with every beat.Ka-thunkbecameMeg-an. Every godforsaken pulse of blood in his veins screamed for her.Megan, Megan, Megan. What was he without her? Nothing. He’d let her down, just as he’d feared, and just as he’d tried in vain to avoid.
“What can I do?” he asked. “I’ll do anything, Elliot. Where are you? I’ll be there in two minutes.”
“Stay where you are,” Elliot ordered. “The most useful thing you can do is keep your cool and try to track her down. I can’t mount a full-scale manhunt. Not until she’s been missing for forty-eight hours. But if you see something suspicious, I have reason to call for reinforcements.”
“You’re shitting me.” They weren’t looking for her? He couldn’t be serious.
“I’m sorry, Tee. My hands are tied.”
“Fuck that. I don’t give a damn about your government bureaucracy, Elliot. You and I both know something is wrong here, and she could be on the other side of the country by the time forty-eight hours are up. She could beoutof the goddamn country.”
Elliot sighed. “I’m doing all I can. I’ll be out looking for her, and so will every other policeman in town. Haven Bay isn’t big. Someone must have seen something, and we’ll find them, then we’ll find her. We’ll get your girl back, Tione.”
“We’d better.”
28
Megan’s mouth was dry,and her head pounded. She tried to draw in air, but her tongue was thick and clumsy, blocking the way. Instead, she breathed in through her nose, ignoring the stinging sensation around her nostrils, and immediately inhaled the scent of seawater and fish. Gagging, she bent at the waist and expelled warm vomit onto the floor between her knees. The sour smell of it made her retch again, but her stomach had been thoroughly emptied. She hung her head, feeling the rasp of rough linen over her skin. A blindfold.
She stilled, paralyzed by terror, and took stock of her situation. Her wrists were bound in her lap so tightly her fingers had swollen, and when she wiggled them, they tingled. Tensing her calves, she felt rope looping around her ankles, securing her to a chair. She tested the knots. They weren’t budging.
Where was she? Why had she been brought here?
She remembered arms around her, being tossed over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and then… Nothing. What had happened?
Hinges creaked, and she heard footsteps. Instinctively, she loosened her muscles, went floppy, and pretended to be unconscious, but she was too slow.