Page 66 of No Broken Promises

“No.” I shake my head. “As much as I love you and want to take you with me in case Nox is there, I can’t. We need to split up. I need you to go to your house. Just in case he went there.”

Parker stares at me with wide-open eyes and a flushed look to her skin. “This can’t be happening.”

Ignoring the growing sense of dread in the pit of my stomach, I lead the woman I love down the stairs toward the front door. “We have to check the cemetery and your house, Parker. Just in case. I can’t tell you not to panic, because I’m a fucking wreck right now. But we need to hold it together just long enough for us to find him.”

“Remy?” Parker’s tremble and gasp fill my ears, and I am afraid to risk looking over my shoulder at her. “Remy, what if the stalker got him?”

“We’ll find him, Parker.” We have to, I silently add.

Less than two minutes after Rose’s call, we are both slamming through the front door. I stare at Parker for a second and then pull her into my arms.

It is entirely selfish, I know. But I need to feel that she’s real, that she’s still there. That my life hasn’t become a nightmare. She clings to my back, breathing deeply as she tries to focus and calm down.

“I… I can do this,” she announces into my chest.

Then I watch as she pushes back and stares at me with a determined expression. “This is my son, Remy. My only reason for living and the only thing in this entire world that I care about. We’re going to find him. We don’t have a choice.” I nod, ignoring the slight stutter of her words and the tremor in her shoulders.

Without another word, Parker gets into her small car and starts the engine.

Daisy jumps into her place in the back seat of the cruiser when I open the door and we wait for Parker to pull out of the driveway before leaving.

“Don’t worry, girl,” I whisper when Daisy whimpers in the back seat. “We’re going to find him.”

I dial in to dispatch as I speed down the road, not giving a shit that my phone isn’t in the Bluetooth cradle and completely against policy. I’ll take whatever disciplinary action the chief wants to give me. Although, he’ll probably end up in the doghouse when my mom finds out about it.

“Remy,” Poppy’s voice breaks in on the fourth ring. “I just got the call from Birch County. Rose called it in.”

“I’m on my way to the cemetery to check, and then I’ll go to the Hayes’ house to get Daisy tracking him.”

Poppy types away in the background, and the sound of other officers calling in to tell dispatch that they are en route to the scene does something visceral to me. My brothers in blue, responding to a call to help my family, feels like a knife to my gut and the perfect reinforcement of why I do my job.

“I’m at the cemetery.” I pull into the abandoned parking lot, shining the spotlight in my cruiser around the headstones, unable to see anyone there.

I don’t need to ask what Nox is wearing. He always wears green pajamas, though it feels like Parker had told me that a lifetime ago. I’ve washed his laundry, helped him put it away, and even picked up his dirty clothes from the bathroom floor. I know every single piece of clothing my kid owns.

My kid.

Poppy hangs up before I can. Then I let Daisy out of the car, saying a silent prayer that Nox is sitting right on his father’s grave again.

“Ready to work?” I hold out one of Nox’s shirts for her to take the scent for work. We need to find him. I need to find him.

My kid.

When in the fuck did I start to think of Nox as mine? The answer has always been there. Racing through the cemetery to the area illuminated by the only walking path light, I think about Nox. Picturing his smile, the way he follows me around the house, and the way he insists on doing everything for himself.

“We’re gonna find him, girl. It’s time to go to work.”

I don’t know who I am trying to convince because Daisy ignores me completely. But I repeat these words like a mantra.

“I have to find him.”

When Daisy doesn’t alert, when she doesn’t even move from her spot at my side while we practically run through the cemetery, I break. A single, solitary sob escapes, and I think about turning around. About going to Parker’s to start the search. But Danny’s grave lies just ahead, bare except for the flowers that Parker has brought him every week for some unknown reason.

Knowing that Nox isn’t there, I still approach and search the area. Just in case Daisy’s wrong. I should have known she wasn’t, though. There isn’t anything out of place, not a single sign of Nox being there at all. In fact, other than the fresh dirt and grave in the empty space that sits next to Danny’s, there isn’t a single thing out of place.

“You fucked up, Danny.” I stare down at his name and date of death, wishing that he were here so I could beat the shit out of him. “The minute you hurt her and took something that didn’t belong to you.” I want to spit on Danny’s grave for the pain he caused Parker, the pain he caused all of us. For the lives he almost ruined. “Nox is missing. Otherwise, we’d be having words.”

I turn my back on his grave and walk away without another word. When Daisy stops to squat on his grave to relieve herself, I think Danny pretty much deserves it. He deserves that and so much more for what he did.

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