Page 111 of Power Play

“Thanks,” I whispered and my voice broke. “I don’t say this, because I know who he was, who he is, but sometimes, I still miss him.”

“Of course you do,” he said. “Regardless of what went down, he was your dad.”

I nodded.

“You and Liam work things out about that?”

“You told him everything,” I mumbled. It was a mild accusation though.

“He needed to know the truth.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. I finished my drink and pushed my glass towards him.

“Another?”

My phone rang and I pulled it out of the pocket of my hoodie. I was in a bar in my pajamas. Underneath this sweatshirt I wasn’t even wearing a bra.

“Speak of the devil,” I said, showing Dillon my phone, and then I swiped the screen with my thumb and answered Liam’s call.

“We have a problem,” he said before I could say hi.

“I know. You’re an asshole who can’t see what’s in front of-”

“Tess is gone.”

27

Liam

Ileft her alone for five minutes. After she overheard our conversation, I got her changed and resettled and then I had to go to the bathroom. Yes, maybe I was in there for a long time trying to figure out how this all went to shit.

When I came back out, I swear not five minutes later, Tess wasn’t on the couch. She wasn’t in the sleeping porch. She wasn’t in her room. Or Kit’s. I checked mine to be on the safe side.

Empty.

I ran out to the beach, thinking she was there, looking at shells or birds or something, but all I saw was the tide washing out Kit’s footprints from earlier.

I lost her.

I charged back into the house and out the front door thinking maybe she’d gone into the cul de sac for some reason? Like a head wound reason? I was so panicked I couldn’t think clearly. I grabbed my car keys and called Kit. Who, if I wasn’t mistaken, sounded a little drunk.

“Tess is gone,” I said, my eyes closed, the words pulled up from my gut.

“Is she on the beach?”

“No.”

“The sleeping-”

“I’ve looked.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

“What do I do? Kit, What. Do. I. Do?”

“Stop panicking, number one. Okay, she couldn’t have gone far.” I heard her mumble something to maybe the bartender. Or someone else at the bar. Voices murmured back. “Okay,” she said. “Everyone here is going to split up and go look around. I’ll check the bookstore. You drive slowly up Harbor Road. Stay in touch.”

Again, Kit was calm and cool in a crisis. Everything about this sucked, but I was glad she was here. I almost said that to her but she hung up.

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