Page 96 of This Moment

“Do your guys have eyes on Cadie?”

I heard a door shut. “What do you mean? The guys should, why?”

“I know you told me you had to leave for DC, are you still there, Mark?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck, when are you coming back?”

“I have a job, Kian. This may sound hard to believe, but it isn’t watching Cadie all the time. That’s why the FBI agentsare posted next door. She has a tracker on her car as well. I’m texting the team to see if she has left the house.”

“She was supposed to be at work over an hour ago. I know you said to stay at the main house, but she’s been staying with me at the guest house, and I left before she did. I was up at the house helping Sally with something.”

“Fuck,” Mark mumbled. “They said the tracker shows she is still at the house.”

My heart started to pound in my chest as I ran faster. I had parked my car near the bakery and walked up to get some coffee. I got into my car and started toward my parents’ house.

“I’m on my way there now.”

“My team is on the move. Stay on the phone and I’ll let you know what they find.”

I pressed on the gas and nearly missed hitting someone when I ran a red light. “Fuck!”

“They’re almost there, Kian. Hang tight,” Mark said as I pressed harder on the gas.

“Opal called me, she’s worried.”

“Don’t worry about Opal right now. Hold on.”

I could hear mumbling, but couldn’t make out what Mark was saying. I wanted to slam my phone against the steering wheel and demand Mark tell me what was wrong.

“Mark? What’s going on?” I nearly shouted into my phone. “Mark!”

“She’s not at the house. And you’re sure she’s not at the bakery?”

It felt like my vision blurred and for a moment, so much so that I thought I might run off the road. “Opal saidshe wasn’t.”

“I’m on my way back. It will take an hour and a half.”

I shook my head and my vision cleared. “What do I do?”

I had never in my life felt so helpless. A part of me knew I shouldn’t have let my guard down. I should have stayed with Cadie and not let her out of my sight.

“Just get to the house.”

“Is her car there? Didn’t you also have a tracker in her purse? How in the hell did they not see her leaving?”

I knew I was tossing questions left and right out to my brother who wasn’t even in town and hadn’t been able to talk to the guys since he was on the phone with me.

“Kian, I don’t have those answers. Just get to the house, I’ll be there as quick as I can.”

The line went dead. A sudden rush of cold swept over my body and it took everything I had to get back to the house in one piece.

I drove up and saw Sally standing outside the guest house talking to Mick, one of the FBI agents assigned to watch Cadie. They both turned and looked at me as I came to a screeching halt.

“Where is she?” I asked as I got out of the car.

Sally’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know. They came barging into the house and searched everywhere, but no one would tell me what was going on. I followed them down here and just learned that Cadie is missing.”

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