Page 17 of Husband Missing

She suppressed her eye-roll, forcing a sweet, innocent smile onto her face before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Holden wasn’t the worst. In fact, he was pretty hot, but he was a lying, cheating sack of shit with a bit of a temper. As his hand drifted down toward her ass, she reminded herself this was only temporary. Once she got what she needed, she wouldn’t have to see him anymore.

“Wow,” he said, dragging her inside. “You look hotter than usual. Trying out a new look?”

He let go of her and she twirled, pretending to be nervous while trying to avoid kicking any piles of trash. Wouldn’t want to dislodge the resident roaches. Apparently, Holden had never been acquainted with a garbage bin. The place reeked of stale beer, spoiled food, and some cheap dollar-store body spray he passed off as cologne.

“I’m trying to branch out,” Bug told him, fingers twisting her necklace. “You like it?”

One corner of his mouth tipped up in an appreciative smile. “I do. A lot.”

She stopped and gazed down at herself, making sure to furrow her brow and pucker her lips like she wasn’t convinced. “Do you think it’s too much for tonight?”

“Tonight?”

When she looked back up at him, she could see the panic in his eyes. Had he forgotten that he’d invited her? Asked one of his other girls to go with him instead?

No. No way. He wasn’t taking anyone else. She’d worked too hard for this. Tonight was the payoff for all her months of hard work. He was not screwing her out of this opportunity.

Bug took a calming breath and concentrated on not flexing her fists. First, she pouted. Then she widened her eyes. So much dewy innocence. Combined with her skimpy clothes, Holden wouldn’t be able to resist. With that in mind, she crossed her arms, making sure to push up her boobs enough that he’d be distracted.

Right… there.

It was difficult to hold back her satisfied grin. “You promised!” she said, pitching her voice an octave higher. “You said you would take me! Holden, you won’t introduce me to your family. If you’re not willing to let me meet your friends then?—”

He held a hand up to silence her. “I never said I wouldn’t introduce you to my family. They’re a bunch of assholes but if you want to meet them, that’s fine. But the people at this party tonight…they’re not like my buddies from the bar, you know?”

“Is that your way of saying I’m not good enough to meet them?” Bug demanded, giving a cute little lip quiver. She already knew who they were and exactly why he didn’t want her in their company. It was the same reason she needed to meet them.

“Oh no, baby,” he cooed, closing the distance between them and rubbing her arms. “That’s not it at all. It’s just that I want you to be prepared. These people aren’t like your college friends, okay?”

She put her hands on his chest. “Holden, I’m tired of being sheltered, okay? I’m tired of being this good little college girl who always does what she’s told and only hangs out with people the same as her. You told me you’d show me the world.”

It was one of the cheesiest lines she’d ever heard. Bug had used every ounce of self-control she possessed not to burst into laughter when he pulled that one on her. Instead, she’d tucked it away for later—for a moment like this. Holden loved the idea of corrupting her somehow, of feeling like the big, sophisticated man who could rock her safe little world. He was painfully easy to manipulate.

“Oh baby, I didn’t say you couldn’t go with me. Let me make some calls, okay?”

There was only one call Bug wanted him to make and that was to the redhead he was sneaking around with to tell her to stay home.

Bug smiled, doing her best to look starry-eyed and eager. “I’m so excited!”

Holden’s smooth, confident smile faltered for just a heartbeat. One of his hands brushed through his curly brown hair as he appraised her again. “Just, um, tonight when we get there, I need you to stay close to me the whole time, okay?”

Bug gave him another sweet, trusting smile. “Of course,” she lied.

TWELVE

Blue and red emergency beacons flashed in front of Josie’s home, so similar to the scene she’d found at the children’s hospital site only hours ago. The entire street was flooded with police vehicles. Cruisers, two marked SUVs used by their Evidence Response Team, and the personal vehicles of Turner, Gretchen, and their Chief, Bob Chitwood. Josie sat in the back seat of Gretchen’s SUV, the door hanging open. The first units to arrive had found blood in the driveway. Josie had been ushered from her own vehicle to the pavement until more of her colleagues arrived.

Trout snoozed in her lap. He was the only thing she’d carried from the house. Finding his leash in the detritus of their home seemed like a herculean task and she hadn’t wanted to risk further damaging the integrity of what was clearly a crime scene. She’d already traipsed through the house once to search for Noah and ensure there were no intruders present. In any other circumstances, she would have been far more careful in clearing a structure.

But this wasn’t just any crime scene. It was the home she shared with her husband. This was her life.

Numbly, she watched uniformed officers go door to door in both directions, canvassing. She wondered if any of her neighbors had lost their Wi-Fi or only them. Had they been targeted? This was a fairly safe neighborhood. Only one or two of the residents on her street had external cameras. On the sidewalk, Gretchen directed things while the Chief paced beside her, his cell phone pressed to his ear. Josie could hear him barking at someone on the other end, dropping more f-bombs than she’d ever heard him use before.

“I don’t fucking care whose ass you have to drag out of bed. Get everyone up. Every person you fucking know. I need your people here an hour ago. Somebody better start breaking some land-speed records right fucking now or I’ll crawl so far up your ass, you’ll need a root canal to get rid of me.”

Josie stroked Trout’s warm back, concentrating hard on the weight of him across her legs. She was aware that from the moment she stepped outside with him in her arms, her mind had begun systematically shutting down. Some protective part of her had emerged, an efficient little housekeeper who lived inside her brain, whose sole purpose was to sweep up all the fear, worry, panic, and creeping devastation, and deposit it into Josie’s mental vault. Her emotions were locked up tight in a titanium box right next to the place where the bad things lived. All she could feel were physical sensations. It was all she could bear right now.

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