Page 24 of After All The Wreckage
“He didn’t run away.”
But I heard what he wasn’t saying. They thought he was like Demi. Everyone in town knew she was notorious for running off. But there was no way in hell Monte would have done that to us. Not to me or Ivy, just like he wouldn’t turn off his phone.
Except he’d done both.
It ate at me for all of two seconds before I trusted the instincts I’d ignored all weekend. I had to get out of there. I had to talk to Rory. Something had happened to Monte in D.C., otherwise, he’d be home by now. Otherwise, he’d have found a way to contact me because he knew I’d be sick with worry. My chest was squeezed so tight I was afraid I might have a heart attack at twenty-seven instead of fifty like my dad.
“His phone is off or disabled. He wouldn’t do that to me exactly because of what you’re thinking. He hated what Demi did to us as much as I did. He’s missing, damn it!”
All four police officers looked at me, and I sensed the pity I despised wafting from them.
I pushed past Muloney. If I didn’t get out of there, I was going to put my hands on someone like I had the stupid college kid the night before. I’d shake them. Rattle them. Throw them against the wall and demand they search for my brother.
“We’ll put his information in the national database, and we’ll talk with the students and staff from the school, but I bet he shows up before long with his tail between his legs,” Muloney said, as if Monte had just gone to some off-limit weekend-long party at the beach. Kids being kids. Boys being boys.
My anger grew, but I didn’t respond—I couldn’t. I just kept my feet headed for the door and the dark-haired spitfire who’d walked out.
I hurried around the back of the building to where I’d left the Pathfinder just as Rory zipped out of the parking lot on the back of a Honda Rebel. It shouldn’t have been unexpected as she’d told me as a teen she planned on getting one, and yet the vision she made caught my breath. She was sexy and enticing in all the right ways—or wrong ways.
By the time I got into the SUV and caught up with her, she was stopped at the only light in Cherry Bay, two blocks from the bar. The other night, the idea of her chasing down some guy who’d left his fingerprints on her wrist had pissed me off. Made me angry at her parents and a fictional character for leading her into this business. But now, all I felt was relief, because I knew Rory. I knew her determination. She wouldn’t give up. She sure as hell would do more than just put Monte’s name in some goddamn national database.
I just had to convince her Monte hadn’t run away. That he wasn’t like Demi. And that thought made my chest tighten all over again because it might mean telling her a truth I wasn’t sure she’d believe. Hell, even having been surrounded by it my entire life, there were moments I didn’t think any of it was real.
I barely caught sight of the motorcycle as Rory turned down the darkened road in the older section of town that led to her nan’s place. The street was lined with cottages dating back two or three centuries mixed in with Victorians. It was only two streets over from our old home. Another ache stabbed at my gut thinking about the house. Yet another loss we’d weathered. But it had been worth selling it to keep my family together.
To keep my brother… who was now gone.
Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them loose. I ground my teeth together and turned my attention to what I needed todo at the moment. I knew better than anyone not to dwell on the past or the future. The only way I’d survived the last few years was by concentrating on the right now.
And right now, I needed Rory to help me find Monte.
She pulled into the driveway of a cottage halfway down the lane and headed straight for the detached garage. The door slowly closed behind her, shielding the bike from view as I parked across the street and cut the engine. I flexed my hands on the steering wheel. What was I going to say to her? How much of the truth could I afford?
Was I even doing this? Asking Rory to help? God… it felt like she should still be the twelve-year-old kid I’d first met with a love of The Guess Who and Veronica Mars. The kid who’d looked at me with adoring eyes as if I was a hero to worship. But if there was the slimmest chance she could help us, I couldn’t drive away. In my heart, I knew minutes mattered. Those same kind of minutes that had once meant getting in and out of a storm in one piece or becoming part of the wreckage.
Just as I reached for the handle, a knock on the glass with something metallic made me jump. It was Rory, holding what looked like a flashlight that flickered with electricity as she pushed a button. It took me a minute to realize it was a stun gun. The same minute it took her to realize it was me in the soccer-mom-type SUV.
“Gage? What are you doing here? Why were you following me?” Her voice sounded muffled through the window.
I didn’t know whether to be impressed or worried that she was fast enough and sneaky enough to have gotten the drop on me.
She dropped her stun gun back into the bag she had flung across her chest as I pushed open the door. Her stance was exactly the Rory I’d known at fifteen but with an extra confidence to it. A bravado she’d shown off by pushing around adetective three times her age, but below the bold daring, I felt the loss and heartache I’d sensed last night. It was newly scored. Not healed. Barely even scabbed over.
I couldn’t afford to worry about any of that now. Not with my brother’s life on the line.
“Monte’s missing. I need your help.” My voice cracked, emotions pouring out.
It was dark, but the moon was full, so it was easy to read the surprise that bloomed on her face.
“It was you at the station just now? With Muloney? What happened? What are they doing? Where are they looking?” The real concern in her tone made tears hit my eyes all over again. The relief of having someone actually care that he was gone. River, Audrey, and I had been on our own all day. I needed all the help I could get, and I hadn’t gotten any from the people who should have given it.
“They think he took off. Like Demi… or just to attend some damn party. That he’ll show up when it’s over with his tail between his legs.” It hurt, the flicker of similar doubts I saw in her eyes. It caused me to growl when I should be begging. “Monte didn’t fucking run off. He wouldn’t do that to me.”
She turned and headed for the cottage, and I followed. Even though she was a good eight inches shorter than me, I had to almost jog to keep up with her fast stride.
“I realize you haven’t seen Monte since he was little and you don’t know him. But I do. And you know me well enough to believe me when I say he wouldn’t do this to me or Ivy.”
Her footsteps stuttered at the mention of Ivy, and she came to a stop, turning to really take me in for the first time since I’d gotten out of the car. Her gaze eased down over every inch of me, from my mussed black hair to my work boots and back up to the day-old stubble on my chin. It was as if she was taking me apart and then putting me back together. I wished it wouldbe that easy for me to do the same—take all the broken pieces and assemble them into something greater than the bits that remained.
