Page 136 of Shortcake
“Jesus Christ! She ran away from home just now, Meghan. She’s run away and I thought maybe she went to try to find you. But you’reright. That’scrazy. Why the hell would she ever turn toyouin crisis? In sixteen years, I’m pretty sure that’s the one lesson Harper learned without me ever needing to teach her!”
I wasn’t proud of my outburst, but goddammit, it was the truth.
“She—she ran away? Because ofme?”
“Don’t worry, Meghan. I’ll figure it out without you. Just like always.”
“Conrad—”
I hung up. I didn’t need to hear any more excuses. I needed to find my daughter.
Where would she go? Who the hell would she turn to?
I was one of New York’s finest for years. I could do this. I worked so many missing persons cases and when it was a runaway, they usually either went to a friend’s or a boyfriend’s.
Adam.
Maybe she went to Adam’s house.
I took a deep breath as I turned onto my street. I needed to think like a cop. Not like a hysterical parent.
And if I was a cop, the first thing I’d do would be to go look through her room for any clues or hints to where she may have gone.
I turned into my driveway, my pulse ratcheting up when I saw Elijah and Adam there sitting on the garden bench in my front lawn.
Why were they here? What did they know?
I barely remembered to shut off my siren and car before I launched out of the car, toward them. “Where is she?” I snapped, stalking in their direction.
Sensing my frayed nerves, Elijah pushed Adam behind himself and stepped forward. Well, at least I could credit him for not being a coward. “Addy called us to see if we could help—”
Addy called Elijah. When I wasn’t here to help, that son of a bitch was who she turned to.
Well, that’s fucking perfect.
Narrowing my eyes, I looked at Adam, cowering behind his father. “You don’t know where she is?”
Adam shook his head and it was the first time I noticed that his eyes were red-rimmed. Diving a hand into his curly, dark hair, he handed me his cell phone. “She called me this morning, but I was at soccer practice for my summer league.”
Sure enough, there were two missed calls from Harper and that was it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Warren’s squad car screech to a stop behind mine, and he jumped out, running toward us. “Everything okay, boss? You took off so fast, we thought you might need a hand here.”
I ignored Warren for the moment and held the phone back out to Adam. “This is all there is from her? No texts you may have deleted?”
Elijah stepped forward. “Are you insinuating my son is lying?”
I glared at Elijah. I shouldn’t be as pissed at him as I was. I shouldn’t hate him like I did. But I was… and I did. I hated that he was so obnoxiously stoic. I hated that despite his divorce, he and his son seemed to have a great, communicative relationship. And I hated that when Addy called, he was there for her. He answered. And he was here to help.
“I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this and find my daughter.”
“Harper’s missing?!” Warren cried out.
Yep, welcome to the party, deputy. Warren took a few steps away and called something in on his walkie talkie, though what, I wasn’t sure. She wasn’t a missing person yet. She’d only been gone a few hours. And there was no foul play.
With gritted teeth and a clenched fist, Elijah moved into my face. “You might be the sheriff, but—”
“Dad,stop.” Adam said, shaking his head. “This isn’t about you. Or me. It’s about finding Harper.”
