Page 257 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
“Mommy?”
“Mommy will be back really soon, too.”
I set him onto his feet as Nelly slowly wound around the counter.
“What’s going on, Theo?” she asked.
“Don’t want to worry you, but there might be some trouble in town. Going to send the security guard over here to keep an extra eye, and I want you to sit tight and make sure the doors stay locked. You hear anything out of the ordinary, you call me.”
“Did he…find her?” The question heaved out of her.
Disquiet gripped me in an instant. Didn’t know what it was.
This was about Toga.
Still, I lifted my phone, checking for a response from the text I sent Piper.
Nothing.
Anxiety buzzed through my senses.
“I don’t exactly knowwhothat is, Nelly.”
There was a spurring to it.
The foul, grim feeling worming through me telling me I needed to know.
Right then.
Uncertainty passed through her features. “If she didn’t tell you…” She wavered before she rushed, “She kept thinking that he might have found us. Thinking she felt something the way she did when he caught up to us a few years ago. But then she said that it was someone else here at the motel who was in trouble.”
Her throat bobbed heavily as she swallowed. “I told her she needed to tell you everything. That you would hold it. She needs you, Theo. We all need you. And I don’t know what’s going on, but I have this feeling right here.”
She gathered the tips of her fingers over her heart.
Without waiting for more, I dialed Piper’s number, fucking itching while it rang and rang before it went to voicemail.
A crush of fear hit me, and I dialed Emery. She answered on the second ring.
“Well, hello there, Theo,” she drew out on a giggle. A ton of noise echoed around her.
Thank fuck. They were still at the bar.
“Need to talk to Piper,” I grated. “She isn’t answering her phone.”
The giggle died on her tongue. “Theo…she’s not here. She left here a while ago to go home to talk to you.”
Dread spread like a disease.
Infiltrating.
Invading.
“What?” I choked.
“She’s not here.”
“How long has she been gone?”
