Page 124 of Rebel Heart

“Mom,” Vaughn called. “Weren’t you out with Rebel? Where is she?”

Riva startled, and with her hand over her heart, she gazed up at the three of us staring down at her. “I was. But she and Bliss left together.”

I frowned. “Are Ice and Aloha still with them?”

Riva fiddled with the strap on her purse. “No, they rode off. I had some things to get at a different store, so we split up.”

“Why didn’t she call us to come pick her up?” Vaughn asked.

Riva threw her hands up, quickly frustrated by our questions. “I don’t know, Vaughn! She’s a grown woman, I’m not her keeper.”

“I’m going to kill Aloha and Ice. Why the fuck didn’t they stay with her?” I muttered.

Vaughn pressed his lips together, ignoring his mother’s outburst and my grumbling. “Call me an overprotective asshole, but I don’t like that her and Bliss are out somewhere on their own.

“I’m calling Bliss,” Kian announced. “Someone call Rebel again.”

I already had my phone out. Kian and I both made the calls. I watched Riva scurry out of sight, locking herself in her bedroom while the phone call went straight to Rebel’s voicemail again.

I turned back to Kian and Vaughn. “Nothing.” I cancelled the call.

Kian ended his as well. “She didn’t answer either.”

A sinking sense of dread filled my belly. My gaze kept drawing back to Riva’s closed bedroom door. Something didn’t feel right.

“Call War,” Vaughn suggested. “They’re probably over at their place. Quit panicking, the both of you.”

I couldn’t even deny it. That fear I’d felt when I’d lost track of her at the concert threatened to take over again. I ignored it and called War.

He answered on the first ring. “Fang. I was just about to call you. Is Bliss with you?”

That pit in the bottom of my stomach opened wide. “No, she’s not. We don’t know where either of them are. Vaughn’s mom was with them, but she’s saying they split up. Where are Ice and Aloha?”

War breathed into the phone. “No fucking idea. Let me see if they’re outside. Shit. I shouldn’t have let them go.”

“They would have hated that,” I reminded him. “Rebel would have punched me in the balls if I suggested she couldn’t go somewhere.”

“Yeah, yeah, I fucking know. Wait, Ice and Aloha are here.” There were muffled words from his end, and then a clear curse when War came back on the line. “Shit! Aloha says the women were in Riva’s car. They told them they were headed home, so they went in opposite directions. The boys coming back here while the women presumably went back to Providence with Riva.”

I stared at Riva’s bedroom door again.

Vaughn followed my line of sight and I ended the call. He looked at me. “You don’t believe her, do you?”

I lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know. Something feels off, but you know her better than I do.”

Vaughn swore low under his breath. He stormed to his mother’s room. He tried the handle, but it was locked. He thumped his fist on her bedroom door. “Mom!”

He didn’t give her time to answer, just went right on bashing on the wood.

Eventually, the lock clicked, and Riva poked her head out. “Vaughn! Stop it. You’ll break it.”

“What happened with Rebel today? I know you didn’t just leave her and Bliss there by themselves with no way of getting home.”

She waved him off. “You’re being ridiculous.”

He stared at her.

She huffed out a sigh. “I left them at the baby store, Vaughn! They do have the Uber app, you know? You don’t need to mollycoddle her the way you do. Honestly, it’s embarrassing watching the way you carry on when she’s around.”

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