Page 92 of Callow

My gaze shot in Callow’s direction, panic gripping me.

“You’re sure?” Callow asked.

“Yes. She got out. Said she had to get some sleep because you guys were taking her to a bookstore today,” she said with an eye roll that said she didn’t get it, but was clearly fond of my kid. Which earned her points. But still. She was the adult in this situation. She should not have been the reason my underaged child snuck out all night.

“Did you see her go into the building?”

“No. She said she was gonna go around and go up the ladder. Because you guys have an alarm on the door or something. Dunno how she was gonna get up a ladder with a cast, but that’swhere she went. Around the back of my car, then disappeared into the dark.”

Somewhere between the lot where Tammy had parked and our back balcony, Daphne had disappeared.

My mind raced with a million horrible scenarios that had me letting out this strange, choked sob.

“Hey, we’re going to find her,” Callow said, coming toward me.

“She’s, like, really missing?”

“Yeah, she’s really missing,” Callow said, wrapping an arm around me and leading me toward the door. “So if you see her, or you know anywhere she might be, you call me,” he said, grabbing one of her eyeliners and writing his number. On the wall. Before half-carrying me out of the building.

“She was almost home, Callow,” I said, sniffling hard.

“I know,” he said, but his voice had gotten tight.

With one hand, he was frantically texting something out to his biker brothers as he led me back to the car.

We drove back toward my apartment building. But Callow said nothing to me as he moved out of the car to go talk to several of the bikers who were waiting.

I didn’t even try to roll down the window to hear what they were saying. But the second I saw one of the bikers hold out something to Callow, I knew my worst fears were confirmed.

Because that was Daphne’s phone.

Someone had found her phone.

She was gone.

Taken.

I might never see her again.

But then, suddenly, someone was putting a phone to their ear. And everyone was scattering. Including Callow, who was running toward me.

“What is it?” I asked as soon as he had the driver’s door opened.

“Someone has a lead on the fucks who broke into your place,” he said, jumping in and throwing the car into reverse and pulling out behind his biker brothers.

“Where are we going?”

“The clubhouse,” he told me, reaching over to quickly give my thigh a squeeze. “This is good, babe,” he assured me.

“Who has new information?” I asked, watching his profile when he ran a yellow as it turned red to a chorus of horns.

I hated reckless driving. I always thought of how Daphne was going to be behind a wheel alone soon with those lunatics and without the years of experience that would make her reaction time faster.

But just this once, I really appreciated Callow’s haste. Knowing it was because he was just as worried about Daphne as I was.

“Ha,” he said, jaw clicking. “You know Fallon?”

“Yeah.”

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