Page 114 of Broken

I bit my lip, worrying, and Jet brushed it free with his thumb. “Give it time, Annie. We don’t know what they’re going through. Not really.”

“You’re right. I know. It’s just so hard to hold back.” Because I was ready to club a certain friend of mine over the head.

“Well, how about we focus on your birthday instead? Drink up and make a night of it before we have to go back?”

“Sounds perfect.” We shared a conspiratory smile as I took a long swallow of beer, the music Corey had pumping in the background changing beats with a new song. Jet took the cup from my hands and pulled me into another long kiss.

“Ignore it,” Jet growled when my phone buzzed in the cupholder.

Yeah, there were no arguments here. I pulled at his shirt, balling it along his back to yank it over his head as Jet’s tongue swirled over one of my nipples. We were panting. Desperate. Our breaths fogging the windows. It was with the fifth call that I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I grabbed my phone without reading the screen.

“Yeah?”

“Have you heard from Izzy?” Mom’s panicked voice came through, and with that one simple question, I went from horny as hell to terrified.

“No. Why?” Jet stopped his attention, looking up to study my expression when he heard my tone.

“Because your truck’s gone.She’sgone.”

She’s what?!My brain faltered with that information.

“I need you to come home.”

In a heartbeat.“We’ll be right there.” I looked down at Jet, my phone now clutched to my chest. “Izzy’s missing.”

His eyes widened, and in a scrambled panic, we were both throwing on clothes, and I was back on my side of the car as Jet peeled away from the party.

My legs bounced, heels tapping, so much nervous energy flooding through me. My fingers flew over the screen of my phone, texting and calling Izzy, memories of the last time she’d vanished rushing through me. And just like then, she never answered. I prayed it wasn’t because she couldn’t.

Jet took my hand as tears pricked my eyes, giving me an anchor in the storm of my emotions, and the second we pulled up to the house, I was sprinting for the front door.

“Mom!” I bolted inside, Jet right on my heels.

“Up here!” She called from upstairs.

I ran up, and what I saw sent a fresh kick of terror and panic rushing through me, my feet pausing in shock just inside the room. Jet gasped when he reached my back.

“Holy…”

His reaction jolted me back, my eyes still taking in the destructive mess. “Izzy would never do that, right? Not to Daddy’s dresser.” I looked at Mom, hoping for some kind of answer, but she shook her head, looking as lost as I felt.

“Try not to panic. Maybe there’s a clue.” She started shifting through the chaos.

Try not to panic? Who is this woman?“Shouldn’t we call someone? The cops? Report her missing?”

Mom shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. Y’all are eighteen now, and with the truck gone…I doubt they’ll do anything. I already called your uncle. You know he’d know.”

“Shit.” He was a cop. Of course he would. “I’ll try calling again.”

“I already did. She left her phone.” Mom’s eyes went to the nightstand, and mine followed, widening when I saw Izzy’s purse and jacket on the chair by the desk.

“She didn’t takeanything. Mom, we have to do something!”

“Y’all helplook,” she demanded, and Jet tugged on my arm.

I bent down to the floor by her bed to sift through the mess and winced when I moved some of the folded clothes from the dresser out of the way. “Do you think it might have set her off when she realized you confiscated all the medicine?” I held up the large bottle of Tylenol we’d locked away. “I told you she wouldn’t like it if she believed we thought she might hurt herself.”

“Shit,” Jet murmured. “Did y’all really think–”

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