Page 59 of I Can't Even

“We’ll find her, Mom.” Harry sounded as absolute as Liam had. “Don’t worry.”

Soph nodded but her eyes were watery, and it looked as if it was taking all she had not to cry. I had the urge to kick Stan’s ass for the second time in ten minutes. It must have shown on my face because I felt Liam squeeze my shoulder again, reminding me to stand down.

“Hannah and Harry were just going to tell me what they know about Emily’s posts,” I said.

I showed Soph one of the pictures on Em’s page with the twins in it. The three of them were each wearing some kind of faux animal skin hat with the pointy ears and the sides trailing down to make a scarf with mittens sort of thing.

Soph looked from the phone to the teens. “When did you three do that?”

“Farmer’s market,” Hannah said. “Some guy was selling those spirit hoods.”

“Spirit hood?” Liam asked.

“Yeah, like it’s your spirit animal,” Harry said. “I’m the lion.”

“Uh huh,” Soph said. “And you didn’t mention to me that Em has this social media site thing happening?”

“Everyone has one,” Hannah said. “NBD.”

“Em never had one before,” Soph said. “That makes it a very BD.”

“The farmers market? Wasn’t that the night Em was wearing her boots?” I asked.

Harry nodded. “She had a trail of dudes following her. That’s why we stayed with her until she went home. She kinda needed a bodyguard.”

“Those are Em’s boots?” Liam asked. “Interesting.”

My cheeks heated as Soph shot me a questioning glance. I made my face blank as I shut out the memory of the night before and tried to ignore him. Must focus on missing sister, I told myself.

“Have you two tried calling her?” I asked Harry and Hannah.

“Yeah,” Harry said. “And texted her, too.”

“No answer,” Hannah added.

“Why don’t we all split up and search town?” I suggested. “We can cover more ground. Soph, maybe you should stay here in case she comes home and then you can call us and let us know.”

“Hell no,” she said. “We’ll leave her a note telling her to call us if she comes home. I am not just going to sit here and go slowly crazy when she’s out there possibly hurt or harmed.”

“Is Dad coming to help?” Hannah asked.

There was a beat of awkward silence and then Soph said, “No, honey, he can’t. He has a work thing.”

I saw the twins exchange a glance. Soph might have been trying to protect their opinion of their father, but something told me it was already too late.

“Okay, then, we’d better get going.” I turned to Liam. “Thanks so much for the ride.”

“Oh, no,” he said. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. This is Em. I’m not going to be able to function until I know she’s okay.”

“Huh,” Harry grunted. “I wish Dad felt that way.”

There was another awkward silence and I desperately wanted to ask Soph what was going on in her house, but I resisted—it was definitely not the time.

“Thank you, Liam.” Soph gave him a smile of gratitude. “Hannah and Harry, take your car and try down by the water, I’ll take my SUV and search the center of town, Liam and Jules, you have the motorcycle so you can zip around the perimeter of town faster than any of us can. Keep your phones on and call the second you see her.”

I looked at my sister in surprise. She hadn’t done the bossy older sister thing in a while, and I’d forgotten how good she was at it.

“Got it,” Harry and Hannah said and took off for their car.

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