Page 60 of Wild Tides
Drew nodded. “Text and call.”
“She might just have it on silent. It’s not like she could hear it in here anyway,” I said. “Where are the others? Have they seen her?”
“Lucy and Clay headed home about fifteen minutes ago. Rae and Zach followed suit not long after. I texted them, but she’s not with them.”
“Why don’t you check your truck, and we’ll head to my house? If she had a dress malfunction, my place is the closest to patch things up.” It was a weak reason, but anything was better than believing something had happened to her. “If she’s not at the house, we’ll hop in my car and drive around until we find her.”
Drew’s shoulders were tense. I held back the urge to ask if they’d had a fight. Nothing in their behavior all evening suggested any tension between them.
Lee and I half-jogged toward the house, driven by a palpable sense of dread. I’d have blisters tomorrow, but that was a small price to pay for finding Anya. Something glinted under the streetlight as we reached the corner. A phone.
I scooped it up, heart going cold. The logo for Anya’s yoga studio adorned the back of the cell phone case. A thousand scenarios rushed through my mind. Anya hit by a car. Anya falling. Anya getting taken. Frantically, I searched the bushes near where we’d found the phone. Lee joined me, expression grim.
“Let’s check the house. Just in case she dropped it,” I said after a fruitless search.
It took everything I had not to break into a run. But Lee’s ankle wouldn’t handle that kind of stress given the hill, and my heels were a recipe for disaster. My back door was locked, and I opened it with trembling hands.
“Anya?” I called out, hoping for an answer. For her to stumble out of the bathroom, laughing about a crazy mishap. A torn hem. Her period starting. Anything, so long as she was safe.
Lee and I searched the house quickly. Anya’s phone buzzed with another text notification from Drew, and I shuddered, locking eyes with Lee.
“We have to tell him.”
He nodded. “I’ll call. Grab your keys. Let’s drive a grid.”
It took me two tries to pick up my keychain, my fingers trembling too much to grasp them.
“Here,” Lee said gently. “I’ll drive; you keep your eyes peeled.” He unlocked the car, holding his phone to his ear. “Drew. We found Anya’s phone on the corner of Nichols and B Street, but no sign of Anya. She’s not at the house. Vi and I are starting a grid search in her car. We’ll search Warbass Way and everything west of the house if you take the east. I’ll call Zach and have him and Rae take everything downtown and toward the marina. Call Clay and have them take the other side of town. She can’t have gotten far on foot.”
“What if she wasn’t on foot?” I overheard my brother say grimly.
“We’ll find her, Drew.”
Lee’s tone exuded confidence. This was him in search and rescue mode. Any other time, it would have been incredibly sexy. But with Anya missing, all I could do was let it quiet some of the fear. We had a mission. A purpose.
Lee drove slowly toward Warbass Way and the waterfront, each of us scanning the road on either side for any signs of her. Inky black darkness greeted us, the occasional streetlight or house lighting breaking up the gloom. He turned on Harrison, driving faster. Houses abutted the road, offering fewer hiding spots. We were blocks beyond my place. He slowed again when he reached his house.
“Should we search it?” I asked.
He frowned. “She doesn’t have a key. I say we keep going.”
He drove on. My gut clenched, a toxic stew of worry making it feel like I couldn’t draw a full breath. Anya was out there somewhere. Maybe hurt. Maybe worse. I hated this feeling. The lack of control.
She was too sweet a person for karma to have her in its sights. But what about her family? Cold dripped into my veins as I considered the possibilities. She’d anonymously provided evidence to the authorities that could cripple her family’s criminal enterprises. Slowly, law enforcement had been shutting them down, closing in on her parents. Just last spring, her ex-boyfriend had appeared and tried to blackmail her into helping him with new smuggling routes, unaware that she’d already turned traitor. He went to jail.
Had her family sought revenge, blaming her for that betrayal? Or had someone tipped them off about Anya’s original sin against her family?
We believed ourselves insulated from violence on the island. But it had touched us before.
Anya’s ex, Owen, was supposed to be in jail. But Chaz Underwood was proof that a lenient judge could mean bail for just about anyone. I shivered.
“Turn Point or the marina?” Lee sounded grim.
Turn Point County Park would be abandoned this time of night. It closed at dusk. The perfect, secluded spot. But the marina offered an easy egress. Plenty of boats if you wanted to make a getaway.
“The marina.”
Lee turned left, parking at the private marina. Another point in its favor. Not many fishermen left in the evening. From the parking lot, it was difficult to make out anything in the water, but my gut urged me forward. Anya was down there. I could feel it.
