“Creglin will be coming to look at those, won’t he?”
“Probably,” I said as we hit the bottom floor. The halls stirred as people woke up and headed out for the day. I ignored them, just nodding here and there as I let myself into my suite. I needed my laptop.
Jonas hadn’t followed us but that didn’t surprise me. He went back to staking out Aubrey’s room.
“I’m checking the cameras, and then I’m calling Creglin to give him this note.” I couldn’t justify keeping this to ourselves. Everything we could do for her, we needed to be doing.
“Fine,” Lachlan said. “Dad told me if this was serious that we should call the cops and let them handle it.”
“You told him it wasn’t?” I pulled out my laptop and flipped it open. It took me less than five to login, go to the website, enter my credentials, then pull up the camera feeds. Lachlan shrugged as he folded his arms and watched my screen.
It was choppy, but I could see the angles. Panning through them, I looked for the best one of the front door. There was another of the circular drive, but I went to this one first and rewound it.
Absolutely not supposed to be doing this, but I’d tell Creglin when I gave him the note. I just—
“There,” Lachlan said even as I fixed my eyes on her. She was coming out the front door and she looked tired and—rumpled. But she glanced at her phone then looked around before walking away.
Walking. Not running.
She went to Dancing Goats first. That was what it looked like from the angle. We stared at the door for another couple of minutes. No one else came out.
At the five minute mark, Jonas and Lachlan were coming inside.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Lachlan swore. “Five minutes? We missed her by five goddamn minutes?”
“Apparently.” I couldn’t judge. I’d been in bed and asleep when she’d left. Then I’d been upset she walked without a word. Only…
Yeah, problem for another day. I tried another camera. This one wasn’t the best angle but it let me look around the side toward Dancing Goats.
I scrolled to the time stamp we saw her leave and—there she was. The cameras were not in color, so black and white was going to have to do. But she didn’t go that way long. She turned and headed back away from the building—and then she was gone.
“Nothing.”
No one else popped up on the cameras and I wanted to shove my laptop off the table or throw it.
“We should call Gibs,” Lachlan said. “Jonas is right. Mom isn’t rational about Ace and we need to tell him this is real.”
“You’re right,” I said, staring at the screen then glancing across the room. “We need to call him and Creglin.”
“But?” Lachlan demanded. “You have ‘but’ face.” He was so damn sober and serious, he didn’t even laugh at his own joke.
“But he already thinks it’s a prank and I thought—I thought she meant the world to him and now I’ve got a lot of questions.” Not the least of which had to do with that baby, what was wrong with her, why she had my siren’s eyes.
Gibs’ eyes.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and then straightened. “Go get Jonas. We call him together.”
Lachlan had his phone out. “Already texting him.”
Jonas didn’t keep us waiting. “I don’t want to miss her if Aubrey comes back. I called Forrest but that dick isn’t answering either. I have someone watching his room.”
“We’ll keep looking, we’re calling Gibs.”
“Good,” Jonas said, then motioned to us. “We should have called him right away.”
Sinking feeling in my gut, I pressed Gibs’ contact. When he and Mom were on tour, we weren’t supposed to call him directly. Mom had us call her phone and leave messages because she didn’t want to get in the way of his muse.
Yeah, she was about to be pissed off again and I couldn’t summon up the energy to give a shit. When we went to voicemail. I hung up and called again.
Voicemail.
Third call.
Jonas pulled out his phone and he was hitting another contact. So was Lachlan.
Yeah, we were all calling him.
“Hey there,” Gibs said in a low, hoarse voice when he answered Jonas’ call. “Was in the studio…must be something big if you guys are all calling. What’s wrong?” He coughed once, then cleared his throat before we could respond. “Need to get a drink, hang on.”
Lachlan’s knuckles went white.
It took a good two minutes for Gibs to come back, he sounded less hoarse this time. “All right, talk to me before your mother gets back in here and yells at me for having the phone in the studio. Supposed to be working on this album—oh that reminds me, Jonas, I need to thank you—”
“Thank me later,” Jonas said abruptly. “KC is in trouble and needs help.”
There was a bit of prolonged silence on the other end of the phone followed by the distinctive click of a lighter. After a long exhale, Gibs said, “This about that note we got?”
“The ransom note?” Lachlan said, his tone incredulous and annoyed.
“Your mom said it was a prank.”
Mom said…
“It’s not a prank, Gibs,” I said flatly. “Kaitlin was here this morning. She went out for coffee. She called Lachlan and left him a message about the four of us getting together for coffee. Then in the middle of the call she got attacked or taken—”
“Ramsey, her mother’s a bit melodramatic and you know—KC does take after her some. She’s got a good heart, but Jennifer never knew when to quit and—”
“It’s not a prank,” Jonas argued. “She’s in trouble. She needs help—that note told you that.”
“That note—it came through email, Jonas. It could be nothing. Maybe she’s pranking you—”
“Holy shit, Gibs. Are you high?” Lachlan glared at the phone. “Ace is in trouble. She’s been assaulted twice at this school, and her room ransacked. Now she’s missing—and you want to talk about melodrama? What the hell?”
“Sweetheart, I thought you were working,” Mom’s voice carried. “You know you shouldn’t bring your phone in the studio.”
“It’s the boys,” Gibs said slowly. “They’re telling me my Kaity is in trouble.”
“You know how she is…”
“Linz,” Gibs interrupted. “She’s not cruel.”
“But she is spoiled,” Mom countered. “And she craves attention. She takes after that bitch Jennifer too much…”
“Mom,” Jonas barked out. “Shut up. KC is nothing like her mother. She’s in trouble. We need to help her.”
Dead silence greeted that command. Of all of us, Jonas never raised his voice to Mom.
“Jonas—honey…”
“I’m not kidding. Shut up. Gibs—you told me KC was the most important person in the world to you.” Jonas was almost shaking and I put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “Put your money where your mouth is and help us save her.”
Six