“I don’t know, buddy.” His voice cracked. The panic spiked. “But we’re going to look for her. Okay?”
He glanced at the other two adults. “We split up. Dylan, check rides. Claire, keep looking here. Jase and I will head to the food area and the pett—” He stopped abruptly.
The petting zoo.
Could she have wandered off in search of the ponies she’d so desperately wanted to see?
“I might know where she is,” he blurted out. “Keep your phones on. Call if you find her.”
Seth took off with Jason in his arms. Dodging people left and right, he muscled his way through the crowd, wishing everyone would just drop dead. Each frantic beat of his heart bruised his ribs, ravaged his chest.
He’d lost Sophie.
He’d turned away from her for thirty seconds and now she was gone.
Should’ve been you, man.
The guilt he’d harbored all these years came flooding to the surface. Goddammit. He should’ve been the one playing in the fucking yard when that sick fuck Jarvis Henderson drove up in his pickup. Adam should’ve been inside, watching TV. It should’ve been Seth’s beaten and mutilated body those hikers found in the fucking desert.
He kept his eyes open for the color pink, but Sophie was nowhere to be found as he raced through the carnival. In the distance he saw the big wooden sign advertising the petting zoo.
Please let her be here. Please let her be here.
He wasn’t a religious man, but he was praying to God as he neared the enclosure that housed the ponies. Praying that he didn’t have to call Miranda and tell her that her daughter was gone.
“There she is!” Jason’s delighted voice broke through his terrifying thoughts.
Seth nearly keeled over when he spotted that neon-pink T-shirt by the wooden fence closing off the petting zoo. Sophie was standing on her tiptoes, her brown ponytail swishing back and forth as she tried to get a better look at the two black-maned horses.
A wave of relief slammed into him. “Sophie!”
She turned around and happily waved him over. “Sef! Come see the pony!”
Lingering adrenaline coursed through his blood, making his hands shake and his vision waver. He managed to pull out his cell phone to call Dylan, telling him and Claire to meet them here.
Sophie must have noticed the wild look in his eyes, because the joy in her eyes faded into guilt. “Uh-oh,” she said.
He sucked in an unsteady breath. “Uh-oh is right.”
“Your friend looked…wrecked.” Claire dropped her purse on the floor in the front hall and bent down to unlace her black Adidas.
“Sophie taking off like that really shook him up. Shook me up too,” Dylan confessed.
“Yeah, me too.” For the first time all evening, that antagonistic glint left her golden brown eyes, and suddenly she looked very young and very pretty. “I keep thinking about what would’ve happened if we hadn’t found her…” Claire shuddered. “Oh God. Imagine losing a child.”
Silence settled between them, not quite comfortable, but not quite hostile either.
Finally she cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’m going to bed.”
“At nine o’clock? Gee, dear, did all the excitement get to you?”
Her lips tightened. “And he’s back.”
Dylan had to grin. “You know you missed me.”
“Missed the smartass remarks and not-so-veiled barbs about my character? Sorry, can’t say that I have.” She headed for the doorway. “Good night, Dylan.”
“’Night, honey.”
He thoroughly enjoyed the way her back stiffened. And he couldn’t help but check out her ass as she stalked off. She hadn’t worn her snooty little suit to the carnival—rather, she’d put on a pair of black capris, a gray v-neck tee, and those cute sneakers. He had to admit, she’d impressed him earlier. They may have sniped at each other the entire time, but when that little girl had gone missing, Claire had snapped to action, calming Seth down and going to look for Sophie without hesitation.
He shut off the hall light and headed for the living room, wondering when Chris would be back. He’d literally spent a total of ten minutes with his older brother—dude had gotten off the plane, deposited Claire at the house, and raced off to a country club for golf and cigars. Dylan couldn’t remember his brother ever being so…pretentious? He wasn’t sure if that was the right word, but he had noticed that his normally down-to-earth albeit conservative older brother seemed a bit more…uppity these days.
A knock on the door stopped him before he could enter the living room. Ah, his brother was back. He wondered why Chris hadn’t used the key he’d given him, or rung the bell rather than knock, but the answer to that became clear when Dylan opened the door and found someone else on the other side of it.
Aidan’s dimpled grin hit him like a shot of whiskey. Heat traveled through him, settling in his groin and hardening his cock.