I didn’t fight.
He set me in the passenger seat and reached around to buckle me up. I rocked in my seat, covering my mouth with my hands. My God, if anything happened to either of them, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together. I’d been the strong one when my parents fell apart after Wes’s death. When my dad left, I kept Mom from going into a state of depression and living in her bedroom. No one had ever been there to keep me going; I just had to fight through my own pain and focus on keeping my family together.
The engine roared to life like a mad dog and he turned the corners so sharply that I slammed against the door and threw my hands forward to keep from hitting the dash.
When I told him about the message from Maizy, he pulled out his phone.
“Denver, I want you to get a hold of Reno. Tell him it’s— … No, this can’t wait. Level fucking red, now deliver the message. I better have him on this phone in three minutes.”
Austin hung up and cursed. “He never carries his damn phone when I ask him to.”
“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I started chanting as we approached a yellow light. It flipped to red, but Austin gunned it and we sailed through the intersection. Thank God a cop car wasn’t around, but Austin knew how to weave around cars like a stuntman. The way he handled that Challenger was heroic.
We came to a hard stop and I was out the door and running toward the house.
“Lexi, wait!” he yelled out, but I was already on the porch. Worst of all, I didn’t have the spare key with me. I tossed the mat and tipped over the flowerpot. I pounded on the door and desperately rang the doorbell.
“Maizy! Maizy! Open up, it’s Lexi,” I shouted. Locked from the inside was a good sign; it meant someone was home.
Austin’s boots crunched on the patio and I glanced up at him, shaking.
He backed up a step, eyed the door, and kicked it in. It took two solid kicks, but the flimsy door cracked and flew open. It was an old house, and thank God for that.
Austin held out his arm to keep me back. “Stay close,” he said. “Someone could still be inside the house. If something happens, take off and I’ll handle it.”
The sliding back door was left wide open, and the wind had lifted the curtains and pulled them onto the patio.
“Maizy hides,” I whispered. “Please find her, Austin.”
He did a quick scan of the rooms to make sure no one else was in the house. Then it was my turn. I looked in the closets, beneath the beds, and in her favorite hiding spot behind the pantry door. Austin walked around the perimeter of the yard.
Mom’s purse was still on her dresser, and nothing looked disturbed.
I went into the kitchen and stopped at the table. Maizy’s little juice glass with the frog on the side was half-filled with milk, and an uneaten cookie sat on a paper napkin beside it.
I doubled over and threw up on the kitchen floor. Austin came running in and God, how embarrassing was that?
Everything blurred through my teary eyes, and Austin helped me up and walked me to the guest bedroom that used to be mine. It was cheery and bright with yellow paint and white furniture. I sat on the edge of the bed and watched him peel off his shirt, using it to wipe my tears and mouth.
“Don’t worry. I’ll find her, Lexi. My brother’s on his way and we’re going to track them down.”
Just then, a loud motor shut off outside and there was a ruckus at the front door.
“Stay here and rest for a minute while I talk to him,” he said.
After Austin left, I wept so hard that my chest began to ache with fear. I needed to become emotionally spent before I lost control and went on a rampage through the neighborhood.
I walked into the living room and Austin folded his arms, staring at a man who favored him a little in the face, except his handsome features were stern. He matched Austin’s height, but not his style. It was at least eighty degrees outside and he wore a long-sleeved black shirt with matching pants and shades, like he was ready to join a SWAT team.
Austin closed the distance between us and lifted my eyelid, treating me as if I were a patient. I jerked my head away.
“Just need to make sure you’re not going to shift on me,” he said in a low voice.
“Who’s that?”
Austin approached the formidable man. “Lexi, this is my brother, Reno. This is Wes’s little sister.”