Page 103 of Promising You
“Forget it. We don’t need to talk about it.”
“Yeah, we do. Just not now.”
We get to the house and run inside. “Did you call my dad?” Garret yells it at Katherine who is practically in a trance, standing like a statue in the middle of the foyer. Garret goes up and puts his hands on her shoulders, shaking her. “Katherine. Did you call my dad?”
She snaps to. “What? No. I can’t call Pearce. He’ll kill me for losing her. I can’t—”
“Call him!” He screams at her.
She takes her phone from her pants pocket, but holds it at her side.
“You searched the whole house?” he asks. “You’re sure she’s not in here?”
She nods. “Yes. We’ve searched it several times.”
“How much of the outside have you searched?”
“Charles is looking out front with Paul. Our security men left to follow the van.” Katherine is talking robotically, like she’s completely shut down.
“Katherine.” Garret shakes her again to make her pay attention. “Jade and I will be out back searching the woods. If you find out anything, call my cell. And you need to call my dad. I’m not calling him for you. You did this, and you need to tell him yourself.”
“He’s staying in New York tonight. We had a fight and he left. I can’t tell him about this. He’ll—”
Garret grabs her phone and shoves it in her face. “His daughter is missing! You’re fucking calling him! Right now!”
She takes the phone from him and swipes her fingers across the screen.
“Come on, Jade.” Garret takes off down the back hallway. He stops at a door that opens to a large closet full of brooms, mops, and other cleaning supplies. He pulls out two large flashlights, testing them quick to make sure they work, and hands me one.
As we walk back down the hall, we hear loud voices echoing in the foyer. Garret holds me back and we wait off to the side. Mr. Kensington is home and in an all-out screaming match with his wife. I guess he decided not to stay in New York after all.
“What the hell were you doing that was so important you couldn’t watch her?” Mr. Kensington stands in front of Katherine, towering over her tiny frame.
She quickly tries to explain. “I was on the phone, but I went to check on her as soon as I hung up.”
“On the phone with who?” he demands.
She looks away. “Just a friend. Nobody you know.”
He grabs her cell phone from her hand and swipes through it. “Unknown caller?” He swipes the phone again. “This unknown caller seems to call a lot, especially late at night.” He glares at her. “Who is it, Katherine?”
“Stop it! Give me the phone!” She reaches for it, but he keeps it high above her head.
He walks away, tapping on the phone. I’m guessing he’s calling this unknown person. He holds the phone to his ear and listens, then turns toward Katherine again, his face bright red like he’s about to explode. “No, Stephen! It’s not your sweetheart! It’s not Katherine! It’s your fucking boss! And you’re fired!”
Mr. Kensington slams the phone on the floor, then takes his own phone from his pocket. Garret races up to his dad. “Who are you calling?”
“Garret, what are you doing here?”
“Katherine called me to help look for Lilly. I’m going out back to search the woods with Jade.”
Mr. Kensington glances at me, then back at his phone. “I doubt she’d be out there, but go ahead and look. I need to make some calls and get my people working on this.”
His people? What people? Their security guys? Somehow I think he means other people. People I shouldn’t know about.
Katherine has returned to her comatose state, frozen in place in the middle of the foyer, her phone shattered on the shiny, white tile floor.
Garret and I race outside past the pool to the edge of the woods. “I’ll go right and you take the left,” he says. “If you get lost or need me for anything, just call my cell.”
