My heart sank as my phone lit up again, Ceci’s contact taking up the screen. It went from zero to racing out of my chest. All other noise muted around me, and I was on my feet so fast, my head swam.
Three calls? Something wasn’t right.
Answering the phone I pressed it to my ear. I didn’t even have time to inhale a breath to speak before I heard her shaking, hitching,terrifiedvoice say, “Con?”
I was a shattered piece of glass in that moment. That voice the hammer that broke me.
I may have stumbled a step, the chair behind me shooting backward on its wheels as I bumped it. I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was what the fuck could have possibly happened to make Ceci, my fucking Ceci, sound likethat.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, already patting my pockets for my keys. They were across the room. I moved to grab them, but Clay slid them across the table to me, picking up on my urgency. “What happened?”
“He…” her voice shook. Swallowing so loud I could hear it on my side of the line, she cleared her throat and when she spoke again her voice was clearer but just barely. “Someone followed… Ran away… Come get me.Please?”
What?
Was someone following her? Was she hiding? What the fuck was happening?
“Stay right there, I’m coming to you right now,” I said, already moving toward the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw both of my brothers rise as if they were going to follow me. I held a staying hand out to them. I could call them if I needed them, but until then I’d go to her myself. They lowered back to their seats slowly, and I gave a nod of acknowledgment before turning toward the door. Back with Ceci I said, “Don’t fight, don’t move, don’t say anything. Stay put, do you understand me?”
“Con,” she whimpered and my heart continued to break. "I can’t get up.”
I started to run.
* * *
I really,reallywanted to stop seeing my—Ceci’s life flash before my eyes. But she just kept getting into these situations, and sadly I couldn’t see this being the last time.
When I arrived at the dropped pin, I vaguely registered the fact that we were in upper seaside, near the beach and way out of the range of any usual crime hotspots. I hardly even registered that the quaint little shop that read ‘Mizotti Wine Co’had to be Ceci’s job. The only thing I noticed when I arrived was her car blaring bloody murder as the alarm went off.
Shit. Did she get mugged or something? Did someone try to snatch her? They could probably fit her little ass in one burlap sack if they really wanted to. I had to find her.
Sheer panic had only ever been an expression to me before that moment. When my sister was sold off into marriage and again when she was hospitalized, the bad parts had already happened. What’s done had already been done, I only had to deal with the consequences. Now, as I kneeled beside her car feeling around for the extra key box, I couldn’t help the gut wrenching anxiety that was threatening to overhaul my senses. Ceci wascurrentlyin trouble. And I needed to find her to get her out of it.
Putting in the combination, the key box unlatched and deposited an extra fob to the ground. I scooped it up and popped the locks three times to stop the alarm, but nothing happened.She must have set it off from her phone then.
Backtracking, I went back to the front of the store and looked around. Nothing was there. No lights were on, no sign of Ceci in sight.
Fuck.
Scrubbing my face I speared my eyes in every direction where they eventually caught the glare of the streetlamp on something shiny in the distance. Far from the front of the store but visible as it glimmered in the light.
In my hand, I recognized the object to be Ceci’s keys by the little blue‘C’that hung on a string.
Fuck.
I opened the location pin again, frantically trying to match the digital indicator to my location. My head whipped back and forth, my body spinning one way and then the other as I tried to scan every possible surface for her. How hard was it to find a little fire headed woman on an empty goddamn street anyway? Apparently very hard, because no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t spot her.
Me:Are you safe to call me?
C:Just come get me.
Me:I’m trying to find you but I can’t. I’m close. I have your keys.
C:In the cellar.
Cellar. Cellar. Where is a damn cellar?
My feet were moving before I consciously registered where I was running to. Not until I pulled to a stop in front of the little steel cellar doors, yanking on them to try to get in. They didn’t move.
