“Savannah?” I call out. No one seems to be around, and no one comes out of the house. Tripp and Heston both open doors on opposite sides of her car, checking the inside. They both turn and shake their heads in my direction signaling that she’s not in there, so I take off toward the house.
At first, nothing looks out of place. But I run toward the front door anyway. When my hand meets the doorknob, it’s unlocked and turns easily.
“Savannah?” I call out as I step inside the house.
It’s all one open space with no rooms or extra spaces to search through. It only takes me a minute to check the shower, the bed, and the kitchen to realize that she’s not in here either. In a rush, I move around several chairs and plants. Logically, I know she can’t be hiding behind those things but my brain is not functioning properly and I don’t know what else to do.
“Check the backyard,” Tripp suggests. “I’ll go back and look out front again.”
“Okay, give me your phone real quick,” I say. “I’m putting the security app on it and logging in. If we get separated, you can use it if you need to.”
He tosses his phone and I catch it with one hand. He gives me the password and my fingers fly across the screen as I get it set up.
When Heston and I step into the backyard, I scan the space and head straight for the greenhouse.
I hear the door to the shed right next to the greenhouse creak open and Heston yelling Savannah’s name.
“Where are you,” I whisper desperately.
“Warren,” Heston yells from outside and I jog out hoping to see that he’s found her. But he’s holding up an empty shell and my heart sinks. As long as I’ve known her, Savannah has never mentioned owning a gun.
I walk up toward him and take it out of his hand, inspecting it closely.
“Standard nine mil,” Heston says. “Probably shot recently.”
“How do you know? It’s not hot,” I ask him.
“Still smells like gunpowder.”
I look around, searching for blood on the ground. I don’t see any, but there are definitely some sporadic tire tracks behind the greenhouse now that I’m looking closer at the ground.
“This is my worst fucking nightmare, man,” I groan while rubbing a hand over my face. Despite my effort to stay calm, I know that my voice is shaky right along with my hands. I let out another string of curses and anxiously shift my weight from one foot to the other.
“We’ll find her,” he reassures me. “Might want to call it in.”
I nod, knowing that it needs to be done but hating the idea because it means I have no idea where she is right now or if she’s hurt.
A sick and twisted part of me is relieved to know that Savannah wasn’t ignoring me or scared off. But right now, I’d let her keep pushing me away and avoiding me for another decade in exchange just to know that she was safe.
“Want me to do it?” Heston asks.
“I’ll do it. You call Gage and Blythe.”
He pulls his phone out of his pocket and turns to walk back to the house.
I start walking around, looking for anything else that could help me find Savannah while I hold my phone to my ear and wait for Justin to answer.
“Anything?” he says after the first ring.
“She’s gone.”
32
SAVANNAH
With my knees tucked close to my chest, I hold my hand out in front of me and squint. There’s a faint outline of my fingers and palm, but for the most part, I can barely see anything even if it’s close to my face. The basement is pitch black without even a beam of moonlight creeping in through the single window.
It feels like days have passed although I know it’s only been several hours. I’m not entirely sure what time it is, but I have a hunch that midnight has come and gone.
