Maybe she was three glasses deep in the limoncello. Maybe she wanted the inside scoop about my night with Cade. Maybe she was worried I hadn’t come home to The Sea Witch and?—
“Imogen!” Her voice cracked over the line, a live current of raw emotion, and I knew instantly that her reasons for calling were anything but casual. “Please, tell me you’ve seen Rory.”
Rory?
“Not since The Gallows this afternoon,” I told her. “Why? What’s going on?”
“He didn’t come home tonight!”
I sucked in a breath. “What?”
“He was with Declan and some friends, trick-or-treating. They got separated somehow… By the time Declan realized...” A note of hysteria crept into her voice. “God, Imogen, I’m in a state of panic. I’ve been looking for him all over, first on foot, now in the car. I’ve been driving the streets for the past two hours, calling everyone I can think of…”
“What about the adults who were watching the group? I thought you said some of Declan’s friends’ mothers were going to be with them?”
“They were supposed to be! But they were walking. They couldn’t keep up, so they let the boys go ahead by themselves on their bikes.” Her laugh was so bitter, I flinched. “Ineverwould’ve let Rory and Declan go with that group if I’d known! God, I should’ve been there myself! If I hadn’t been working?—”
“Gigi, you can’t beat yourself up.”
“Of course I can! Who else am I supposed to blame?Rory is lost!There’s no sign of him anywhere and I— I— I?—”
“Gigi, take a breath. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to find him.” As I said this, I was racing out of the kitchen into Cade’s bedroom. I located my jeans in a tangle on the floor and hauled them up my legs with shaky hands. “Have you called the police?”
“Yes, two hours ago! They say they’re out looking, but...” The devastation in her words was hard to stomach. She sounded close to defeated. “They want me to come into the station with Declan. But I have to keep looking! I can’t stop. Not when he’s out there somewhere scared and alone and?—”
“Gigi, the police are going to find him.” I yanked my blouse over my head. “Cade is going to find him. But they can’t help you unless you cooperate with them.”
She was silent, except the muffled sound of her sobs. I could hear her directional blinking in the background as she made a turn.
“Georgia.”
“What if Donny has him?” The words came out in a fractured whisper. As though she was afraid to say them out loud. “He said it over and over last night — he wanted the boys for Halloween. I didn’t let him have them and now— Now, he’s taken my boy.”
Shit.
Shit, shit,shit.
“We don’t know that, Georgia,” I said, though my own voice sounded not the least bit assuring. “It’s possible he’s just gotten lost. It’s dark out. He might be close by but not sure how to get home.”
Gigi wasn’t listening to me. She had a one-track mind and that track led straight to her soon-to-be-ex-husband.
“This is Donny’s revenge,” she said darkly. “He’s getting back at me. Punishing me.”
“We don’t know that,” I repeated. “And last I heard, Donny was in lockup.”
“His idiot brothers probably bailed him out already!” Her voice broke with hysteria. “I should go to his house. Or The Banshee?—”
“No! Don’t do that,” I said quickly. The more I learned of the O’Banion-owned watering hole, the less I wanted to step foot in the place. If Gigi went off half-cocked, stormed in there demanding answers and tossing accusations…
Let’s just say, I doubted Donny — or any of his brothers — would be very receptive.
“But if Rory is there?—”
“Please, Gigi. Listen to me.” I strove for an even tone. “If Donny really does have Rory, you going in there alone would be giving him exactly what he wants.”
She was quiet, contemplating this.
“Where is Declan now?” I asked.