We park outside the Barlows’ house and both stare at the front door.

I wonder what’s going on inside. It’s only just past nine thirty. I desperately want Chloe to be in there, but I know she’s not. I can feel it.

Sucking in a breath, I pop the door open and follow Rahn up the path.

Just before she knocks, I duck out of sight, pressing my back against the house.

“What are you doing?” she whispers.

“The second they see me, it’s going to blow up. You might as well get a few words in before that happens.”

She winces and then nearly jumps out of her skin when the door opens.

Rahn doesn’t have a chance to say hello before Max is asking, “Are you okay?”

“Chloe’s not home, is she?” Rahn’s voice is so hopeful.

My chest constricts when Max tells me what I already know.

“I thought she was staying with you.”

“Well, she was supposed to.” Rahn winces.

There’s a painful pause and then comes the question we’ve been dreading. “What’s going on?”

“I was her cover. So she could go on a date.” Rahn spits the words out fast.

“What date? Does Chloe have a boyfriend I don’t know about?”

Rahn’s skin pales like it did when I first saw her this morning.

I close my eyes and prep myself for the big reveal.

“Rahn.” Max’s voice is low. “What’s going on?”

“She didn’t come home last night.” Rahn wrings her hands. “I waited up for a really long time but then just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was expecting her to sneak in, but when I woke up this morning she was gone.”

“Are you telling me she spent the entire night with some guy?”

“No,” I croak.

Max’s head appears out the door, her eyes bulging when she sees me standing there.

“I was supposed to meet her last night.” My face bunches as guilt and anguish spread through me like fatal viruses. “But I couldn’t make it, and now she’s disappeared.” I swallow and look to the ground. “She had some stuff she wanted to tell me. We needed to talk and I was supposed to be there, but…” My air supply is cut off as my imagination annihilates me with possibilities. “I’ve got to find her. Please tell me she’s in her room, because if she’s not, I think something bad has happened to her.”

Max dashes away from the front door without a word. The expression on her face tells me she believes us, and it’s the longest minute of my life as I wait for her to come back.

Rahn sniffs and I glance up to see a tear trickling down the side of her face.

“Here.” I pull the tissue pack from my pocket and hold it out. “It’s gonna be okay,” I rasp, but it’s a lame attempt at comfort.

I don’t know if it’s going to be okay.

I’m pretty sure I won’t survive if it’s not.

A noise at the door makes me glance up and two Barlow sisters are now staring at me. Maddie’s the one on the right; I can tell by the fiery look in her eyes.

“Where’s my sister?”

“I just told you, Mads, they don’t know,” Max counters quietly.

“Tell me every detail.” Her voice is icy as she looks between Rahn and me. “What time did she leave? Where did she go? What was the plan?”

With a heavy sigh, I tell her everything I know. Rahn jumps in with a few details and ten minutes later, everyone’s up to speed.

“What’s going on out here?” Mrs. Barlow appears behind her daughters, smiling at Rahn and then giving me a quizzical look. “And who are you?”

Max catches my eye and kind of winces before looking to Maddie.

The older twin stares at me for a moment, then turns to her mother and tells the truth. “Mom, this is Vincent, Chloe’s boyfriend.”

Mrs. Barlow’s blonde eyebrows disappear beneath her bangs. “Excuse me?”

I try for a smile, but it’s kind of impossible to muster one right now.

We don’t exactly have time for pleasantries, so I cut to the chase and destroy the woman’s morning.

“Mrs. Barlow, if your husband’s not home, you need to call him right now.” I pull in a breath. “I was supposed to meet Chloe last night and I couldn’t make it. And now she’s missing.”

“Missing?” Mrs. Barlow’s face flickers with a disbelieving frown. “She was staying the night with you, Rahn.” The woman points at Chloe’s friend, realization creeping in as Rahn sucks in a watery breath and then starts bawling.

“I don’t know where she is!” she wails between sobs.

I rest my hand on her back and silently ask if I can usher her inside. Max reads my expression and moves aside.

Soon we’re piled into the living room. Rahn is slumped on the couch, still crying, while Max awkwardly tries to comfort her. Maddie is pacing from the wall to the archway, her glare landing on me every time she freaking turns around.

“I don’t know!” Mrs. Barlow’s voice pitches. “Just get home, Reece. Get home right now!”

Something slams onto the dining room table. I assume it’s the phone.

Maddie rushes out of the living room to talk to her mom while I dig my hands into my pockets and lean against the wall.

I need to think.

I need to process what the hell is going on so that when Chief Barlow walks through the door set on murdering me, I’ll have some kind of way to defend myself. He can kill me later, after we’ve found Chloe.

* * *

It takes less than ten minutes for my executioner to arrive. The door bursts open and he storms into the house, Holden frickin’ Carter in his wake.

Maddie called him to let the guy know they couldn’t make the game and what do you know, Prince Charming ditched his teammates to come and support his girlfriend.

“Are you okay?” He pulls her into a hug the second she’s within range, cupping the back of her head and glaring at me over her shoulder.

I roll my eyes and look away from him, only to be confronted by Chief Barlow. He’s standing in the archway, his arms crossed and a murderous look distorting his features.

“Where’s my daughter?” His voice is stretched thin, trembling slightly with what I can only assume is the desperate kind of rage I’m feeling.

I swallow and force my gaze to his. “I don’t know, that’s why I’m here.”

He points a quivering finger at me. “You better start talking, and I want every single detail. Nothing is unimportant, do you understand me?”

“Yes.” I nod and pull in a breath. “Where do you want me to start?”

“Explain why my daughter was sneaking out to see you.” His eyes dart to Rahn, who cringes and curls in on herself.

I clear my throat to catch his attention. Honesty is the only card I have to play so I go for it. “We’ve been secretly dating for a while and uh, we don’t get much time to see each other, so Chloe told you that she was staying with Rahn as a cover. I’d arranged to pick her up from the bus stop at the end of Rahn’s street. I was going to take her to a quiet spot in Cullington…near that pond, just so we could talk. She said she had so much to tell me and I needed to catch her up on…” I glance to the floor. “On some stuff.”

Chief Barlow starts breathing like a bull ready to charge. Storming the space between us, he towers over me. I shuffle back just an inch but he grabs my collar and hauls me back.

“Why didn’t you meet her?”

I resist the urge to fight him off me, although it’s pretty damn hard. My brain’s kicking into survival mode and I’m going to throw a punch soon if he doesn’t let me go.

“I couldn’t make it because my uncle was being an asshole,” I rush out. “I tried to get away, but they…” I’m loath to say it, so I settle for “They locked me in my room.”

He lets me go and points at my face. “Is that how you got those bruises?”

I start to nod, but then shake my head.

“I got them this morning fighting with my cousin. He tried to threaten Chloe last night and I was scared he wasn’t kidding. So I went after him and I wasn’t going to let up until he told me the truth.”

He lets me go, his expression telling me that he’s struggling to figure me out. I’m challenging all his preconceived ideas about me and all he can do is rasp, “And? What did he say?”

My jaw is shaking so I slam my teeth together and grit out, “He hasn’t seen her.”

Chief Barlow scrubs a hand down his face and mumbles a soft curse. Yanking out his phone, he makes a quick call.

“Yeah, Mike. Chloe’s missing … Since last night.” He looks to Rahn.

She jumps under his gaze and squeaks, “She left my house just before eight.”

“Eight o’clock … I don’t know, but she was last seen walking to the bus stop on the corner of Stanton and Emery. Can you and Hayley start canvassing the area for me? … Yeah, I know, forty-eight hours, but hopefully we can find her before we have to call them … Yeah … Yeah … Just keep me posted, okay?” The officer must say one more thing because Chief Barlow nods, then hangs up.

Glancing down at his wife, he gives her a weak smile and rubs her shoulder. “It’s okay, Krisi, we’re going to find her.”

The woman’s face bunches as she fights her tears. “What are the police doing?”

“They’re going to go door-to-door and ask if anyone’s seen Chloe.”

“Do they need a photo? Text them a photo.” Mrs. Barlow covers her mouth with shaky fingers as her husband quickly sends a photo from his phone to his officers.

“Is there anything else I should know?” He looks up from his phone and hits me with a molten glare.

Shit, he wants to kill me with his bare hands.

I rake my fingers through my hair.

“He asked you a question!” Holden snaps, his gaze telling me the same thing.

I glare at the guy, used to the look of disdain he’s throwing me. I’m not afraid of that arrogant punk.

He stands a little straighter and I start picturing how I’ll take him down before I have to ready my fists for Chloe’s dad.

Curling my fingers, I breathe through my nose, but am distracted by Max’s soft voice behind me.

“If you guys are thinking about fighting, don’t be dickheads. Chloe needs us to focus right now, so Vincent, if there’s anything else you want to tell us, rest assured you can say it without getting your ass kicked. Right, Dad?”

I spin to see her silent plea. She’s looking at her father, her blue eyes bright with her appeal.

“Of course,” Chief Barlow croaks. “Chloe’s all that matters right now. It’s time to speak up, son.”

I whip around to face him, licking the edge of my mouth before admitting, “We’ve been looking into my brother’s conviction. Chloe’s dead set on proving him innocent and I’m really scared that maybe she’s followed some kind of lead. I told her to leave it alone, I swear, but she’s so passionate about injustice!”

Maddie’s lips twitch, her eyes glassing over. “She really is, and she’s stubborn too. Especially when she believes in something.”

My insides fold.

Shit.

She believed in me…and I let her down.

I bend forward, resting my hands on my knees as the thought tries to annihilate me.

“Maddie, get me Chloe’s computer.” Chief Barlow snaps his fingers.

“What?” She frowns.

“Do it, Madelyn!”

“Reece, talk to me.” Mrs. Barlow grabs his wrist and squeezes.

“The other night Chloe was trying to convince me to reopen Nick Mancini’s case again. She was researching on her computer.”

Maddie runs back into the room with Chloe’s laptop and we all follow Chief Barlow into the dining room.

Crowding around him, we strain to see over his shoulders as he opens the laptop and checks the history.

I read as fast as I can, noting the pages on my brother, then gasping when I spot an article about the new club in Brazenwood.

“There!” I point at it. “That’s that new club in Brazenwood.”

Chief Barlow’s skin turns this sick ashen color. “But I paid him. We were set. We… He said he’d leave my family alone.”

Chloe’s father turns dark with rage, but he’s distracted by the phone in his pocket. “Yeah, Mike, talk to me … Reliable? … And you showed her Chloe’s picture? … Okay, okay, great. Get in touch with the bus company, see if you can track down the driver and find out where Chloe got off … Yeah. Thanks … Call me back.”

“What’d he say?” Mrs. Barlow grips her husband’s arm while everyone stares at him expectantly.

“A lady saw Chloe getting on the bus at 9:05 last night.”

Shit, she waited over an hour for me.

“It was bound for Cullington.”

“Cullington?” Maddie frowns. “Why would she go there?”

“She may not have. Mike’s going to find out where she got off the bus and we’ll go from there.”

“So we just have to wait?” Mrs. Barlow paces away from the table, pissed off and desperate. I know how she feels.

I can’t just stand here doing nothing while someone else chases down that bus lead.

“Well, at least she didn’t jump on a bus to Brazenwood,” Max mutters.

Brazenwood.

Grabbing Chloe’s laptop, I turn it to face me and bend down to get a better look at the images. Three people are standing outside the club, two men and a short woman.

She catches my eye for some reason. She’s short, Latina…really beautiful.

“Shit,” I whisper. “Is that her?”

“What?” Holden glares down at me.

“The woman.” I point at the photo. “Chloe went and saw Todd McCrae’s girlfriend, and the lady said a female detective came and took Todd’s photos and notes. She said it was evidence for the case. But Armitage has never had a short Latina female detective, right? And—”

“You let her interview some woman without me?” Chief Barlow’s anger snaps back to attention.

“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t even know she was going there. She told me about it afterward.”

“When?” He’s back in my space again, no doubt ready to grab my shirt and slam me against the wall.

I force myself not to cower away. “She went on the last day of Spring Break, okay? She told me about it the next day and I told her to stop, but she wouldn’t let it go.”

“So this is Chloe’s fault? You’re blaming my daughter?”

“No! I—”

“That’s Luisa Garcia,” Max interrupts us. “Cairo knows her. Her husband and brother own the club we auditioned in.”

Chief Barlow spins to face her. “But Chloe didn’t head to Brazenwood.”

“I’m calling Cairo.” Max slips out of the room, the phone already to her ear.

Her dad scowls at her back before training his dark gaze on me.

“Did Chloe find out anything else about this woman?”

“I’m not sure, but if she’s researching this woman then maybe Chloe thinks it’s the lady who took the stuff from McCrae’s house, which means she’s not a detective at all. She pretended to be so she could get whatever information Todd McCrae had. I’m telling you, something is off with that guy’s murder. My brother’s lawyer convinced him not to appeal, the cop who conducted the investigation was scared into hiding and now this chick shows up stealing evidence…covering up the truth. I don’t know what the hell Todd McCrae was into, but they killed him and then they set my brother up.”

My voice rings with conviction as I clump all the pieces together.

“The investigating cop was scared into silence?” Chief Barlow frowns at me.

I close my eyes and squeeze the back of my neck, readying myself for another attack.

“We found him and went to see him over Spring Break. He told us to stay away from it. That it was too big.”

“What was his name?”

“Scott Tannon.”

“The former police chief?” Chief Barlow’s face flickers with confusion. “He left because he was sick with cancer.”

“No. He left because they threatened his family. He now lives in the middle of nowhere with two scary-ass dogs and a 12-gauge shotgun.”

“Oh my God.” Mrs. Barlow flops into a dining chair, her blue eyes glassy with horror.

“You took my daughter where?” Chief Barlow bellows.

Nausea sweeps through me while guilt has another go at my heart.

“I should have tried harder!” My voice splinters. “I even broke up with her, hoping she’d leave it alone, but she just wouldn’t…and I couldn’t…” I shake my head, emotion clogging my throat.

Chloe’s dad goes still, his eyebrows flickering as he takes in what I’m saying.

“I love your daughter. I know you probably hate that I do. And you have every right to blame me. I come from a shitty family and Chloe deserves better than me. I’m sorry I didn’t have the strength to stay away from her.”

Shit, am I crying?

Swiping at my eyes, I back away from the table and turn around so no one can see me.

An awkward silence descends. I don’t understand why they’re not yelling and throwing punches right now. They can. I won’t even fight back.

I deserve to get pummeled. I let Chloe down last night. I should have been there.

I’m so cut up and broken right now.

But I can’t keep failing her.

I have to find her.

Sniffing at my stupid-ass tears, I smash my teeth together and bite down so hard it hurts.

“Her husband owns a club in Cullington too.” Max’s voice makes me spin. “Club Matrix.” She’s talking to her dad. “Maddie, Holden, and I have been there with Cairo. Velocity plays there sometimes.”

Her dad bulges his eyes, then drops his head like if he has to hear one more exposed secret he’s going to combust. Scratching the back of his neck, he lets out a heavy sigh and turns to his wife.

“I’m gonna go check it out. I’ll call the Cullington PD on my way there, see if they can’t help me track her down.”

“Okay.” She crosses her arms, tears brimming on her lashes.

Chief Barlow cups her cheek. “It’s going to be all right. I won’t stop looking until I find her.”

“I know.”

He kisses her forehead. “I need you to stay here, in case she comes back.”

The doorbell rings.

Max bolts away to answer it and I soon hear Cairo’s voice, asking if she’s okay. Her reply is muffled and I assume he’s hugging her the way I want to hug Chloe.

Chief Barlow tenses, letting out a soft huff as he leaves to grab his stuff. Cairo and Max walk into the room holding hands. Cairo gives me a pained smile. Max must have given him a quick update on the phone. I look to the floor, lightly kicking the table leg until I hear Chloe’s dad thumping down the hall.

I move into his line of sight. “I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re all staying here.” He ignores my shaking head and points at Rahn. “Except you. I want you to head home in case she returns to your place. Is your phone charged?”

“Yes, sir.” She bobs on her toes.

“Then get going.” He tips his head at the door before looking at the rest of us. “Keep me posted.”

“Yeah right, Dad. Like we’re going to sit here and wait,” Maddie argues.

“Madelyn, this is my job now.”

“And she is my sister and I’m not going to sit here and wait for news. Let us at least walk the streets asking if people have seen her. I have to do something!”

Chief Barlow’s jaw clenches. He’s obviously straining for calm. “The cops in Cullington will help me.”

“As will we.” Maddie doesn’t give him another chance to argue, storming for the door with Holden in tow.

“Madelyn!” Chief Barlow dashes after her while his wife plunks back into her chair again.

“Come on, Vincent, we’ll give you a ride.” Max tips her head at the door while Cairo cringes at her mother and then gives me an awkward look before heading out the door.

“Maxine!” Her mother’s call is in vain and she knows it. She doesn’t even rise from her chair.

As I walk out the door, Cairo pats my shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. We’re going to find her, okay? It’s going to be all right.”

I wish I could believe him.

I trail Max down the path and slip into the back of the yellow Camry. I’m determined to hope for the best, to fight with every ounce of strength I have to bring Chloe home, but I can’t ignore the torturous questions in the back of my mind.

What if we don’t find her?

What if we do, but we’re too late?