Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
April 2028
“KAI JAMES VILLA, WHERE the fuck are you?” I walk through the door of our Haven home at seven o’clock on the dot the next morning. I wanted to be here sooner, but I had to pick Elena up and take her to Michaela’s condo so her grandfather, Jimmy, could get her this morning. He and Tessa are taking her down to Florida for the week, which gives me time to figure out what’s going on before I have to explain anything to her.
I struggled to hide my feelings from my daughter before I dropped her off at Michaela’s, but it helped that Elena was exhausted from a long day at the zoo and then the park. I don’t think she noticed something was wrong. At least, I hope not. When we walked into Michaela’s, she crashed on the couch, but Michaela had just gotten off the phone with Finn and was doing her best not to freak out. The severity of the situation was starting to hit everyone. One of our own was missing and no one knew where he was. Before I left, Michaela told me she had plans to join me in Haven as soon as Jimmy arrived to get Elena.
Walking through the mudroom into the kitchen, I find all the guys stationed at various places, a mixture of emotions playing across their faces—some pity, some fear, others sadness…and some a mix of all three. They look like hell, like they haven’t slept in days.
Good.
“Does anyone want to tell me what is going on?”
“Nina—”
Alex cuts him off. “We don’t know.”
My glare doesn’t waver as it moves from my brother to my brother-in-law. Alex is the reason they’re all here in the first place. This week-long trip was for his bachelor party.
“You don’t know?” Each word is perfectly enunciated.
Josh steps forward, hand extended like he’s going to offer a comforting hand, but I shrug him off. I don’t want their comfort. I want to know what is going on. I want facts.
“How long has he been gone? Where did he go? Did he leave a note? Someone doesn’t just disappear! ”
Finn takes hold of my hands and bends to be eye level with me. “Nina, we understand, and we’ve spent the past two days looking for him. But we can’t—”
“ Due giorni? ” I yell. Two days? “Two fucking days! So, today makes it what…Three? You idioti waited tre fottuti giorni to tell me my husband is missing?”
This is unbelievable. Why would they wait three days to say something? What the fuck is wrong with them?
The silence afterward is maddening. The eight of them look at one another before my brother finally speaks up.
“I thought we would find him,” Kai says. “I thought…Well, I just…I thought he went for a run or something and would be back. But…”
The weight of his unspoken words begins to settle on my heart. He doesn’t have to finish the statement. I already know what comes next.
This isn’t some cruel joke. Nick isn’t going to pop out and yell Gotcha! at any moment because he is… missing .
A heaviness gets lodged in my throat and the pounding of my heart drowns out any other sound. The air feels extremely hot, or maybe it’s me? I claw at my burning skin as a weight crushes down on my chest. I have to get out of here. I can’t…be here anymore. Turning on my heel, I make a beeline for my bedroom on the other side of the house.
Climbing the stairs of the turret, I ignore Kai’s pleas. As soon as the door closes, I’m met with incredible stillness compared to the hurricane inside me. Closing my eyes, I let my head fall back against the door, my hand keeping a death grip on the knob. The coolness of the metal feels good against the burn beneath my skin, but it’s not enough.
Moving through the sitting room into the bedroom, I open the balcony door and step outside as a cool breeze blows, and the beginnings of a snow flurry touch my skin. When my hands grasp the metal railing, I force myself to take a few slow, centering breaths. The burn settles into a simmer and the weight on my chest lifts enough that I can take a full breath.
Daylight has begun to rise behind the snow-covered peak in front of me. The house we bought after we sold the old family house in Haven sits further out in the wilderness, offering lush greenery and mountain views from every room. Our bedroom in particular has an unobstructed view of Mount Nebo, one of the trails Nick and I like to hike together. Taking one final deep breath, I glance back at Nebo and walk inside.
Everything inside appears to be in place. The bed is made, including the dark gray blanket draped across the foot of the bed that Nick always forgets to replace. Three receipts are stacked on top of each other on the dresser along with a few dollar bills, next to his belt coiled in a tight circle. Nothing stands out in the bathroom as unusual. A towel hangs on the hook next to the glass-walled shower and the vanity is clean and tidy with his everyday items resting in their typical order of usage. His clothes hang in the closet in the exact order they should be—color-coordinated with the shirt front facing to the left. My fingers graze the fabrics as I look around the rest of the closet to see if anything seems out of place. The only thing noticeable is the pair of shoes missing from the far right of the line they are laid out in—the pair he likes to wear when we go hiking.
“This is how we found it,” Kai says when I come out of the closet. How long has he been here? I didn’t even hear him come in. “Nina, I—”
“Kai, I love you, but right now…you are the last person I want to see.”
My brother shoves a hand through his already disheveled hair. I’m so angry with him, but part of me feels bad for being so mad. I can tell he hasn’t been getting much sleep or putting much effort into his appearance. Kai has never been one to go a day—even staying at home—without styling his hair and making sure his clothes are pressed.
He sighs. “I know you’re mad. You have every right to be, but you have to believe me, Nin. I am so sorry, I—I didn’t think he was missing. I never…Nina I—I didn’t know what to do.”
“You should’ve called me!” My anger deflates slightly when he looks up with wet eyes. I cross my arms over my chest. Taking a deep breath, I rub my face and try to piece together what led to this. I should ask him for the whole story without the rest of them around. I’ll get a better answer without the constant interruptions. “Kai, what happened?”
Kai sits on the edge of the bed, letting his hands fall between his knees. “We were supposed to go out, but Nick…He didn’t want to. He said he wasn’t feeling up to it. Feeling under the weather. Frankly, he seemed off the whole time we’ve been here. He tried to hide it, but I could tell. We all could. He was trying to get through this weekend for Alex and—”
“And you didn’t think to tell me this before?”
Kai sighs. “I was trying to be respectful of the no-phone thing.”
I roll my eyes. Stupid fucking request.
“Anyway, Nick insisted we go without him. Was pretty adamant about it. Said he didn’t want to put a damper on things. So, we went without him…Didn’t get home until late that night because we went to Petra.”
Petra Creek is a ski resort about an hour and a half north with some of the better skiing slopes that would still have snow this time of year.
Kai continues, pushing a hand through his brown hair. “I didn’t see him when we got home, and I assumed he was in bed. Then Sunday came and we all slept in. When he wasn’t here for breakfast, I assumed he was up and out for a run. But when he wasn’t back by lunch, I checked on him, and…he wasn’t here.” He looks up at me, but I don’t flinch, waiting for him to finish. “We started looking for him, everywhere, but no one has seen him. No one. He didn’t leave a note, he didn’t send a text, he didn’t do anything…He was just gone.”
My gaze narrows. “Someone doesn’t just disappear, Kai.”
“I know that.”
“Why wouldn’t you call me? My husband goes missing and you decide to keep it to yourself for three days? Questa è una stronzata!”
“I know it’s bullshit , Nina. I know. But I thought we would find him. I thought he would show up. I didn’t…I didn’t think it was going to turn into this. I thought it would be something we’d all get to laugh about and never have to tell you. But yesterday it became pretty damn obvious that wasn’t the case.”
“Did you even go to the police?” I don’t know why I ask, I’m sure I already know the answer. “La polizia—”
“We did.” A different voice answers. Josh, Alex, and Finn stand at the end of the hallway connecting our bedroom and sitting room. Josh continues, “Alex and I went Monday morning.”
“You sent them ?” I ask my brother, and he shrugs. Am I dealing with idiots? Kai should know better than to let them go alone. “Why in the hell wouldn’t you go? Beau would’ve known—”
“He’s my brother, Nina!” Alex pipes up. “I wanted to be there.”
“Where are the police now?” I repeat the question when they don’t give me an answer.
“The deputy we spoke to said Nick has a right to go off if he wants,” Josh says.
"Mi scusi?" I scoff. “I’m sorry. Did you say the police told you my husband can ‘go off’ if he wants to?”
“He’s an adult,” Alex says. “He has the right to disappear without telling anyone.”
"Ha il diritto di scomparire?" I repeat my brother-in-law’s words. “He has the right to leave his wife and his child?”
“There weren’t any signs of foul play, Nina,” Kai says. “Nothing indicates that something happened or went wrong. The only thing missing is Dad’s old Jeep, the one Nick fixed up.”
The 1985 Jeep C-7 Laredo Wrangler. Cream-colored with a dark brown fabric top. It was my dad’s favorite car, but my mother was adamant he needed something more professional and reliable. Daddy tucked it away in the garage at the Haven house after that. Eventually, it broke down, but he couldn’t bear the thought of parting with it, so the old car sat in the garage for years until Nick got his hands on it. It’s been running like a champ ever since. Daddy would be happy to know someone is getting some use out of it.
“I cannot believe this,” I huff, pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, and look up at the ceiling. How could they let it get this far? How could they go so long without telling me? Had they come to me earlier, we probably could’ve found him by now. The weight begins to build in my chest again, mounting with an ever- increasing pressure that feels like it’s going to implode at any moment. “He didn’t…He wouldn’t. I can’t—”
“Nina, breathe.” My brother reaches for me, but I push him away.
“Don’t. Don’t fucking touch me.”
With a shaky breath, I order them all out of the room. They try to argue, but I don’t have time for arguments. When they’re gone, I barricade myself in the bathroom, falling back against the door and finally letting the tears fall.
Nick is gone.
I’m in Haven because my husband is missing. He’s been missing for at least three days, maybe four. No one seems to know for sure.
The only thing that keeps coming to mind is how we left things the last time we saw each other. We were too busy fighting and now I can’t remember if we told each other we loved each other.
Did we? I don’t know.
The whole fight was stupid, a simple misunderstanding that I now have answers to. The problem wasn’t just the flowers though, it was a culmination of all the other small things that led up to him finding the card and the flowers. The pot had finally boiled over and now I may never get the chance to make it up to him…
“Nina, what a surprise!” As I walk into the sheriff’s station, the older woman at the front desk lights up. On a normal day, I would stand and chat with Flo for a few minutes, but not today. I can’t even bring myself to give her much of a smile as I walk up to the desk.
“Where is Beau?”
“Well, he’s in a…meetin’ right now. But I’m sure he’ll—”
I don’t wait for her to finish, marching past the front desk straight to the office door labeled Sheriff Beau Turner. Whatever meeting he’s in is going to have to wait. Flo calls after me, but I don’t hesitate to open the door without knocking. A shriek sounds from behind the desk, and a pair of wide green eyes look around the bare-backed blonde to meet my gaze.
“I am so glad this is what my tax dollars go to.”
“Nina! What the hell?” Beau scrambles to cover himself and the girl does the same, jumping away from him. She collects her belongings, tripping over her feet and running out of the office. This isn’t the first time I’ve caught him in a compromising position, but it will be the last if he doesn’t get his ass in gear and do something to find my husband. “You can’t just—”
“Honestly, Beau, now is not the time for your shit.”
Beau Turner is the current sheriff of Spruce County, headquartered right here in our town of Haven, Colorado. He is the youngest sheriff elected to office in the jurisdiction’s history. While Beau has proved himself to be a great leader in the community, he wouldn’t have been elected three years ago without our support—something he, luckily, hasn’t forgotten. It’s nothing I like to hold over his head, but in this instance, I’m going to do just that.
Beau shuts the door and finishes buttoning his shirt, straightening it out, and rolling up the sleeves. He adjusts the belt buckle and briefly stretches his knees before falling into his chair behind the desk. He motions for me to do the same, but I continue to stand in the middle of the room.
“Are you ready or do you need a few more minutes?” I ask, brow raised.
“What can I do for you, Mrs. Villa?”
“Cut the shit, Beau. You have a missing person’s case you’re four days behind on.”
“Excuse me?” It’s his turn to raise a brow. “And tell me, who is missing?”
“My husband.”
I can visibly see his heart stop and start back up again. The color drains from his face and his green eyes look like they might bulge from his head. His mouth opens and closes.
“Two days ago, my brother-in-law and his cousin came in to file a missing person report. However, it would seem one of your deputies told them the person probably needed some time…some space. Not to worry too much, because they’d come back when they’re ready.”
Beau scrubs his hands down his face with a heavy sigh. “Nick is—”
“Missing. Has been since either Saturday or Sunday, the guys aren’t completely sure.”
“Nina—”
“While you’ve been too busy screwing little whores in the office, he has been god knows where for days .”
Beau straightens in his chair. “And why are you telling me this now?”
“Because I had no idea! Because not a single one of them picked up the damn phone until last night to tell me. They’ve been off on their own trying to find him without any help from you guys—the ones who can do something about it.”
Beau curses under his breath.
“You want my advice?” I ask, waiting until I have his full attention again. “Find my husband or find a new job, Sheriff.”