Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
R onan
I was halfway down the steps of O’Malley’s when my phone buzzed in my pocket. The vibration cut through the mess in my head like a blade. I reached in and grabbed it, only to see Finn’s name flashing across the screen.
“Tell me you’ve got her,” I said as I answered, not bothering with pleasantries.
There was a pause on the other end. Finn’s usual cocky tone was gone, replaced with something more uncertain. “Boss… she’s not here.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, gripping the railing tighter than I meant to. “What do you mean, ‘she’s not here’?”
“I mean she’s not at her apartment,” Finn said, his voice clipped. “She’s not at Columbia, either. Bradan and I checked her classes, the library, even the café she likes—nothing. She’s not answering her phone, and none of her friends have seen her today.”
“Then look harder,” I snapped, my voice colder than I felt. “She didn’t just vanish, Finn.”
“We’ve been looking,” Finn shot back, clearly frustrated but not reckless enough to let it show too much. “She’s not in any of her usual spots. It’s like she’s off the grid.”
Off the grid.
The words hit me square in the chest. My sister—my little sister—was nowhere to be found, and for the first time in years, a sick knot of panic started to twist in my gut.
“Check again,” I ordered. “Check every fucking inch of that campus, every café, every gym. Talk to anyone who’s seen her in the last twenty-four hours. If you still don’t find her, I want eyes on every road leading out of the city.”
“Understood,” Finn replied, his voice taut with tension.
I clenched my jaw, shoving a hand through my hair as I paced back toward my car. Leena knew better than this. She knew what could happen if someone thought they could use her to get to me.
My mind raced through possibilities. Had the Benedettis already taken her? Had someone gotten to her before I could get her back under my protection? Or had Leena done something reckless—something only she would think was a good idea?
Either way, I needed to get ahead of this. I needed answers and I needed them now.
And suddenly, one possibility hit me like a punch to the ribs.
Kiera.
She might know where Leena had gone.
Or at the very least, she might know something I didn’t.
“Finn,” I said, already moving toward my car, the engine roaring to life as I climbed in. “Keep looking. Check anywhere she could’ve gone to be out of sight.”
“And if we don’t find her?”
“You’ll find her,” I said darkly. “Call me the second you do.”
I hung up before he could respond, my hands tightening on the wheel as I pulled out onto the street. The city outside was a blur of movement—horns honking, taxis swerving, people carrying on with their lives like the earth hadn’t just shifted beneath my feet.
Leena had better have a good goddamn reason for disappearing. And if Kiera knew anything about where she was, she’d better tell me.
Whether she liked it or not.