Chapter 28 #3
I slid down to my knees so I could look him in the eye.
He looked terrible, eyes red, face completely wrecked.
I wanted to apologize, to beg for his forgiveness that I had allowed this to happen.
But that wasn’t what he needed. I took a breath and tried to keep my voice firm and strong.
“Listen to me. Josie is probably the smartest little girl I have ever taught. I have no idea why she would sneak off, but I am certain she can take care of herself until we find her.”
“She’s used to being in a city,” Jay pointed out from Liam’s side. “That girl schooled me on the subway when I came to New York. She knows how to get around and make smart decisions.”
Liam didn’t seem to hear him. “I just…I don’t understand why she would do this. Why she would run away.”
I traced my fingertips over his cheeks, wanting to soothe away the pain I heard in his voice. “She was having a tough time,” I murmured. “Maybe this was an extension of that.”
“Chloe,” he muttered, swallowing hard, and it was only then that I even remembered that the woman had been around. I hadn’t seen her in the living room. Maybe she was out somewhere and hadn’t heard the news? But from the flash of rage in Liam’s eyes, I wondered if maybe it was more than that.
“Did something happen?”
“She went to visit friends in Houston,” he said, voice flat. “She said she was coming back, but…” he trailed off, shrugging, and behind me, I heard Evelyn sob.
So Chloe had left again. And whether she truly planned to return again or not, Josie wouldn’t have a lot of reason to believe her promises.
“Where could she have gone?” Evelyn cried and Peter tried to soothe her.
“Hey.” I nudged Liam’s chin until he was looking at me. “Can you think of anywhere she might have gone? Maybe somewhere she wanted to see in Austin?”
Frustration took over his features. “I’ve been sitting here racking my brains and I have no idea. She doesn’t know Austin yet. And she hasn’t shown much interest in exploring. Everywhere we’ve checked out so far has been my idea.”
I mulled that over, trying to stop the panicked whirl in my brain long enough to think. Before I could get it together enough to respond, Jay cut in. “What about in New York? If she was still back home, and she’d gotten upset and left, where do you think she might have gone?”
“Um.” Liam let out a long breath, thinking.
“I guess the first place she would go would be the Natural History museum. That was her favorite.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
“But she liked just about everywhere in Central Park, too. And the main branch of the library.” He slammed a fist into the cushion at his side. “I have no fucking clue.”
An idea was starting to take shape in my mind, hazy memories from my own childhood blurring together. I glanced over at Andy and saw that he was staring right at me, an appraising expression on his face, like he was trying to figure out where my mind was going.
“What did I do while you played hockey?” I murmured, and his eyes widened in realization.
“That bookstore by the rink,” he said. “They would let you sit in there for hours.”
I nodded, an anxious excitement building in my chest. “Can you pull up security cameras at the plaza?”
“Gonna need to narrow that down, Ace,” he muttered, already pulling out his phone. “The complex is pretty damn big.”
“Start at the plaza green,” I said. “The telescope. Then look at the stores in the commercial zones. Bookstores or anything science related.”
“Nerdy shit you would like,” Andy murmured, tapping on the phone. “Got it.”
“What the hell is going on, Gracie?” Liam asked. I turned back and saw him wearing an annoyed expression I was used to whenever Andy and I did our twin-power mind-reading thing in front of other people.
“When we were little, and things were tough at home, Andy and I would both try to stay far away for as long as possible,” I explained quickly. “Maybe Josie is just trying to do the same thing.”
“What’s this plaza?” Peter cut in.
“Knight Plaza,” I explained. “It’s where Andy’s company is headquartered.” I met Liam’s gaze. “There’s a park there, for employees and visitors.”
“A park with a telescope?” he asked.
I nodded. “I talked to Josie about it once at science club. She mentioned wanting to see it. Even brought it up a few times after that.”
Liam shook his head, running a hand through his hair. “This seems kind of far-fetched.”
“Listen.” I took his hands, trying to think of a way to make him understand my sudden certainty that we were on the right track.
“When I was a kid, there were times when it was really hard to be at home. And not just because bad stuff happened there.” I tried to push back the dark memories of my mom’s parties, her drug use, her violence.
“Sometimes, it just felt really sad to be there when we knew she wasn’t around for us like she should be. ”
Liam winced, and I knew he was wondering if Josie had felt too sad to be at home.
“Andy had hockey,” I went on. “He would spend hours and hours at the rink, even when he wasn’t playing.” I remembered him sitting in the stands during figure skating lessons, bundled up against the cold in his jacket and gloves while he tried to do his homework.
“Even worked in the concession stands,” my brother muttered, attention still on his phone screen. “First job.”
“I didn’t have a place like that,” I explained.
I hadn’t been good at any sports and my favorite place was probably our school.
It wasn’t as easy for me to find somewhere to escape to.
Sometimes I would go with Andy to the rink but I never felt comfortable there.
It was too loud and I was shy and too nervous to be around so many rambunctious boys.
“But then they opened a bookstore right across the street from the arena, do you remember that?”
Liam shrugged, looking a little dazed.
“That place became my escape,” I explained.
“Andy could walk me there on his way to the rink and the owners would let me sit and read for hours.” Even as late as high school, when I had more options available to me—friends who owned cars, after school clubs—I still found myself spending hours in that little store.
It was a haven for me, a place where I could escape into the worlds of all of my beloved books and ignore reality for a while.
“So you’re thinking Josie is looking for a place like that.”
I shrugged, knowing I could be completely off. “It’s a start, isn’t it?”
“I don’t understand why you think she went there, though,” Jay said.
“Knight Plaza isn’t just where Andy’s company is headquartered.
We’re talking about the same complex where the arena is, right?
” I nodded and Jay shook his head. “Why would she go there—to the place her dad works— if she was trying to run away?”
I turned back to Liam and managed a small smile. “Because I don’t think she’s running away from you.”
“What do you—”
“I could have spent my time at the library,” I explained.
“But that was on the other side of town. Too far away from my brother.” I cast a glance back to Andy, my only real family, busy on his phone.
“When I was scared, or sad, I wanted to be close to him. It was the only way I felt safe. That bookstore was perfect.”
Something like hope flashed in Liam’s eyes. “So maybe she wanted to get away from everything bothering her,” he whispered. “But she still wanted…”
“To be close to wherever you were. So she would feel safe.”
“Got it,” Andy shouted suddenly. “Security cameras on the plaza green. Let me just zoom over…”
“You’re doing all this on your phone?” Rosa asked from her place by the door, disbelief clear in her tone.
“Not sure if you’re aware, Rosa, but I happen to be a tech genius.
Hacking into my own system isn’t exactly hard.
” Andy tapped on the screen a few more times, then exhaled in a large rush.
He looked up, our eyes meeting, and hope burst in my chest. I didn’t need to read my brother’s mind to know what he was going to say.
“Found her.”