Page 53 of Play With Me
“Are you talking about Maya?” Mick asks, voice laced with alarm. He gets up and grabs my purse. “My car is out front.”
“I asked them to, but they said it’s currently down for maintenance. They’re freaked out. I’m freaked out. What do I do, Cara?” Lenni sounds likeshe’s on the verge of tears, and I know this hits home for her.
“Ask around and see if anyone saw anything or maybe got a license plate number. Mick and I are on the way.” Mick is already on his phone calling the police station to report her missing. Usually, the cops wouldn’t take this kind of thing seriously until the kid was missing for longer, making me thankful for Mick’s influence.
“Okay. Let me know when you’re at the house.” Lenni hangs up as we leave Decadence.
Anders is walking up just as Mick opens the car door for me. “Whoa. Hey, what’s going on?”
“Maya got picked up from school by a random man,” I inform him as I pull up her cell number. “Come on.”
Anders starts asking Mick questions as he slides into the car behind me. Maya’s phone doesn’t even ring before her disgruntled teenage voice comes over the line, informing the caller to leave a message and that, if she feels like it, she’ll call back.
I don’t realize I’m shaking until Anders wraps his arms around me and kisses my temple. “It’ll be okay, Cara. We’ve got guys on it. We’ll find her.”
Across from us, Mick stares at his phone as his fingers fly over the screen. “A squad car is headed to the house, and a team is working on pulling footage from the surrounding buildings to try to catch the car on camera.”
Our eyes meet across the backseat, sharing the type of panic only a parent can feel at a moment like this. Mick might not be involved in her life, but he’s still Maya’s father.
If she knew, would she want to get to know him?
Would she stop hating him so much?
Has she already figured it out, andthat’swhy she dislikes him?
Is she acting out? Is that why she got into the car with a strange man?
Question after question fires through my brain as we get closer to Jersey. And I swear to God that as soon as my little girl is safe in my arms again, I’m never letting her go.
Even if that means I have to come clean about who her father is.
I’m numb.
The worry, anxiety, and pure fear of not knowing where my child is has gone into hibernation as a cold and calm sense of absolute nothing washes over me.
No one can find her.
Her phone is still turned off.
We pinged the last known location, which was her school—so that was no help.
Mick is on the phone, threatening to have theadministration staff fired or to sue the board—I’ve lost track at this point.
“With the way he’s carrying on, everyone is going to be suspicious that he’s her father,” Lenni whispers as she sits beside me and hands me a mug of tea.
I take it, but don’t drink the lemon and lavender-scented liquid. Instead, I stare dazedly down at the bits of purple flower floating at the top, wondering how I gothere—with a secret child and a situationship with a high-power politician.
My gaze wanders to Anders, who is standing over a table, pouring over a map of the city with a few Jersey officers. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but he’s pointing and marking the map as he speaks, and they take his directive seriously.
When they asked who he was in relationship to the minor earlier, he didn’t hesitate to say her stepfather, knowing the familial tie would mean they’d work harder to find a cop’s kid. The heavy weight of his answer presses down on the box I feel I’m locked in.
Four walls of steel with no way out, and two other occupants that want to tear each other apart.
And somewhere on the outside is my little girl.
Is she scared? Has she been harmed?
Mick comes to stand in front of me, white-knuckling his phone, irritation splashed across his face. “I can’t believe none of them saw anything. And why the fuck are they doing camera maintenanceduring the day? I ought to sue their ass for negligence.”