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“Is this Archer Rory?”
“Speaking. What happened to Winnie?” I can’t hide the ruthless demand in my voice.
“That depends. Are you…” Her voice sharpens as she inhales. “Are you the dude she was seeing?”
“You know about that?”
Fuck.
“Not all the details, no. Winnie never spills about stuff like this over the phone—you have to pin her down in person and squeeze, but still, I know enough.” She seems to realize who she’s talking to and coughs. “Um, do you know where she is?”
Huh? That’s not the question I expected.
“No, I thought you called me because you’d know. I’ve been trying to get in touch with her.”
“Oh, man. Oh, crap.” She’s quiet for a second before saying, “So, I got this weird picture from her about an hour ago. Winnie asked me to guess where she was. If I figured it out, she told me to tell her because I think she’s lost. She wouldn’t show up on the map at all.”
“Picture? What picture?” I growl.
“I don’t know. It came through on Snapchat. Just darkness and trees. I thought she was joking, but she wouldn’t pick up and her phone seems dead. If she’s lost or kidnapped…” The girl breathes harshly. “I don’t like it one bit. I’ve tried calling her, but it’s like her phone got disconnected. I thought about just calling the police, but after everything with her family, that’s my last resort.”
“You think the phone died? The battery?” I say flatly.
“I mean, I don’t know what else could’ve happened. And listen, Mr. Archer, I don’t know you, but if you give a crap about my best friend like she thinks you do… you should find her. You’re the only person she seems to trust in Kansas City. If she’s out there in the middle of the woods, lost and alone—” Her voice chokes as she breaks off.
I have to remind myself to breathe.
Believe me, it’s an effort after feeling the wordtrustplow through my chest like a bullet.
“Who are you again?” I ask.
“My name’s Lyssie. We’ve been close for years and I’m really worried about her.”
Shit.
Winnie told her friend about me, and now I’m this friend’s last option.
If it’s as bad as it sounds, I need to find her before it’s too late. My mind won’t process what could happen if Iam.
“She has to be out there somewhere. Do you know any big parks or anything around there?” Lyssie asks.
“You think she’s in the woods?” I try to keep my tone calm.
“Maybe. Whenever she wants space to think, she goes outside. I looked around and it looks like there’s a lot of forest around the city. She’s been camping before, so it wouldn’t be the craziest idea. Then again, I don’t know if she’s ever really done any big-time camping. Like the kind with no outhouse.”
Great.
My poor, beautiful Sugarbee is lost somewhere in countless acres of woods in the Kansas City metro area.
That’s a big fucking haystack to sift through.
I don’t know where to start, especially if the forests are dense like the stretch that backs up to Solitude and—
Wait.
Solitude.
…she wouldn’t be that obvious, would she?