“That’s weird.” I place my sandwich on my plate.
“Why?” Nate and Bishop both ask at the same time. I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone, tapping on Ridge’s number.
“Because Ridge hasn’t heard from her either, and she never came home from the cabin.”
“That was two months ago,” Nate mutters, his eyebrows pulling in.
“Exactly.”
“I dropped her off at her house, and yeah, she never texted me back, so I left it,” Nate adds, lost in thought.
I hit dial on Ridge’s number and bring my phone to my ear.
“Yo!”
“Ridge?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“Sorry,” I murmur, realizing that I never texted him my number. “It’s Madison.”
“Oh!” He sounds surprised. “Hey.”
“Did you ever hear anything back from Tillie?”
“You didn’t hear?” he asks in muffled tones. Beeping cars and light chatting fade off in the distance.
“Hear what?” I answer as my heart pounds in my chest.
Please, God, no.
“She’s been a missing person case since. No one has heard from her and no one knows where she is.”
“What?” I look up at Nate, who is watching me intently. He looks worried; I can see it in his eyes. “No one told me anything because I’ve been out of the country for the past couple of months.” I put my phone down and put it on speaker. “You’re on speaker phone, and Nate and Bishop are here with me, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” he snickers, though his tone doesn’t seem too impressed.
“So can you tell us everything, please?” I urge him, pushing my plate out of the way with my now suddenly lost appetite.
“Well, Nate dropped her off at home after your guys’ trip. She stayed for the next couple of weeks but was sick. I went to see her a couple of times, and she was throwing up, pale, and just… sick. Anyway, the last time I saw her, she was acting weird as fuck. She always loved our kick-back sessions.”
I look up at Nate, not being able to pass the opportunity. Grinning, I say, “You mean your sex sessions?”
Nate evil-eyes me, flipping me off. I grin deeper.
“Uhh…,” Ridge mutters. “Yeah… she told you?” he asks into the phone.
“Yeah, anyway, so what happened?”
Bishop pulls out the bar stool next to me, his thigh brushing mine. I flinch slightly, annoyed at myself once again how much my body sparks to life at his mere proximity, let alone his freaking touch.
“So she rushed me out of the house and then I never heard from her again. Her dad said she left with a suitcase and took his car. They found his car off the interstate a couple of days later, but it was empty with the keys left inside of it. The trail has gone cold and, yeah, again, no one knows where she is. Her cards haven’t been used or anything either. She’s just gone.”
A ball forms in my throat. “Why would she leave?” I whisper, confused. Why would she leave and not even leave a note for anyone? I wouldn’t know if she sent me a text because I haven’t had my phone, but what is her reasoning?
“Ridge,” I start, my brain ticking through ideas. “Who else did she hang with?”
“No one. When it wasn’t me, it was you.”
“Okay,” I murmur. “What do I do?”
“There’s not much we can do. I’ve tried everything. Now all we can do is hope she just comes home.”
“Okay. Thanks, Ridge. If I hear of anything, I’ll call you. And you do the same?”
“Yeah.”
Hanging up, I turn to face Bishop. “What do I do?”
Bishop looks to Nate, and I watch as they both exchange a look. Realization dawns at just who is sitting in front of me.
My face straightens. “I swear to God, if you two have anything to do with this, I will kill you.”
“We have nothing to do with this,” Nate says, walking toward the sink and filling up a glass with water. He turns to face us, leaning on the counter. “But it’s weird as fuck.”
“Weird as fuck?” I scoff, getting to my feet. Bishop’s hand brushes over my thigh, and I look down at it before looking up at him and then looking back to Nate. “That’s an understatement.”
“Just leave it for now,” Nate tells me, shaking his head. “She obviously doesn’t want to be found.”
My shoulders slack in defeat. “I guess. But why didn’t she come to me if she needed help?”
“Who knows why anyone does anything, Kitty?” Nate walks up to me, kissing me on the head. “I gotta bounce.”
I turn around and watch Nate leave the kitchen before looking to Bishop. “You’re not leaving?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Why?” Honestly, I could do with some time alone.
“I just want to ask you something.”
“You always seem to want to ask me something.”
He gets to his feet and walks toward me. His chest brushes against mine before his finger comes up and tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Do you have any memories from when you were young?”
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Four.
Four.
“No,” I answer, keeping my face straight and my posture stern.
Bishop searches my eyes, his dark green ones daring my secrets to come out. “No.”
He leans down, tilts his head, and narrows his eyes. “Are you lying to me, Kitty?”
Lie.
“No.”
He pauses, leaving a beat of silence to stretch between us before inching back. “Fine.” He steps away and turns to walk out the door. “If you lied to me, I will punish you.” Then he’s gone, like a fucking tornado whisking up a whole bunch of untouched old emotions. Emotions I have fought hard for years on end to bury. A ten-worded question brought back ten thousand feelings that I have worked so hard to forget. Slamming my eyes shut, I breathe in and out slowly.
In.
Out.
In.
Ou—
“Fuck this.” I walk to the liquor cabinet and pull down a bottle
