Marjorie being drugged with chloroform, like Ruby had been…
My muscles tensed, and I rubbed at my forehead.
“Easy,” Joe said.
“I love her. She’s everything to me.”
“I know. If I had any doubts before, which I didn’t, they’d be gone now. Calm down, man. You’re quivering.”
I nodded, drawing in a deep breath.
Not a good time to lose it, not when the woman I loved needed me more than ever.
I silently thanked God that my mother and Henry were safe and out of the way in Florida. Then I turned to Joe.
“She was with Colin in the park. Do you think he had anything to do with this?”
Joe shook his head. “Colin wouldn’t hurt Marj. His father, on the other hand…”
Joe didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. If Colin was right, and his father had sold him to my father as a plaything to rape and torture… Well, then, he was capable of just about anything.
In his own way, he was as bad as my father had been.
I looked around. This was Steel country, the beautiful western slopes of Colorado. Snow Creek was a friendly small town. Psychotic creeps didn’t exist in friendly small towns.
Except that they did.
My father and Larry Wade had proven that a hundred times over.
Granted, Ted Morse was from Denver. How he’d even gotten wind of my father was still a mystery to all of us, as was how he’d found out about Justin Valente, the poor kid Joe and I had invited along to one of our weekend campouts with my father.
Justin had never returned from that trip.
Joe was talking on his phone again. I lifted my eyebrows when he ended the call.
“No sign of her in the park. I say you and I get over there pronto and check things out ourselves. I texted Ryan and Ruby. I’d like her to join us if she can. In the meantime, we’re going.”
I nodded.
We couldn’t get there fast enough.
I’d gotte
n control over my shivers, but the inside of my body still felt like a cold cavern with pointed icicles prickling me all over.
Marjorie.
We’d just found each other, decided to be together despite all the other crap surrounding us.
I couldn’t lose her now. I just couldn’t.
“Do you have Colin Morse’s number?” I asked Joe. “He might know something. He was the last person to see her.”
“I don’t. Jade probably has it.”
“Shit.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “Someone has to tell Jade.”
“That needs to come from Tal,” Joe said. “With her pregnancy and all… Fuck!”