Loving You (The Jade Series #3) (32 page)

“His dad’s out of town and his stepmom said she searched everywhere and couldn’t find it. Anyway, we can talk at class tomorrow. I’ll try to get there early.”

I hoist my backpack over my shoulder and turn to see Garret walking in. I was hoping to meet him out front.

“Jade, are you ready?” His eyes fix on Carson and I can tell he’s surprised to see him there. He probably thought I was here with Harper.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” I tug on his coat sleeve.

“Hey, Garret,” Carson says, a smug grin on his face. “Good luck finding that bear.”

On the drive to his house, Garret doesn’t mention Carson. He doesn’t mention our fight either. It’s not the time for that. We need to focus on Lilly.
 

“How long has she been missing?” I ask him.

“Katherine doesn’t know. After the maintenance guys left she went to Lilly’s room and saw she wasn’t there. She started looking for her and when she couldn’t find her she called me.”

“Maybe Lilly’s just in a different room. Has she checked the whole house?”

“Yes. The maid looked. Charles looked. Katherine. Everyone’s been searching the house and they can’t find her.”

“Is anyone tracking down the maintenance guys?”

“Our security people are trying to find the van they were driving.” Garret slams on the brakes as we approach a red light. “Katherine should’ve stayed with Lilly the entire time those guys were there.” He bangs his hand on the steering wheel. “What the hell was she thinking leaving her alone like that?”

He picks his phone up from the area between our seats and checks it quick, then sets it back down. I reach over and put my hand around his, seeing if he’ll let me. He does, so I hold it tighter, realizing how much I’ve missed the simple act of just holding his hand.
 

“I’m sorry, Garret. I’m sorry this is happening.” I pause. “I’m sorry about everything.”

“Forget it. We don’t need to talk about it.”

“Yeah, we do. Just not now.”

We get to the house and run inside. “Did you call my dad?” Garret yells it at Katherine who is practically in a trance, standing like a statue in the middle of the foyer. Garret goes up and puts his hands on her shoulders, shaking her. “Katherine. Did you call my dad?”

She snaps to. “What? No. I can’t call Pearce. He’ll kill me for losing her. I can’t—”

“Call him!” He screams at her.
 

She takes her phone from her pants pocket, but holds it at her side.

“You searched the whole house?” he asks. “You’re sure she’s not in here?”

She nods. “Yes. We’ve searched it several times.”

“How much of the outside have you searched?”

“Charles is looking out front with Paul. Our security men left to follow the van.” Katherine is talking robotically, like she’s completely shut down.

“Katherine.” Garret shakes her again to make her pay attention. “Jade and I will be out back searching the woods. If you find out anything, call my cell. And you need to call my dad. I’m not calling him for you. You did this, and you need to tell him yourself.”

“He’s staying in New York tonight. We had a fight and he left. I can’t tell him about this. He’ll—”

Garret grabs her phone and shoves it in her face. “His daughter is missing! You’re fucking calling him! Right now!”

She takes the phone from him and swipes her fingers across the screen.

“Come on, Jade.” Garret takes off down the back hallway. He stops at a door that opens to a large closet full of brooms, mops, and other cleaning supplies. He pulls out two large flashlights, testing them quick to make sure they work, and hands me one.
 

As we walk back down the hall, we hear loud voices echoing in the foyer. Garret holds me back and we wait off to the side. Mr. Kensington is home and in an all-out screaming match with his wife. I guess he decided not to stay in New York after all.

“What the hell were you doing that was so important you couldn’t watch her?” Mr. Kensington stands in front of Katherine, towering over her tiny frame.

She quickly tries to explain. “I was on the phone, but I went to check on her as soon as I hung up.”

“On the phone with who?” he demands.
 

She looks away. “Just a friend. Nobody you know.”

He grabs her cell phone from her hand and swipes through it. “Unknown caller?” He swipes the phone again. “This unknown caller seems to call a lot, especially late at night.” He glares at her. “Who is it, Katherine?”

“Stop it! Give me the phone!” She reaches for it, but he keeps it high above her head.
 

He walks away, tapping on the phone. I’m guessing he’s calling this unknown person. He holds the phone to his ear and listens, then turns toward Katherine again, his face bright red like he’s about to explode. “No, Stephen! It’s not your sweetheart! It’s not Katherine! It’s your fucking boss! And you’re fired!”

Mr. Kensington slams the phone on the floor, then takes his own phone from his pocket. Garret races up to his dad. “Who are you calling?”

“Garret, what are you doing here?”

“Katherine called me to help look for Lilly. I’m going out back to search the woods with Jade.”

Mr. Kensington glances at me, then back at his phone. “I doubt she’d be out there, but go ahead and look. I need to make some calls and get my people working on this.”
 

His people? What people? Their security guys? Somehow I think he means other people. People I shouldn’t know about.

Katherine has returned to her comatose state, frozen in place in the middle of the foyer, her phone shattered on the shiny, white tile floor.

Garret and I race outside past the pool to the edge of the woods. “I’ll go right and you take the left,” he says. “If you get lost or need me for anything, just call my cell.”

“Yeah, okay.” I turn the flashlight on and run down the trail that leads into the woods. It’s so dark that I can’t imagine Lilly coming back here. She’d be way too scared.
 

My heart is breaking just thinking of something bad happening to her. It makes me think of Garret’s comment about kids. If he ever had kids, is this how it would be? Always having to worry they might be kidnapped? Always having to watch over them, even in their own house?
 

“Lilly!” I continue to yell her name as I zigzag through the trees. I hear rustling in the leaves and stop briefly to check it out, but it’s just a squirrel. I wonder what other wildlife is out here. Crap! I forgot all about that. What if I run into a skunk? Or a raccoon? Or step on a snake? The thought makes me shudder. I take a deep breath and refocus on the task at hand. To find Lilly.
 

As I continue to search, images flash in my mind of her trapped in the back of a van, scared to death, wondering who has her and where they’re taking her. I quickly wipe the images from my brain. I’m not going to believe that. She has to be here on the property. That’s all I want to believe.

I’ve been searching for 15 minutes without any sign of Lilly. No pink mittens. No candy wrappers. No stuffed animals.
 

“Dammit, Lilly, give me something.” I say it aloud as I scan the ground with the flashlight. “Give me a sign that you’re out here. Anything.”
 

I yell her name even louder. I’m so scared for her. So worried that someone bad has her and that we’ll never see her again.
 

My voice is getting hoarse, but I continue to yell her name. I’m starting to lose hope as reality sets in. There’s no way she’d be out here. It’s way too cold, and way too dark and scary.
 

“Lilly! It’s Jade. If you hear me, yell really, really loud!”
 

I can’t see very far ahead, but I’m guessing I’m only halfway to the end of the property. I’ll keep going, but I really don’t think Lilly’s tiny legs could even make it that far. I get my phone out to call Garret and see where he’s at.
 

“Jade.” I hear my name but it’s very faint. The voice sounds far away.
 

“Jade.” It’s the same voice, still very faint. I put the phone in my pocket and start running toward where I think it’s coming from. The crunch of dead leaves under my feet is making it difficult to hear, so I stop for a moment. I hear it again. It doesn’t sound like Garret. It sounds like a little kid voice. It’s gotta be Lilly. It has to be.
 

“I’m coming, Lilly! Keep yelling, okay?”

I hear my name again and again as I get closer. As the voice gets louder I run faster, because I know Lilly’s here somewhere in front of me and I have to get to her to make sure the voice isn’t just my mind playing tricks on me.
 

Just as I hear my name again, my foot catches on something and sends me crashing to the ground, my knee banging and sliding against a large rock and my head hitting a fallen log. I see stars for a few seconds and my knee is seething with pain that shoots up and down my leg.

“Jade?” I hear a tiny voice as a little hand touches the side of my face. The hand is icy cold.
 

“Lilly!” I flip over on my back and the pain in my leg grows even worse. I sit up and pull Lilly into my arms. She has a sleeping bag wrapped around her but she’s shivering. “What are you doing out here? Everyone’s been looking for you.” I hold her close to my body, trying to give her my warmth. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m scared.” She shivers in my arms. “It’s too dark. And there’s monsters out here and they—”

“There’s no monsters. They all left. I told them to go home and never come back here again.”

“You did?” I see her looking up at me in the light of the flashlight which landed on the ground when I fell. She looks relieved, like she actually believes my monster story.

“Why are you out here, Lilly?”
 

“I’m running away.”

“Why?”

“Because Mom and Dad fight all the time and I don’t like it.”

“I know, but you can’t run away like that. You can’t—” I stop because it’s not the time to lecture her. We both need to get inside. I lie back slightly to get my phone from my pocket, still holding on to Lilly.

“Garret, I’ve got her,” I say when he picks up.
 

He lets out a huge sigh of relief. “Where are you?”

“I’m not sure.” I reach over for the flashlight and move it around. A few feet away I see a clearing and the top of a small hill. “We’re by the hill where we took Lilly sledding.”

“Okay. Wait in the clearing. I’ll meet you there.”

“Hold on.” I cradle the phone between my head and shoulder and reach down to my throbbing knee. My jeans are soaking wet and from the pain I’m feeling I know it’s blood. “I can’t meet you there. I fell and did something to my knee. And I hit my head, so I’m kind of dizzy.”

“Shit! Okay, I’ll go to the clearing and when you hear me just start yelling.”

Within minutes he finds us, out of breath from running so fast.
 

“Lilly.” He kneels down, taking her from me and hugging her tightly against his chest.
 

“I think she’s okay,” I tell him. “But she’s freezing. She needs to get inside.”

“Jade’s hurt,” Lilly says.

“I’ll be okay,” I assure her. “Garret, take her inside. I can wait here.”

He shines his flashlight along my body. “Jade, what the hell happened? There’s blood everywhere!”

“It’s not everywhere. It’s just my knee. I tripped over Lilly, but I’m fine. Just take her in the house.”

“Your head is bleeding, too.” He reaches up to touch it.

I wince. “Ouch! Don’t do that!”

“I barely touched you. I need to get you inside. Can you put weight on your other leg?”

“I don’t know.” I try to get up but can’t do it on my own.
 

“Lilly, I need to help Jade.” Garret sets her beside him. “Hold the flashlight and don’t you dare run off.”

She nods, taking the flashlight and letting her sleeping bag fall down around her.

Garret helps me stand up on my good leg. The pain in my other leg is now excruciating and my vision fades to black.
 

When I come to, Garret is carrying me in his arms and walking fast toward the house, Lilly at his side.

“Did I just pass out?”

“Yes.” Garret says. “You need to get to a doctor. Fast.”

“No, really. I’m fine. I just need to clean my leg up.”

“Your leg needs stitches, Jade, and maybe a cast. And you probably have a concussion.”

“But I don’t have insurance.” As I say it my head feels dizzy again and my vision blurs. “I can’t—” Everything goes black.

I wake up in a bed, but it’s not mine and it’s not Garret’s. I’m wearing a hospital gown and I’m hooked up to an IV. But I’m not in a hospital bed. It’s just a normal bed in what looks like a normal room with wood floors, a patterned area rug, a leather chair off to the side, and beige curtains on the windows.