Page 113 of With Spite

I kept pounding on it, expecting to see her coming.

But she never did.

“What the hell, man?”

I looked over to find Odin coming out of the medical examiner’s office. “Is Bernice in there?”

He frowned. “No. She left with Sage.”

I shook my head. “Her purse and her phone are still here. Sitting on her truck seat.”

I pointed at her truck.

Odin stiffened.

“Let me call Sage.”

Sage had no more answers than Odin had.

That’s when the true fear started to set in.

Had someone found her?

It took us thirty minutes to realize that Bernice was nowhere to be found.

Not at home.

Not at either of my homes.

Not with Creed and Birdee.

Not at the store.

Not anywhere.

“Where do we even look?” Creed asked the burning question.

The bad thing was, I had no idea.

At first, I hadn’t been nearly as worried. I’d put the tracker in her shoe, and could easily track her using that. Except, she hadn’t been wearing the ones with the tracker in it. She’d been wearing a new pair that I hadn’t gotten a chance to put a tracker into yet.

Three hours later, a search party had been erected, and people were going door to door in the community.

The Dixie Wardens had formed a massive woman hunt, and they wouldn’t stop until she was found.

I only hoped that we could find her before she was dead.

Because that was the feeling that I had in my heart.

That whoever had her, only had one end in mind.

Six hours after her disappearance, I found myself in Bernice’s front yard, staring at her front door.

“Hey.”

I turned to find the Hubers there, staring at me.

“What?” I snapped.