Page 79 of Irish Betrayal

As he walked away, he called Blair’s phone, foregoing a text.

…No answer

Standing outside fifteen minutes later…no answer.

“Come on, Blair,” he muttered as he paced the sidewalk. He rang back Katy. “Please call the professor. I’m going to call Barr.”

“Barr,” came the deep voice of Blair’s father after only one ring.

Knowing time could be of the essence if there was a problem, and Barr wasn’t the type of man to tolerate an extended version of events, he kept it simple. “Blair is over an hour late. I’ve been at the airport waiting. She isn’t answering her phone or texts. The airline can’t tell me if she was on board. It’s against policy. Katy Stanton said she left Muskogee with plenty of time to check her vehicle in and get to her flight.

“I’m concerned. Very fucking concerned.”

“Could this have something to do with Peter Samson?”

“He was fired from OSU and Trinity. The latter for not showing up to a scheduled meeting. There is a possibility he never left Oklahoma. He hasn’t approached Blair since before I was there, and she wouldn’t lie about that.”

“Make and model of her rental.”

“A 4-door red Jeep Wrangler probably this year or one older. I can have William screenshot the vehicle and tag number from their surveillance system.”

“Send me her flight information and get Will to send the picture of her Jeep to me. I’ll send everything to Detective Jeffreys in Tulsa. He’s friends with the O’Faolains. Go home and have your pilot ready the jet. If Jeffreys finds out that she didn’t make that flight, you’ll be picking me up. Going back to Tulsa will be our only option.”

“Understood.” They hung up, and Daniel gave the baggage claim area one last longing look before sprinting to Blair’s new Jeep, throwing the daisies into a bin on the way.

He called William first and then his father, telling them both what he needed. He drove to the flat he rented downtown, tears of disbelief and anger blurring his vision.

He threw clothes into a duffle, swiping anything on his bathroom countertop into the bag on his way out. He tossed it all next to the front door, ready to run the minute he heard from Barr.

Daniel was still waiting hours later to hear anything. Anything. He had spoken with his dad and Jonathan several times, his mother and aunts a few times, Bébhinn, Dagr, and Ciar, and Gray and Mags.

An hour ago, Barr let him know that he and his wife were flying to Dublin now in a small puddle jumper. The moment they got the news about whether or not Blair was on the flight, they wanted to be ready to act.

Mags had been inconsolable. She’d had a missed call from Bébhinn, and no one had heard from her since.

His mom had spoken with Josephine, who was in contact with Catriona. Thomas MacGregor and Coll Barr had been on their computers or speaking to the Tulsa detective for hours now.

They were working on obtaining the camera footage from the parking garage where Blair had returned her Jeep, but according to the detective, it would take hours to retrieve it. MacGregor accessed her credit card account and found which company she rented from, saving them from having to look at all the rental companies.

It was early morning, and Daniel was debating whether to head to the private airfield or wait for confirmation.

As he paced, his eyes landed on two zippered storage bags, the type that people slid under their beds, sitting against the wall closest to the dining table.

They were Blair’s. Blair had left some of her things at Mags from when she lived there, and during the townhouse renovation, Mags had given him the bags to keep until Blair was home.

He debated for all of thirty seconds before unzipping and upending the contents onto his couch.

Kneeling on the rug, he started rummaging through Blair’s belongings. His heart warmed at seeing the bric-a-brac that Blair had thought worth saving.

There were several funny pictures of Blair, Mags, and Gray since they all lived close in Scotland, but still several with all four girls, Bébhinn thrown into the mix.

Daniel smiled, knowing that, as children, their combined cuteness distracted most people from seeing what evil princesses they were.

Blair stood out the most with her huge green eyes and bright red curls. He hoped someday that he and Blair could create a mini replica.

He had to find her first.

Swallowing down the emotion that threatened to drown him, he continued to sift through her things: concert t-shirts, school awards, several school papers, all A’s, a notebook entitled “Where INCS Fucked Up and How to Fix the Program,” and a folded newspaper.