Path of Destruction (31 page)
“Mrs. Mason?” he sputtered out before he saw EJ’s dad behind her.
“Brantley,” he began, stepping forward. “Have you seen Ella Jane at all since last night?”
Cooper glanced over at Cameron out of instinct. Her eyes were wide and she was unapologetically eavesdropping.
“No, sir. I haven’t. She, um, texted me earlier, but that’s it.”
Mr. Mason nodded. “Did she say anything about where she was or if she was going somewhere in the text?”
Cooper shook his head. “No. It was a picture of Kyle. One she thought I’d want to see I guess.”
Mrs. Mason let out a choked whimper that startled him. It sounded as if Cameron might have as well.
Mr. Mason ignored them both. “Are your mom and dad home?”
EJ’s dad always had a commanding presence that made him feel like a little kid, and like he’d done something wrong.
“No, sir. They went out to dinner. Do you want me to call them?”
“We’ve left messages for them already,” Mr. Mason told him. “Come on, Millie. We’ll check—”
“Wait.” Millicent Mason reached out and grabbed Cooper by the arm. “You’re her best friend. If you know anything about where she is or if something’s happened to her, even if she made you promise not to tell, please,
please
tell me.” Her voice was wavering on the line of a determined plea and about to lose her shit completely.
Cooper backed up a little, patting her hand and removing it. “Happened to her? I swear she didn’t say anything about anything like that to me. I can get my phone if you want to see.”
Brad Mason rolled his eyes. “We don’t need to see your phone, son. Just call us if you hear anything. Or have your parents call us.”
“Hear anything about what exactly? What’s going on?”
“Ella Jane…” her mother began slowly before her voice cracked. “She’s gone. She’s missing.”
M
y truck idled at the stoplight as it turned from green to red and back again. Thankfully there was no one else on Main Street at two in the morning.
I’d been driving around for hours, trying to clear my head and sending up silent prayers to the universe or whoever was listening. But now I’m stuck at a crossroads and unable to move forward until I decide on one road or another.
The truth is, prayers or no prayers, I’ll have to stop at the cemetery, and if she isn’t there, I’ll have to make a hard decision—one that will likely cost me what little bit of happiness I’ve managed to find.
Cameron’s words have played on an endless loop since the moment I stepped into my truck.
“You’re not her keeper. Her parents can handle this without you.”
Stay, she’d said. Cameron wanted me to stay with her instead of running out like I did. I’ve ditched her so many times for my best friend’s little sister I’ve lost count. Can’t really blame her for developing a bit of a complex about it.
She’d made several good points. Ella Jane has parents. Law enforcement officials have been contacted. She was one girl and surely with the search party of dozens, she’d eventually turn up.
But what if she didn’t?
It was the question I knew I’d never be able to answer. All I was sure of was that I’d never be able to forgive myself.
What my parents, Ella Jane’s parents, and Cameron don’t realize is that I made a promise to my best friend. One I intend to keep.
I’d broken our pact, made a move on his girl without even realizing it, but even once I knew, I still couldn’t let go. I tell myself that he’d understand—that if our positions were reversed, I’d want him to be there for Cameron, so it’s okay. But breaking a promise about looking after a guy’s little sister? There’s no way around that. Either I keep my promise and do everything in my power to find her or I break it and go home to the girl I’ve fallen for. While a girl that means more to me than my own life is missing.
“Where are you, Ellie May?” I mutter under my breath into the empty cab of the truck. “Where could you possibly be?” I grip the steering wheel a little tighter as the real question enters my mind.
Why would you leave me, too?
But I know the answer. It lies in the words I said to her when she walked in on me in bed with Cameron. The warning signs I’d ignored at school so that I could hook up with a girl that I knew was out of my league.
My Ellie May was slipping away, drowning in plain sight and I didn’t even throw her a life raft. Her pain was so obvious, so on the surface, but it matched my own too closely so I’d tried not to see it. This was twice now that I’d dropped the ball where she was concerned, and I vowed then and there not to let it happen again.
When I pull into the cemetery, there’s an eerie fog around it that reminds me of the scary movies the three of us used to watch as kids. Kyle and I used to plot ways to scare Ellie until she nearly peed her pants. He and I were a team, but the three of us were family. Without him, there was a rift—one I still haven’t figured out how to fix.
“I’ll fix it, Mase,” I promise him when I reach his headstone. I’d hoped she’d be here, but she isn’t. “I’ll find her. Whatever I have to do, whatever I have to sacrifice, I’ll fix it.”
Read other books by E. Lee & C. Quinn
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
-Maya Angelou
Coming 2015
Thank you to all the precious beta and early readers who agreed to be our emotional guinea pigs.
This book is for everyone who has ever lost someone and been left behind. Grief is such a huge part of this novel—of this series—and we recognize that this doesn’t always make for a “fun” read. Thank you for hanging in there even when it hurts. We hope you’ll continue on this journey with us as the lives of these characters are shaped by their profound losses and the healing power of love.
Special thank you goes out to Kelly Adamo, Beth at the Indie Bookshelf, and Mickey Reed for your insightful comments and helpful corrections!
You can find out more about the authors online at any of the following:
ELIZABETH LEE
CAISEY QUINN
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Path of Destruction
Copyright © 2014 by E. Lee & C. Quinn
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations for reviews. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet, without the publisher’s permission and is a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment.
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