“So what now?” Letty asked.

I lifted my eyes and asked, “What now?”

“What’s next? What do we do to help? You said the guys are working on it and that’s huge, they’re good at what they do—the best, actually. But while they’re looking into it what do we do?”

I sat there in stunned silence.

Not, what can we do to help?

What do we do?

Do.

I’d met these women hours ago and they were no-questions-asked on board to help me find Elise.

I looked between the three of them and I knew down to my bones if one of them went missing the other two would stop at nothing to get her back. They’d give up their lives. They’d quit their jobs. They’d work in a sex club to try to find answers. They’d do anything.

Letty, Brooklyn, and Sadie weren’t friends—they were sisters not of the heart but of the soul. They were the truest kind of friends.

They were who I needed six months ago.

“I don’t know. Yesterday everything happened so quickly, then we came here, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to Asher about what they’re doing.”

“No, Sloane.” Letty shook her head. “The guys have taken over looking for Elise. You let them do what they’re trained to do and you keep yourself safe. What I’m asking is, what do you need? What do we do to help you?”

Help me?

My gaze hit the floor again—this time to hide the tears that formed. But it was no use, I couldn’t hide my shoulders shaking and I couldn’t hide the sob that tore from my chest. Sadie reached over, grabbed my hand, and just held on. She didn’t squeeze. She didn’t tug it to get my attention. She simply held on.

Just like Elise would’ve done.

Just like Elise had done over the years.

“I don’t understand,” I said through a hiccupped cry.

“What don’t you understand?” Sadie asked softly.

“How do you turn your back on someone you love?”

“You don’t, Sloane.” Sadie’s voice was no longer sweet, it was full of vigor and anger, and that was when I felt it—the piercing pain of Sadie’s words puncturing my heart. “You never turn your back on the people you love.” I felt those words thread through my heart. “Never. You never leave a friend to go at it alone. Whatever the it is they need you to stand by them. Those women were not your friends, they weren’t Elise’s, and you’re better off without them.”

And when Sadie was done the first stitch was complete. The first step, the first suture of many that I needed to close the big, gaping hole in my heart.

“Thank you.”

“I know she didn’t just say thank you,” Letty muttered. “You do not thank your girls for listening. You do not thank your girls when you’re carrying a heavy burden and they lend an ear. That’s what being a friend is. You thank a friend when they tell you about a kickass shoe sale. You thank a friend when they recommend a good book. You do not thank a friend for being a friend. Would you thank Elise for listening to you after you had a hard day?”