Tucker takes his attention off the woman he’s with and looks between Clay and me with a blank expression.

“What did I tell you about being cute when I’m pissed?” Clay asks, grabbing my hand.

I glance up at him. “I’m not trying to be cute.”

“I know,” he grumbles, then he lifts his head as we pass Tucker.

I hold my breath, not sure what is about to happen.

When we pass him without a word said between the two of them, I sigh in relief. My brothers use to fight all the time growing up and it’s something they never really grew out of. They still argue and get pissed at each other to this day and there are times that we wonder if it won’t come to blows. Thankfully it’s been years since that’s happened, but it still could, and you never know what might set them off.

Men are so weird.

“Do you think that Miles will be able to do anything with the information I gave him?” I ask when we get outside to Clay’s jeep.

He opens my door for me. “He’ll do his best.” He stands in the open door as I climb inside and start to put on my seatbelt. “Now that they’ve got a case opened, they’ll be able to dig into Carly’s past along with her phone records and see if they can find out who she’s been talking to and hopefully spending time with. There is always someone who knows something—they just need to figure out who that person is.”

“I just hope they can find Matthew. Maybe she is with him. Maybe this is all some big misunderstanding.”

“Maybe.”

I bite my bottom lip because the feeling I’ve had in my chest for days hasn’t gone away and I know that there is something wrong even if I don’t want to admit it to myself.

Chapter 12

Clay

WITH WILLOW SITTING across from me, I watch her as she talks on the phone to her roommate, and listen as she fills her in on what happened with Carly. From what I’ve gathered listening to her side of the conversation, her roommate is out of town and, up until a few minutes ago, she had no idea that anything was even going on with Carly. And now Willow’s filling her in which doesn’t seem to be going over well.

“Sorry,” she mouths to me.

I lift my chin then watch her rub her forehead as she continues talking.

“You’re right, I should have told you, but I didn’t want you worried. I know you’re already stressed, dealing with your parents.” Willow meets my gaze and then closes her eyes. “You’re right, sorry.” She rubs her lips together then drops her eyes to the table. “I promise I’ll keep you filled in on what’s going on. Right now they don’t know much. Okay.” She lets out a long breath. “Okay, and let me know if you need me to come rescue you and I’ll be on the next flight.” Her gaze meets mine once more and she bites her bottom lip before whispering. “I’ll let him know—Love you, too. Bye.” She hangs up and places her cell phone on the table next to her drink.