Page 120 of Secrets in the Deep

A few seconds passed. No one answered.

“Maybe they went to the trailers,” Ethan said.

They raced back out of the inn. They’d just reached their cars when Faye pulled up. And Preston wasn’t in the car.

Ethan crossed the distance between them. “Where is he?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Zac asked. “He left the bar with you.”

“He wanted to drive around a bit, so we did. Then he said he needed to piss, so I pulled over. I…I waited a few minutes, and he never came back. I got out to look for him, but it was dark, and I heard a noise.”

“So you just left him?” Zac asked incredulously.

“I planned to call the sheriff once I got here!”

“We need to know exactly where you stopped,” Ethan growled.

27

The soft sound of Faye’s crying echoed behind everything Roscoe said. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out the frustration in the director’s voice, but it was noticeable.

Emily’s nails bit into her crossed arms, the cool breeze from the forest making goose bumps rise over her skin.

Despite Ryan’s team searching all night, they hadn’t found Preston.

Emily looked at Faye. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks wet from the constant tears that had been rolling down her face all morning.

Was she telling the truth? Had she really just pulled over in the middle of nowhere so Preston could pee, only to lose him?

Or was she lying?

Emily had no idea what to believe anymore.

As if he could sense her turmoil, Ryan’s arm tightened around her waist. While he’d learned about Preston’s disappearance last night, he hadn’t told her until she’d woken this morning.

How had his teamnotfound him? They were great at their job. And if Preston had actually gone missing where Faye hadclaimed, surely the SAR guys should have located him by now…right?

Unless he hadn’t just wandered off. Or Faye was lying.

Jesus, there were too many possibilities.

Faye moaned, and a crew member slipped their arm around her.

Emily’s gaze shifted to Roscoe. Then to Ward, who stood to the side, arms crossed over his chest. What was the sheriff even doing here? Shouldn’t he be out looking for Preston? Shouldn’t he be working closely with Ryan’s team?

When she glanced at her mother, she noticed her mom wasn’t looking at Roscoe. Her gaze was directly on Ryan’s arm around Emily’s waist. And if the frown on her face was anything to go by, she didn’t like it.

Surprisingly, there’d only been the odd text here and there from her mom since Emily’s hospital admission. No unannounced visits. No demands that Emily come back to the inn. It was strange but also kind of liberating.

“So, yeah.” Roscoe threw up his arms. “That’s it. We’re done. The studio’s shutting us down, and the film I put years into getting greenlit is finished. You can clean out your trailers.”

“What about Preston?” Faye called between hiccups. “Is there any news?”

“You mean since you dumped him in the middle of nowhere and caused production to shut down?”

She paled further.