I made it to the landing that opened up to his patio, I was out of breath and sweating like a pig. I walked barefoot cross the hot cement of the patio.
My first thought was to check the pool. I was terrified I would find him floating in the damn thing. I didn’t find him, but I noticed something sitting at the bottom of the pool. I immediately recognized the shiny blue case. It was his phone. That explained the lack of returned messages. I tried the glass doors, which were of course locked.
I found one of the kitchen windows unlocked and hoisted myself inside. He thought he was so smart by not having any neighbors. I was proving why there was something to be said for nosey neighbors.
I walked through the house. He wasn’t there. I didn’t feel his presence.
I headed for his bedroom, hoping he was sleeping. The bed was neatly made. He wasn’t there. I went back down to the kitchen and saw the eggs still sitting out. The coffee I’d made him was untouched and sitting on the counter.
He had vanished.
Chapter 47
Xander
I stared up at the ugly ceiling with the plain tiles. There was a hint of yellowing in one corner. It was to be expected in an environment like this, I supposed. I wasn’t going to panic and demand another hotel room. I didn’t care enough to move.
I’d made it to Oregon the day before and had yet to leave the hotel. I wasn’t sure what I was doing there. My dad would not be pleased to see me. The moment of kindness, if it could be called that when he called to inform me of my brother’s death, would be fleeting. I knew that as much as I knew the wind would be blowing at the beach.
The ringing of a phone disturbed the total quiet in the room. At first, I assumed it was coming from the room next to mine or above mine. Then I remembered it was my new phone with a ringtone I wasn’t quite used to. The damn thing had been ringing pretty steadily since this morning.
I knew why. I’d fucked up. I’d blown off the meeting. It was an important meeting, but it wouldn’t have changed my life, except make me a little richer and give me a little more cred in the world of ship design. I didn’t care. None of that mattered. I never wanted to design another ship, rudder, or anything else.
The ringing of the landline in my room startled me. I stared at the phone with confusion. How and who? It had to be a wrong number, but if I didn’t answer, the annoying sound was going to continue.
I rolled to my side and snatched the phone out of the cradle. “Hello?” I answered with zero friendliness in my voice.
Charlie’s voice came through. “Finally.”
“What the hell?” I muttered. “How did you get this number?”
“We call it Google search or something like that,” he snapped irritably.
“Why are you calling me? How did you know I was here?”
He sighed and I imagined him pacing the small office he had at the warehouse. “Process of elimination. I knew where you would be. I just had to find which hotel you were in. I skipped the one and two-star motels and started at the top of the list of big ones and worked my way down.”
That surprised me. “You’ve been calling all the hotels in Newport?”
“And Seaside and every other little town up there. If you made me go through the Portland hotels, I would fly up there and kick your ass.”
“What do you want?” I asked. I was not in the mood to hear shit from him or anyone else.
“Um, gee, I don’t know. You kind of left me hanging. Everyone hanging.”
I climbed off the bed and moved to open the curtain blocking the sunlight from coming into my room. “Yeah, as it turns out, I had more important shit to do.”
“I get it,” he said, his voice low. “I’m so sorry about Kade. You know I loved him like a brother.” I could hear his grief. I had sent him a quick text on Friday night, dropping the bombshell. That had been a shitty way to tell him, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually say the words. When he tried calling me, I turned off my phone. Then I drowned my phone. And now I was ignoring his calls.