Date = 1 July
Place = San Francisco (Damion’s house)
POV - Enrique
The house is silent.
As if holding its breath against the storm.
I know silence. I know it in dark rooms with mossy walls. I know it in Jackson’s voice when he is holding back. And I know it in this absence.
River is not in her bed.
“River?” I call, already halfway down the hallway. “Hey, where are you?”
Nothing.
Her hoodie is gone from the hook. So are her dunk-highs — the scuffed ones with the neon skulls on the side.
“Damn it,” I mutter. Knowing.
But I still check the back porch. The kitchen. Even the laundry room. Still nothing.
“Aria!” I call, heading to the front of the house.
She appears from the room, one of Mel’s button-up nighties on, with sexed up curls. “What?”
“River’s gone.”
Her face shifts inst
