by Lauren Runow
Austin laughs. “He’s getting laid?”
“Enough!” I shout. “Fucking Missy and her stupid games interrupted me. I told him to wait in my office, and he’s gone. Austin, what do I do?”
He wasn’t taking this seriously a moment ago, but he is now looking at me with downcast eyes and a small frown. “It’s okay, brother. We’ll find him. We’ll start with the perimeter and work our way in. What does he look like?”
“He’s a five-year-old boy with curly red hair.”
“We saw him,” Jalynn excitedly chimes in. “He was running down the hall. About twenty minutes ago.”
“He’s probably still on the floor.” Austin walks to the desk and picks up the phone. “This is Austin Sexton. We’re looking for a five-year-old boy with curly red hair, last seen on the twenty-second floor. Order a lockdown on the building. Start with the stairwells and then canvass the floor, starting with this one and work your way down. Every floor has a volunteer emergency leader on staff at all times. Have them lead the search on that floor,” he continues, working with the head of security on a plan to find Charlie.
The emergency lights flicker with an audible alert, and then security comes over the loudspeaker, explaining the situation.
Sometimes, I forget Austin was a Marine. His injury I remember vividly. It’s just hard to picture him as a man of authority, taking charge and saving lives.
“Don’t worry; we’ll find him. He couldn’t have gone far,” Austin says to me after hanging up the phone.
I nod in thanks before continuing my search. I start looking in every office. When I walk back into the hallway, I come face-to-face with Kathleen Clarke.
“What on earth is going on? I went to leave the building, but they told me I couldn’t because there’s a missing child.” She gives me an accusatory look.
I place my hands on her arms and plead with her, “It’s Charlie.”
I watch as her face twists in confusion.
“Charlie? Why the hell is he here? With you?”
“He was waiting in my office for me to take him to Boy Scouts when you so wrongfully accused me of something I didn’t do. Now, he’s missing.”
Her eyes widen. “He’s what?”
“Missing. I told him to wait in my office, and he’s gone.”
“Where could he have gone?”
I sigh. “I don’t know. I’ve looked in all the offices. My assistant wasn’t here, but she said she saw him walking down the hall.”
Austin and Jalynn turn the corner, hand in hand.
“Did you find him?” Austin asks.
I glance at them. “No.”
“Someone should go to the security office where the cameras are located. You don’t think he could have gotten out of the building, do you?” Jalynn cuts in.
“We did see him in front of the elevator banks,” Austin says in fear. “He didn’t get in, but we honestly weren’t paying attention. I figured he was with someone on the floor and didn’t think I needed to look into it.”
“Fuck,” I whisper under my breath as I rub my eyes.
“We need to call Tessa,” Kathleen blurts out.
My eyes meet with Christine and Missy, who enter among the commotion and are stunned to silence for once. If they’re smart, they’ll stay that way.
“I’ll call her. He’s my responsibility right now. Jalynn, get me access to those tapes and tell security I’m on my way,” I say as I walk away, taking my phone from my coat pocket.
“I’ll go talk to the guards up front.” Austin heads in the opposite direction.
“What do I do?” Kathleen asks. Her eyes are extra magnified in the thick glasses.
“Haven’t you already done enough? Take care of your client here while I clean up a mess that never should have happened to begin with.”
I don’t care what first impression I just made with Kathleen. She obviously already had her mind made up about me. Right now, there’s a curly-haired boy who has my full focus.
As I enter the security room, I’m met by Don, the head of security for the building.
“How long until I get access to those tapes?” I ask, making sure he knows there is no room for anything but cooperation from him.
“We’re working on it, Mr. Sexton. There are protocols we have to follow and—”
“Protocols my ass.” I get up in his face.
He holds up his hands in defeat. “I know. I promise we are working as fast as we can. We understand the importance of the situation.”
“Yes, a little boy might be in danger. Get them up now!”
“Yes, sir. Five minutes, max. Hopefully less.” He leaves to assist the crew who’s rewinding tapes, trying to find any sign of him.
I run my hands over my face, trying to figure out what to do. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.
Where could a kid go so fast? Why didn’t he just stay where he was told?
I make a quick call to Brantley, telling him to head to Tessa’s salon to bring her here. Then, I hold my phone up to my ear, not wanting to have this conversation but knowing I need to.
“The meeting couldn’t have started yet. Everything okay?” she says as her greeting.
“Baby, I need you to come to the office as soon as possible. Brantley is on his way.”
“I can’t leave, Bryce. I just finished with the bride, and now, I’m about to get into an Uber to head to the hotel for the wedding. The earliest I can leave is nine o’clock. Wait … why are you at the office? Is everything okay?”
I sigh. “No, Tessa, it’s not okay. Please know I have everyone in the building working on this, and we will find him.”
“Find him?” she yells. “What do you mean, find him?” The panic in her voice rises with each syllable.
“I stopped by my work and something I didn’t expect hit me up. I asked him to stay in my office for five minutes. When I came back, he was gone.”
“Oh my God,” she screams. “Bryce, where is he? How could you leave him?”
“I have everyone working on it. He couldn’t have gone far.”
“Couldn’t have gone far? Bryce, he’s a five-year-old boy. He can disappear in a second. You have to always pay attention. Oh my God, where’s my baby?” Her voice cracks, and tears sting my eyes.
“We’ll find him. Don’t panic. Brantley should be there any minute to pick you up and bring you here. Try to breathe. We’re searching for him. We’ll find him, I promise.”
“But, Bryce …” Her voice trails off, and I can hear nothing but her cries.
“Don’t think like that, Tessa. We’ll find him. Let me let you go, and I’ll call you if we find him before you get here.”
“Okay,” she says through her tears.
I pound my fist against the wall. “Don, tell me something. Anything,” I growl.
“We see him in the hallway, but the cameras lose track of him.”
“Lose track? How is that possible?”
“He entered the stairwell, and then we don’t see him.”
“He what?” I yell. “Could that lead outside?”
Don’s face looks grim. “It can, sir. But it’s a lot of floors down. We are looking at every floor.”
“How could he not be seen?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We see him enter the stairwell, and then he disappears when he goes from one camera to the next.”
“Don, I’m trying really hard not to lose my cool here. This building has the most state-of-the-art system. You’d better tell me how this is possible because, as of right now, none of it is.”
“We have someone going through the staircase now. He’s much shorter than our normal people in the building. We think he might have slipped under the view of the cameras. That’s the only thing that makes sense right now.”
I get up in his face. “You’re telling me that there are spots in this building that aren’t viewable by these cameras?”
His eyes widen with fear. “I’m sorry, sir, but y
es, there are. Sections where only a few aren’t covered or little portions along edges of the ground in the stairwells. He’s short enough that it’s possible. That’s all we can figure out right now at least. We see him, and then he’s gone.”
“Find. Him. Now,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Yes, Mr. Sexton. Every guard in the building is on the lookout.”
“Call me as soon as you see anything,” I growl as I exit the room and head back toward my office.
Kathleen is sitting at Jalynn’s desk, her head resting in her hands as her shoulders shake and tears flow down her face. Thankfully, Missy and Christine are nowhere to be seen.
Jalynn’s eyes meet mine, making my heart ache even more, but I can’t go there. We will find him.
“Austin’s in the lobby. They said Charlie hasn’t come through there,” Jalynn says.
“They saw him enter the stairwell,” I say matter-of-factly, making Jalynn’s eyes widen and Kathleen sit up in fear.
“Could he have left the building?” Kathleen says in fear.
I sigh. “It’s possible. Tessa should be here any minute. Is there anything we should know? Does he hide a lot? Could he be in a cabinet or something?”
She covers her mouth and nods. Once she gathers herself, she says, “He loves to play games. Hide-and-seek is his favorite.”
Of course it is.
“Okay, so let’s not panic. He’s probably just hiding from us. Security is searching every floor. We’ll find him,” I say, praying my words are correct. I might be saying them, but I’m not believing them.
It’s impossible to stay still. This is a big building, and he’s just a small boy. There are too many places where he could hide. The idea of him getting hurt in any way has my blood pressure soaring.
I continue my search, heading down the halls and stairwells. I’m given a master key that lets me open up any office door. I do so, hoping that he maybe went into one and locked himself in while playing Lex Luthor or Clark Kent or whatever his wild imagination comes up with.
I’m only on the floor below mine where many of our editorial desks are and where my father and Missy have their office suites. As I turn the corner, I stop in my tracks. Christine’s standing in my way with an expression on her face that sends chills down my spine—in the worst way possible. She has that saddened expression again, but as her eyes take me in, it’s as if the fire starts to build back into them.
“Why are you still here?” I ask.
“Building is on lockdown, remember? I tried to leave, but it’s like the universe wants me here, so I’m taking that as a sign.”
“There is no sign, Christine. I suggest you go downstairs. I’ll call security and give them my permission to have you leave the premises.”
I reach for my phone, but she stops me.
“Is this really what you want? A life where you have to search for a homely child who has no father? Do you really want to play stepdaddy to that red-haired little boy? You know what they say about the redheaded stepchild …” She lets out a small chuckle, and I have to clench my jaw to stop from doing something I’ll truly regret.
“Don’t you dare speak about my family that way. Charlie is an amazing little boy, and I’d be lucky if he one day looked up to me like I was a father to him.”
Just like that, Christine seems to have snapped back out from under whatever cloak Missy put over her eyes and is now looking at me with truth. “I used to run your schedule. I knew when you were stressed or tired or needed a drink. I was at your beck and call and ran every errand for you. I was the best, and you cast me aside.”
“You were my assistant, Christine. That doesn’t mean I wanted to be with you.”
“You should have. What kind of man lets a woman fall to her knees, practically begging to give him a blow job, and shoots her down?”
“A man who knows it’s wrong.”
“You’ve slept with assistants in the past. I heard stories—”
“They were mistakes. Both consensual and both mistakes.”
“What? I’m not good enough to make a mistake with? It took me three weeks to pick out a time where I could get you by yourself. I spent three hundred dollars on that lingerie. You could have fucked me so hard on that desk, but you were too pussy to do it.”
“I’m sure as hell glad I didn’t. You need to stop the charade. I don’t know what your end game is, but because I was here, being accused of something I didn’t do, a child is missing. I’m supposed to be at a Boy Scouts event, but instead, I’m terrified out of my mind that I can’t find a little boy who means the world to me, and it’s all because of you and your lies!”
She grabs ahold of my shirt. “Take it out on me, Bryce.” She pushes out her breasts and licks her lips. “I could give you a world full of fucking whenever you wanted and free of drama-ass kids. All you have to do is say yes,” she taunts.
I push her hands away. “I. Said. No.”
Her body steps back with a slight stammer. Her brows are pinched, and her jaw is tight. “That’s too bad, Bryce. You see, your stepmom has it out bad for you, and I’m more than honored to help her in any way I can. You might have gotten Kathleen Clarke out of representing me, but just as she said, you’d better lawyer up, and you’d better do it fast. Because I’ll get what I want from you one way or another.”
“Like hell you will!” Kathleen comes stomping around the corner.
I don’t know if I should be happy or frightened out of my skull.
“I’m absolutely disgusted with you right now, Ms. Christine Mummert. It’s women like you who make me sick. Accusing someone of something as horrible as sexual assault when it was obviously you who sexually assaulted him is despicable. How dare you have no respect for the women who truly went through what you accused him of doing. I will make sure you never see a courtroom when it comes to this matter. You’d better pray a man never actually assaults you because I’m telling you right now, with this accusation being totally false, no one will ever believe you.”
Both Christine and I stare wide-eyed and shocked at what we just heard.
“Bryce, you can make that phone call now to security. I believe there’s a woman who needs to be escorted out of our presence.” Kathleen stands up straight, her professional demeanor fully intact again.
I reach for my phone, saying, “Yes, ma’am,” as Christine huffs away.
As I hang up the call, I glance up to see Kathleen still standing there. I don’t know what to say exactly. I wait for her to make the first move.
“I was going to wait for more news from Missy’s office, but I think I’ll come upstairs with you,” she says.
I nod and walk toward the stairwell where we head back up to my floor.
Tessa comes barreling down the hall when she sees me. “Have you found him? What’s going on?”
I wrap my hands around her. “How did you get up here? The elevators are on lockdown.”
“Security escorted me up. Please tell me you found him.”
“We’re still searching. No word yet.”
She pushes me away. “Then, why are you standing here? We need to be looking.”
“They are. We are. Everyone is, I promise. We’ve been searching in every cabinet, closet, and desk on this floor. He couldn’t have gone far.”
“Oh, thank God you’re here!” Kathleen says, crying into Tessa’s shoulder.
It’s this moment that she realizes her mother is here. At Sexton Media. And most definitely not because Charlie is missing.
“Mom? Why are you here? At Bryce’s work?”
I stare at Kathleen for a brief moment and then open my mouth to explain when Kathleen chimes in, “That’s not important right now. I’ve been helping with the search for Charlie. Where are some spots he likes to hide around the house?”
“Okay,” she replies tepidly, knowing something odd is going on but is wise enough to refocus her energy on Charlie. “You think he’s just playing hide-and-seek?” she asks, confused
.
“We don’t know anything, but he is a five-year-old boy, so we’re doing all we can. So far, no one has seen him exit the building on any cameras we have,” I say.
I see her shoulders sag. Mine do, too. Knowing that is the only thing that keeps me from losing my shit altogether.
She nods her head, starting to believe that has to be the case, too. We have to stay positive, and right now, this is the only positive thing we have to go by.
My phone rings with a call from the security office. “Tell me you’ve found him,” I say after I hit the Accept button.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Sexton. Nothing yet. We want to show you the camera system to try to get your take on it,” Don says.
“I’ll be right there,” I say, hanging up the phone and grabbing Tessa by the hand. “Let’s go look at the cameras.”
She has to do a slight jog to keep up with my long strides, but neither of us slows down until we make it to the security room on the eleventh floor.
“Don, what do you have for me?” I ask.
He briefly eyes Tessa but is smart enough not to ask any questions. There’s no time for that now.
“Come this way.” He leads us through a few hallways to a room filled with television screens. “You see this right here?”
We watch as Charlie walks down a hallway in our office.
Tessa yelps and covers her mouth at the sight of her little boy. I wrap my arm around her, bringing her into my chest and nodding for Don to continue, trying to stay strong myself at the sight of the little boy looking around like he’s lost.
“Well, the next camera picks up here”—he points to another screen that’s empty—“but as you can see, he never comes into view. So, we checked the stairwell, and you see the very top of his head right here”—he circles the brief moment you see his curls bob up and down—“but then nothing.” He looks to us and shrugs.
He. Fucking. Shrugs.
I want to beat his ass for the nonchalant way he’s treating this situation. This is a little boy. Tessa’s little boy, who was my responsibility, and he shrugs.
