To L.A. With Love: Volume 1 (To L.A. With Love: A Charity Anthology)

Excerpt

About a month after he vanished, Braedon came to me in a dream.

“Go to the library and ask for Ryrise. They will help you,” he’d said.

I woke up with his face lingering in my mind and the name Ryrise on my lips. I repeated it as I rose from the bed. I still used “my” side, though I should have adjusted, but hadn’t. Three years together was plenty of time to establish habits.

The lab Braedon worked in had refused to give me answers. They filled my email with red tape and sent my calls down endless voicemail boxes. Visiting them had not done any good either. His boss, who had been decent in the past, now refused to see me. Braedon’s research was top secret, and he’d given me little in the way of clues. Though work insisted he’d left for home that day, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened to him.

Going to the police hadn’t done any good. The officer who took my report did everything but state that perhaps something in my behavior had caused a henpecked boyfriend to flee. I suspected that all, but my copy of the statement was filed with the paper shredder.

The morning dragged on as I tried to stay focused on my spreadsheets, and not what my dream suggested. The worst I would do was use up my lunch hour on a stupid errand at the library. At least I’d be taking action. I slipped on my jeans and shoes before I could change my mind.

The double doors opened with a whoosh that reminded me of Sci-Fi movies. I hoped coming here and asking for Ryrise would be enough to dislodge this crazy notion from my head.

I hadn’t been inside a library in decades. These days, most of the reading I did was in my car from downloaded audiobooks. When Braedon vanished, I began listening to the news, hoping that some random stray bit of data would help me figure out what had happened to him.

The memory of him before I woke was so clear that I couldn’t help but take action. A fool’s errand, perhaps, but I’d been called worse. I approached the counter, and a young man with streaks of blue in his hair gave me a nod.

“Welcome to the library. How may I help you?”

I cleared my throat, spots dancing in front of my vision. I’d come this far.

“Um.” I focused on the man whose eyes matched the streaks. He kept his head cocked, but his expression was beginning to change as I remained silent. The library was open to everyone, and I bet they got a lot of crazies.

I hurried on before self-doubt made my tongue stop working.

“I’m looking for Ryrise. Can you help me?”

No such librarian existed by that name. Of course they didn’t. But Braedon was missing, and no clue was too minuscule to pursue. If I had any chance of finding him, I would take it.

“Ryrise?” The man frowned, and I braced myself for the puzzlement behind the careful exterior. Then his face cleared. “You must be Sarina Casters. They have been expecting you. Come this way.”

He motioned to the left as my mind whirled.

Expecting me?