Worst Impressions

Chapter Fifty Three

'Jen', answer him!' I ordered.

'We're in Rome.'

'And the name of the hotel?' he pressed.

'Uh - Canvas De Italia. Why, what are you going to do?'

'Don't panic,' Will instructed. 'Stay in the hotel and wait for us. We'll be out on the first flight to help you find her. Don't run off and do anything stupid until we get there.'

'Jen',' I said, 'you need to tell the teachers right now, okay? Let them know we're on the way and have them call Lisa's parents.'

'I don't want to get her into trouble!'

'She's already in trouble! I know you want to be her friend, but they have a right to know what's going on. I'm coming out there with Will. We'll find her before anything bad happens, I promise.'

'I'm sorry. This is all my fault! If I'd been honest with them about Gideon's nature -'

'I told you not to tell anyone, so it's not your fault. Jen', you have to keep calm. Take care of Chrissy and Meg. If you can get either of them to tell you anything we don't already know, then do it. I'll be there soon, and we'll find her together. Trust me.'

'I do. Thank you. Both of you. I'll text you and keep you updated until you arrive, okay?'

'Okay. We'll see you soon.'

Will handed back my phone, his fingers brushing the back of mine as he did. We didn't have time for anything besides getting organised. If Lisa had been missing all night, then she might have left the city. Gideon could have easily hired a car to take them as far from Rome as he wanted. He might even have taken her to the airport and fled the country. I should have spoken up about him going on the trip when I had the chance. I'd had a gut feeling that it wouldn't end well, and like an idiot, I'd ignored it.

It really was my fault.

'I need to go home,' I said. 'Dad can lend me the money to fly out there. I'll pay him back some other time. And I need to call Jenny's mother and pack a bag -'

'Hey, I meant it when I said that we'd both be going out there. You go home and pack. Tell your Dad the situation. Get him to drive you to our house, and we'll go from there.'

'I can't ask you to help,' I said. 'Lisa's my friend, and -'

'Our family decided not to go public with Gideon's crimes, or his reputation. If we had, your school never would have employed him. And it wasn't just your mother who put in a good word, but mine because she wanted to give him a second chance. If anyone's to blame for putting him in Lisa's path, it's us.'

Well, I couldn't argue with that.

It had been a long time since I'd run so fast. And it was mostly uphill. My P. E teacher would have been proud, to say the least. Will and I went our separate ways. He had his own car to take him back to Pemberley Manor, whereas I was within walking distance of the garage. I didn't greet Eric or Max as I sprinted through the doors. I made a line for the office and flung the door open so hard that it crashed against the filing cabinet behind it. Breathless, I leaned against the doorframe and fought to catch my breath.

'Beth? What on Earth -'

'No time,' I wheezed. 'Emergency.'

It took a while to explain what had happened and why Gideon was such a threat. If he'd been just another teen boy from school who'd decided that he wanted to rent a hotel room with Lisa, it might not have been so terrible. It would dent her reputation somewhat, but no one would have been surprised. That Gideon was in a position of trust and had a reputation for being a liar, cheat, gambler, and had debts that ran deeper than the Earth's core made us both fear what he might do once he had an impressionable heiress in his grasp.

Once he was caught up, Dad didn't let me down.

I didn't know when he'd added Jenny's mum to his list of frequent contacts, but it took him mere seconds to locate her number and call her. They were on first-name terms, too. It made me wonder just how much I'd missed out on while away at school. Had we not been trying to arrange last-minute flights to Italy, I might have asked him just what was going on between them and if he had something to tell me.

Whenever I watched true crime documentaries, the detectives always said that the first forty-eight hours were crucial in finding a missing person. While Gideon didn't seem the type to commit murder, I felt that time was of the essence. Lisa may have gone with him willingly at first, meaning that she would agree to just about anything that he suggested, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't change her mind or want to leave. If she objected to any of his requests, he might turn nasty. I remembered how intimidated I'd felt when he'd cornered me in the classroom at school, how desperate I'd been to run away. He'd always seemed playful and flirtatious, but on that day all I'd sensed from him was danger.

I packed for us both while Dad called around to the rest of the parents. Although the teachers would likely call Lisa's family to tell them what was happening on their end, he wanted to reassure them he would be headed out immediately to help to recover her. Despite our lacking fortune and social standing, my father had a way of garnering the friendship and trust of others. I supposed that it had a lot to do with his no-nonsense salt-of-the-Earth manner. He seemed like a man who could get things done, and that was exactly the kind of person Lisa's family wanted searching for their precious baby girl until they could join us.

Stupid though he was, Eric stepped up in announcing that he would take care of the house and garage until we returned. I had no idea how long it would take to find my friend, but I didn't intend to leave Italy unless she was safely removed from Gideon and he was out of our lives forever.

Our bags packed and our resolves set, we left the garage in the pickup and sped off to Pemberley to meet with Will. We spent the entire journey in uneasy silence. Dad's knuckles were white as he clutched the wheel, and I twisted my hands in my lap.

I loved Lisa like a sister. She annoyed me, and she could be rude sometimes, but that didn't matter.

All siblings fought, but it didn't mean they stopped caring about one another.

God, I hoped we weren't too late.