Read Broken Glass for Free Online

pool, picking up chicks in bikinis, instead of out on a mission to test his skills as a gambler. So far, Will had shown no interest whatsoever in girls. It was as if he’d been mentally arrested at the age of eleven, although physically everything was more than normal. In fact, Will was downright gorgeous to look at. It had gotten us into some interesting situations in the past; girls trying to hit on him, clueless as he was. Once he’d invited a very pretty nineteen-year-old to “stay over.” His idea of staying over was full pajamas, a midnight snack, and a horror movie. When she tried to kiss him he’d said “gross”, wrinkling his nose and wiping her kiss off his face.
    “Dad,” I called out, racing up to my father and encircling him in a bear hug. “I’ve missed you!”
    “Honey, thank God you’re here. I’ve been worried sick about Will wandering around Vegas, losing money in some . . . some crazy gambling hall.” It was now five o’clock, he’d been missing for twelve hours. Dad’s restless eyes flickered over my shoulder. A waiter walked by with a tray full of drinks.
    “Have you called the police?” I asked.
    “Yeah, but they pretty much laughed. A twenty-one-year-old guy loose in Vegas? They have bigger issues to deal with, like murder and rape.”
    “Did you explain?”
    “I reported him missing and they filed the details into their computerized local system—fat lot of good it’ll do—they made it clear that being a voluntary missing person is not a crime and any adult person can simply walk away from his or her family.”
    “Yes, but, Will isn’t—”
    “They told me because it’s not a crime, the law enforcement is limited on how they handle these type of investigations. If it were a result of a criminal act, they said, they’d take it more seriously. I told them it was endangerment to Will himself, and maybe to others , and that’s what got their attention, when they finally put him in their database.” Dad’s words rushed out in a breathy torrent. Will had been living peacefully at home, and in a twenty-mile radius, not venturing anywhere risky except for the fantasylands of his video games. This phenomenon of Will going MIA was new to us both.
    “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon.” As I said this, my eyes focused on a scene in the distance at the far end of the pool, near a cluster of palm trees. A guy was lying face down on a sun lounger, surrounded by three bikini-clad blondes, apparently fawning over his every movement. I knew that body. Or did I? I shook the idea out of my head. The man was being massaged with sun cream; deft fingers traveled seductively down the backs of his firm legs.
    “What is it?” Dad said.
    “Dad, I’m going to the other end of the pool area to check something out, won’t be a minute. Meet you by the bar?”
    “Sure,” he agreed. “I could use some water.”
    “Get me a Coke, I’ll be right back.”
    I wandered over, in my flip flops, wondering if the vision I was seeing was my overactive imagination playing tricks on me. The way you do when you have something at the forefront of your mind . . . you see things when they aren’t really there. Because, unless someone had spiked my food earlier, I was seeing triple. I rubbed my eyes to make sure.
    I stood there, silently, feeling like a fool, as if everything I had been flipping over in my mind about this person in the last twenty-four hours was completely false.
    The woman who was massaging his legs was no more than nineteen. Purring over him like a kitten with a bowlful of cream. Another was feeding him a cocktail—a Tequila Sunrise maybe, because the red and gold of the drink swirled about the glass in colorful waves, as he sipped through a long straw. She fingered his dark hair—her scarlet nails keen as little knives; a lock was hanging over his brow.
    “Loving this, girls . . . loving it,” he murmured, while the third—one with a very sexy round behind—began to