Page 49 of Wicked Bite
I hurried to the doors of the Hawthorne Hotel and yanked them open. I marched through straight to the elevators. When Piper hadn’t texted me the first night, I made her give me his room number just in case. When the doors opened, I felt myself getting angrier. She had to be here and when I found her, I was going to kill her then hug her. Then kill her all over again. I stabbed my thumb into the button on the wall several times then crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for the doors to close. When they didn’t close fast enough, I hit them again.
“Come on, come on.”
The doors slid shut and I hopped from one foot to the other. When I got to his floor, I hurried out the door, the feeling of dread increasing as I got closer. I paused in front of his room for one second before I started banging on the door.
“Piper!” I called through it and banged three more times. “Piper, you suck. Proof of life now, or I will get a fire extinguisher and break the door down.”
Nothing. No answer. I pressed my ear to the door. Silence.
I banged even harder and gave the door a kick for good measure. “Piper! Not cool.”
“Hey, hon.”
I jumped out of my skin and pressed my hand to my heart trying to force it back into my chest. When I turned to the voice, I spotted the maid staring at me from down the hall. “Holy crap, you scared me.”
She chewed her gum like a cow while folding a hand towel next to her cart. “Just thought you might want to know. That hot guy, he’s gone.”
I stepped back from the door. “What do you mean, gone?”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen him. Then the girl at the front desk told me some other hot guy checked him out.” She laid the towel on the cart and shrugged. “Thought you might want to know so you could stop all the banging.”
I pulled my jacket around me tighter. The sinking feeling got worse. Where were they? What could she possibly be doing? I knew he had a private jet, but things weren’t adding up. Time to pull out the big guns. I yanked my phone from my pocket and clicked on her name then to find her location. It wasn’t something I used often but I would now. The little blue dot told me she was right down the street at the corner by Salem Commons. What the fuck? If she was having a winter picnic with that hottie, I was going to kill her again and hug her after.
I ran for the elevator and took it back down to the lobby and ran out the door. My boots slid on the sidewalk and my body tilted sideways. Suddenly, I was flat on my back looking up at the sky. Icy slush seeped into my jeans, and I lay there for a minute, just breathing.
I’m definitely going to have words with her.
I pressed my hands to the ground and the little salt pellets they used to melt the ice, which clearly weren’t working, pressed into the palms of my hands. I staggered to my feet and dusted my hands off. A growl escaped my lips as I marched down the street. The sound of cracking ice filled my ears with each step I took. I pulled my phone back out of my pocket to make sure it wasn’t cracked, and I followed that little blue dot on my screen all the way down the street to her. I stopped when it said I was where she was. I looked up and spun in a circle. No sign of her anywhere.
“What the hell?” I ran my hand through my hair, tugging at the strands.
I brought up her number again. This time I hit the call button. Her ring tone blared to life, and I spun around again searching for her. Nothing. I held my phone away from my ear and tried to find it. I took a step closer to the street and looked down. There it was. Beat up and in the gutter. If she wasn’t so clumsy and had to get a heavy-duty case, it would’ve been toast.
When I snagged it, I held it up. Tiny crimson spots that looked like blood clung to the corner of the case.
Oh.
My.
God.
“Piper!” I looked around once more and there was no sign of her.
My hands shook as I dialed 911 on my own cell. Breathe, Dice, Breathe. But I couldn’t. I knew something was wrong. It was like a sharp pain in my stomach that wouldn’t go away. Like a tingling on the back of my neck that sent chills down my spine.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
My voice quaked. “H-hello. Something happened to my friend.”
“What’s happened, ma’am?”
I looked around once more and suddenly everything felt too bright, too loud, too out of control. “I-I don’t know. She’s just gone.”
“Ma’am, can you tell me where you are?”
“North Washington Square over by Brown Street.” My voice quivered. “I just think, I just think something horrible happened.”
“Police are on their way. If you’ll just stay on the line until they ar—”
