Page 264 of Finding Us

People start to leave late afternoon, and by evening everyone’s gone. Jade and I go to bed early. The weekend was fun but exhausting.

On Monday morning, Jade and I ride to campus together. She only has one class today but she wants to do some research at the library. Before we left, Jade got an email from her advisor asking if she’d like to meet with him today. He knows she dropped a class and usually when students do this, it prompts a meeting with your advisor, at least it does at small schools like this.

“Where are you meeting your advisor?” I ask as I park the car.

“I don’t know yet. He said he’ll email me later. His office is being renovated so he said he’d have to find a different room.”

I go around and open her door. “Call me when you know where you’ll be. I’ll just meet you over there since we’re going home after that.”

“Sounds good. Have a good day. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” I kiss her goodbye.

I go to class, then physical therapy over the lunch hour, then back to class. After my afternoon class I get a message from Jade saying she’s meeting her advisor in a building on the south side of campus. It’s an old building that isn’t used for classes anymore because it needs some repairs. Her advisor must be using one of the rooms for his temporary office.

Jade’s meeting is at 4 and it’s scheduled for a half hour so I go to the coffee shop to kill some time. Sara is there and sees me when I walk in.

“Hey, Sara.”

She comes over to me. “What can I get you?”

“I’ll just have coffee.” I sit down and set my backpack on the floor.

Sara sits across from me. “Hey, you know that man Jade was asking me about? Walt? Older man, kind of looks like a professor?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“Jade asked if I got a weird vibe from him. I said I didn’t, but then I thought about it some more and, I don’t know, maybe thereissomething going on with him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve noticed that he’s always in here whenever Jade’s in here. I figured they just had similar schedules. But then she dropped those classes and stopped coming here as much and Walt stopped coming here, too. But he still shows up on the other days she’s here. At the exact same time. It’s like he knows her schedule. Does that seem weird to you or do you think it’s just a coincidence?”

I grab my backpack and get up from the chair. “Hey, forget the coffee. I need to go. If Walt shows up here, call me. And if he asks about Jade, don’t tell him anything, okay?”

She nods. “Okay.”

I race to the door and when I get outside, I call Jade. She doesn’t answer. Why isn’t she answering? She always answers. I send her a text. She doesn’t text back.

Shit. Now I’m getting worried. Why the hell would that guy be tracking Jade’s schedule? And showing up at the coffee shop whenever she’s there? Is he following her? Who the hellisthis guy?

What if that email from her advisor wasn’t really from him? Now that I think about it, why would her advisor want to meet in a building that’s no longer used and needs repairs? There are plenty of open rooms all over campus where they could’ve met.

This could’ve all been a setup. That Walt guy could be trying to lure Jade to an isolated area. But why? What does he want with her?

Maybe it’s not Walt. Maybe it’s that fake cop. He acted like Jade needed protection. Why would he say that?

Or what if the person who shot those guys in the parking lot saw Jade there that day and has been trying to find her? If he found her, he’d kill her. Shit!

I start running to the building. I don’t know what room she’s in, but I’ll check every damn one until I find her.

It’s now 4:10 and I’m hoping she’s just meeting with her advisor and not answering her phone because he doesn’t allow it during his meetings. It makes sense he’d say that, but it pisses me off because I need her to answer her phone!

I shouldn’t be freaking out like this. Jade’s fine. She’s safe. She’s with her advisor.

Fuck. Why don’t I believe that?

JADE

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