Page 78 of Sunrise

Knox’s face takes over my screen with an incoming call. “Hey.”

“I’m on my way home. You talk to Sophie?”

“Not yet. She took off tonight from the club though. Ry’s worried.”

“He can take a number and wait at the back of the line.”

Knox sounds more irritated than usual. “You good, man?”

“No. Yes. I don’t even fucking know. I’ll see you in twenty.” He hangs up and I’m once again overworking a bunch of hypotheses in my mind for what his problem could be.

Why is there nothing simple in this life?

I glance over at the setup I’ve put together in Knox’s place. The candles. Flowers. Fruit and champagne. We wanted to spoil her tonight. Now we have to find her first.

Dialing her number, I start blowing out all the candles I’ve lit. Seriously, Knox having this many goddamn candles in his house is unreasonable. If the apocalypse happened, he would never run out. It’s ridiculous.

She picks up on the fourth ring. “Hello?”

Her voice is mumbled.

“Soph, are you okay?”

“Vault?”

“Yeah?”

“Hiiii.”

For fuck’s sake, she’s drunk. “Hey,” I laugh nervously. “Are you drinking right now?”

“Yyyyup.”

“Where?”

“My house.”

That makes me pause. We told her to meet us at Knox’s after work. There was a group text. She saidokay, but now she’s drunk at home instead of being here with us… or working at the Monarch. That’s incredibly out of pocket for her.

“Can I come over?”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” she says, slurring a little.

Wow. Okay. “May I ask why?”

“Because I’m sad.”

“Why are you sad?”

She ends the fucking call. I try to reach her two more times, but she sends me to voicemail. Dialing Knox, it rings and rings and shoots to voicemail, too. I have a choice: Ditch Knox and get to Sophie or wait for him so we can tag team her. I decide to wait. Thank God Knox is a speed demon. I’m waiting outside by my bike when he rolls in.

“We’re going to Sophie’s,” I yell before he turns his engine off. Nodding, he heads out and I follow.

She doesn’t answer the door when we knock.

“Sophie!” Knox hollers. “Sophie, let us in!”

Maybe she’s in the backyard. I head towards the white privacy fence that wraps around the back of her property. The gate is locked from the inside, of course. Her house is a fortress. Grabbing the top of a post, I shimmy up and not-so-gracefully land in her backyard. Then I let Knox in.

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