Page 70 of Quake

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But she never showed.

It was like she’d disappeared and had never been in my life at all. Not knowing where she was or how she was doing had me twisted up inside. I was beginning to think she’d run away or worse.

I slept in my car that night, and when I woke in the morning, my back was alive with pain. Downing some pills, I checked my phone. The battery was at fifteen percent, the screen blank. No notifications. She still hadn’t replied to the hundred messages I’d left.

I was running out of options.

The only place I hadn’t tried yet was her work. Considering everything else had come up blank, it was worth a shot. I was getting desperate.

Looking up the number for Slattery Press in the city, I called, hoping Juliette had just stayed with a friend or at a hotel and had turned up to work this morning. Her job meant everything to her. Working in publishing was her dream, and things would have to be really fucked up for her to skip out on it.

As the phone rang, my heart twisted.Things were fucked up.

“Slattery Press.” It was a male receptionist.

“Hi, I, um… I’m calling for Juliette Spicer?”

“One moment please.”

My heart calmed its frantic beating. Good, then maybe she was at work and hadn’t skipped town after all.

There was a click, and someone answered, but it wasn’t her.

“You’re calling for Juliette?” a woman asked abruptly.

“Yeah, is she there?”

“She’s sick,” the woman replied. “Hasn’t been in since last Wednesday.”

“Wednesday?” I echoed.Shit.

“Wait, who is this?”

“Caleb,” I replied. “I, uh—”

“Caleb, the boxer, Caleb?” she demanded.

I frowned. “Yeah?”

“This is Jade, her boss.” She huffed, the sound echoing down the line. “You listen to me. That girl is the best assistant I’ve ever had, and now she’s out sick for days with what I suspect is a broken heart. You’ve got a lot of nerve trying to call her here at her place of employment. We do serious business here, you know.Serious business. This isn’t Jersey fucking Shore.”

I blinked in bewilderment, not following her rant. It was epic, and I would normally have something asshole-ish to say right back, but I was really starting to become worried something had happened to Juliette. Something bad.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demanded.

“The nerve!She would be right to dump your ass if that’s how you talk to people. Fucking fighters. You’re all the same. Macho assholes!”

“Hey, wait a moment,” I exclaimed. “She broke up with me, and I’m not a macho asshole!”

“She broke up with you?” Jade asked, her voice shifting slightly toward a more amicable tone. “Seriously? Dude, I saw your picture…”

I shook my head, wondering how anyone handled this woman. She was rough as guts and obviously unaware of Juliette’s problems. She must really value her as an assistant if this was how she defended her honor. It was yet another thing that led me to believe Juliette was worth finding.

“Something’s wrong,” I said. “I can’t get hold of her.”

“She probably just doesn’t want to talk to you,” she replied. “She did cut you off.”

“Jade…it is Jade, right?”