Page 81 of Right With You
After another three, I sent another text. I didn’t want to crowd her, but my gut told me something was wrong. Could be I felt the distance between us was the problem, and every instinct in me wanted to solve the problem, but the low hum of dread had me on edge.
Finally, I couldn’t stand waiting any longer. I’d been here ten minutes and hadn’t heard from her. There was every possibility I’d knock on her door, and she’d come open it and shoot daggers from her eyes at me for waking her up on a day when she could’ve slept in. I’d accept the title of selfish jackass and it’d be one more thing I needed to grovel for.
At first a quick knock. Then a full minute and a half later, a more forceful one.
Nothing.
“Elise. Please, open up,” I spoke to the door to no avail.
The temptation to bang on the panel separating us grew rapidly, but I didn’t want to wake the neighbors and start drama. I texted Adam to request Jo give him Dove’s number.
After a quick call with Doc to reassure him everything was fine, I called Dove.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Dove. This is Luc. I know Elise is upset, but I’m wondering if you could just…” I tugged at the wild ends of my hair, no doubt leaving them sticking up. “Can you tell me she’s okay?”
“Aw, you’ll be okay. And she will, too. I left late last night because I have work this morning. She had planned to sleep in a bit and then go for a jog.”
The red flag started waving.
“What time?”
“Uh, not sure exactly when. But we joke all the time how we’re early birds. She once told me seven was like a whole lifetime of sleep after waking up at four most days. Do you?—”
“Thanks, Dove.” I hung up, not staying on the line long enough for her to finish her question, forgoing the concern over the neighbors and leaning into the very real worry I had now.
“Elise. Please. Please open up.” I knocked again, then tried the door handle.
When it inched open, my blood ran cold.
Out for a run or still in bed, either way, this door would be locked. She was careful, especially after Callum had showed up at her place weeks ago. She wouldn’t have left this unlocked for any reason.
No hesitation. I entered, eyes clocking the entryway bench and the three sets of shoes tucked neatly under it, including the sneakers she used for running. It all piled up, leading to what I knew I’d find—an empty bed, and worse, her phone still plugged in next to it.
In seconds, I searched the rest of the apartment, then called the police. First things first. After that, with shaking hands as reality settled in, my next call was to Bruce.
“I think Elise—” I sucked in a breath, the adrenaline making me short of breath, and pushed out the words hammering through my mind. “I think she’s been taken.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE
Elise
Waking up this morning, a forgotten item on a list dangled just out of my mind’s reach before I ever opened my eyes. Fuzzy-headed despite not having more than a few sips of wine last night, my brain felt bleary and almost cotton-stuffed.
What had I gone to bed thinking about? What was thisthingI was trying to remember?
I lay with my eyes closed, filtering through what I remembered.
The realization that Luc had bought out Callum’s investment. Going home and crying all over Dove after she came over. Telling Luc I’d look at the papers he gave me, then sitting in stunned silence as I saw he’d put the investment in my name from the very beginning based on the date of the notarized signature.
Dove had stayed a while longer and I’d asked Marisol to open for me today. I’d fallen asleep on the couch a while after Dove left and dragged myself to bed sometime in the two-o’clock hour.
And then?—
I gasped as my eyes popped open, then moved to sit up in a scramble of legs and arms. These weren’t my walls. This wasn’t my bed. And my arm…
There was a cold metal handcuff around my wrist anchoring me to a radiator. I was on a mattress next to it on the floor, and the room appeared to be empty otherwise. Beige walls and dirty cream floorboards lined the small square space, and only one frosted glass window above me on the wall was letting in watery, weak light. The door was closed, and for some reason, that detail was the one to pull a sob out of me.
