Page 254 of Cross the Line
Except that jagged rock in my chest starts prying open a seam of doubt. I hear the last words Presley said to me:
Next time it’ll be your whore. I will ruin every fucking hole she has, and I’ll make sure she knows it’s because of you.
“That expression doesn’t sayyeah.” JJ turns into me at the same time as I swivel to face him.
The pain in my chest is pounding so hard I can’t swallow around it, let alone breathe. “You said forty-eight hours, right?”
Jayden’s brows pull into one dark line, blackening his gaze.
“For bail,” I clarify when he doesn’t reply.
“Bail hearing…yeah, it can take up to forty-eight hours.” His tight expression eases. “Natasha would’ve updated us if anything had happened. Besides, she’s going for no bail, and so far, everything she’s gone for…”
“Right.” I nod when he trails off with a shrug.
“Fin is probably hiding out and taking time for herself. We’re going to walk into the apartment, and she’s going to have stress-cooked a feast that we won’t be able to eat alone.”
At his wistful chuckle, I drag in air that hurts as much as the hammering behind my ribs. I nod again. “Yeah.”
The doors ring open to Salem pacing in the hallway. Blanca howls on the other side of our door.
“Is Finley with you?” Salem asks, her face echoing the relentless banging in my chest.
“No,” Jayden answers first. The put-on ease vanishes as we stride to the apartment. Bee bolts past us, nose down, searching for our girl.
We’re left staring into the dark entryway. The smell is wrong. There’s no trace of the floral, powdery perfume she was wearing this morning. No warm, mouthwatering scent of freshly cooked food. Everything sits exactly as we left it after Fin went to work this morning.
“Call Parker, he’ll be with Summer and—” Jayden pauses, noticing I’m already texting Fin’s boss’s husband.
No sooner have I sent the text than my phone is ringing. An unknown number that I would normally decline. Every worst-case scenario runs through my head as I answer, and when Summer’s panicked voice echoes down the line at me, a fissure quakes through my universe.
Jayden’s calling Fin while Summer tells me, “I made her go home when the news about Presley broke. There were reporters outside and—” She pauses with a sigh. “—I could tell Finley was anxious about it. God, I should have made her accept Parker’s offer to drive her…”
“It’s not your fault,” I say, watching JJ mouth,Keeps going to voicemail.
I end the call with Summer and try Christina.
“Pick up,” I beg, over and over, until it flips to voicemail, too.
“Why the fuck can’t anyone answer their goddamn phones today?” JJ barks, smacking his palm to the wall.
Blanca goes into a spin.
Salem’s sharp gasp shrouds us in silence as she scuttles away from us.
It’s when I look at him that all the fear roiling in my gut wrenches up into the back of my throat. Filling it with an acrid burn that blurs my vision.
With trembling hands, I swipe through my phone. Looking for an answer that I won’t find, and if I did, I wouldn’t see it because my hazy stare is swimming with the throb of my frantic pulse in my head, my throat, my chest…
The screaming in my head is telling me what I should do?—
Call the cops.
Try Christina again.
Go look.
Yes. That seems like the best idea. We can’t stand in the middle of our home, freaking out like that’s going to bring our girl back.
