“What is this?” he demanded.
Exhaustion hit me hard, sinking down into my bones.
“Ash,” I said, my voice raw. “I don’t think our mother abandoned us.”
9
Fox
Itypedonmykeyboardwith aching fingers. My knuckles had come a long way in the past week, but I still regretted the choice to fuck them up so bad on that punching bag. I rolled my stiff shoulders back and forth, wincing at the pain and tension in them.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I paused my work and pushed back from my desk. I took off my blue light blocker glasses and massaged my fatigued eyes. Staring at the screen most of the day took its toll no matter how hard I tried to prevent it.
A knock came from behind me. I spun my office chair around to see Emersyn standing in the doorway of my office.
I glanced through the glass panes behind her, finding it suspicious that she didn’t have August with her.
“Can I come in?” She tilted her head innocently.
A wide, fake smile was plastered on her face. When I didn’t reply right away, her gaze flicked behind me toward the conglomerate of monitors I worked on.
“Or…are you too busy?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m always busy.”
She stepped inside my office anyway. “I won’t keep you long.”
I set my glasses on my desk. I liked Emersyn well enough, but I had an inkling that I wasn’t going to like what she had to say.
“What do you want?”
She pursed her lips. “What makes you think I want something?”
“You don’t usually come to see me without my brother with you.”
Emersyn smoothed down her long auburn braid that fell over her shoulder. “That’s not very fair. I thought we were friends, Fox.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. She was more than my brother’s girlfriend. I considered Emersyn my friend, and I didn’t have many of them, but she was giving off a strange energy.
When I continued to pin her with my steady stare, she glanced away, chewing at the side of her lip.
“Fine.” She sighed. “I wanted to ask you something.”
“What did you want to ask me about?”
She paused, nervously shifting her weight. “It’s about Skye.”
I tensed at the sound of her name. “I don’t know if I’d be helpful with that. I don’t know her anymore.”
Her shoulders sagged. “Maybe that’s true. But you did, at some point. I’m getting worried about her.”
I ignored the way my stomach clenched.
I’d known something was off about Skye when I caught a glimpse of her at the brewery. I’d spent days trying to keep myself busy with work, so I didn’t think about her or the fact that she had been with Detective Whize.
“I met with her yesterday,” Emersyn continued. “She seemed off, distracted. She asked me to do some work for the documentary. Which is fine. I don’t mind helping out with it.”
She trailed off.
