“Her car and bike are in the garage,” Mason added. “I checked.”
My heart thumped faster, and I leaned over Cole to pound my fist on Shiloh’s door.
“Already tried that,” Cole muttered, resuming shoving the nail file into the deadbolt. It clearly wasn’t doing anything when it didn’t even fit the hole.
“Shy!” I shouted, after pounding three times. “It’s me, baby. Open the door.”
Jae roughly cleared his throat, “When’s the last time any of you saw or heard fromEmory?”
Fuck if her friends hear me call her by her name. I just need to see if she’s okay.
“She was at work yesterday.”
“Yesterday?!” I nearly shouted. “She was supposed to meet you for book club this afternoon.”
“Well, yes, but she didn’t show. When she didn’t respond to any of our calls and texts, we decided to come over. Rally and get her to come out. She…she’s done this before. I was worried,” Lottie trailed off softly.
That sinking feeling in my gut, the one that told me something was wrong the moment she didn’t answer my text from this morning only worsened.
She could be in there hurting herself. She could have cut too deep. She could be bleeding out.
My vision blacked out momentarily at the thought alone.
No, I wasn’t going to lose her.
“Baby, no one’s mad. It’s okay if you relapsed. We just need to see that you’re alive.”
“Relapsed?” Lottie whisper-shouted. “Relapsed?!”
I gave her a pointed glare, “You didn’t hear that until she tells you herself.”
Cole fell back on his ass and dropped his hands into his lap, “Fuck. This is impossible.”
“Fuck,” he repeated, throwing the nail file at the door.
“I’m calling the police,” Hannah said, swiping to unlock her phone.
I quickly snatched it.
“Hey!”
Heart racing, my eyes found Jae’s as he gave me a small nod. “It’s your call, brother.”
My hand fisted at my side.
“What are you doing? Call them!” Hannah demanded, eyes wide with frustration.
“Wecan’tcall them,” I replied with as much calm as I could muster. “She wouldn’t want us to.”
A door unlocked behind us, and I turned around to find an elderly woman staring at us all with a frown.
“Have you seen the girl who lives here today?”
Her lips thinned as she eyed each of us warily.
“Please,” Lottie said, stepping closer. “Were her friends and we think she’s in trouble.”
The lady adjusted her hold on her purple cane before grumbling, “Last person I saw here was him,” she said, lifting her cane to point it at me.
