“Monika, it’s me. What did you find out about Leah after she added you back on social media?”
“Oh, hey, Drew. Sorry, it’s been a madhouse today with Evelyn’s signing. Last time I checked, she hadn’t added me back yet. Judith denied me right away, though, so I tried with another account.”
“What do you mean, Leah didn’t add you back?” I ask, bewildered. “You sent me her picture with the others.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did,” I argue. “Right after Judith’s mug shot.”
It’s quiet for a moment while Monika presses the phone to her chest and murmurs something to a customer that I can’t quite make out. But something tells me to start walking, so I head towards the elevators, careful not to run into anyone with my duffle bag.
“Sorry, Drew, I have to call you back. Give me five minutes.” The phone disconnects before I can stop her.
I curse under my breath as I check Monika’s texts to confirm she sent me a picture of Judith’s mug shot, followed by a picture of Leah, but I call Cameron instead of trying the store again, and press the elevator button the second I reach it. When Cameron doesn’t answer and I get his voicemail, I start to panic and punch the elevator button a few more times for good measure.
When both of the elevator status arrows continue to point up, I abandon them altogether and head back to the stairwell, yanking open the heavy door so that I can climb. I push myself to take the steps two at a time, and drop my duffle bag on one of the lower floor landings.
“Come on, pick up,” I say, and just as I am about to call him for a third time, I try Jalen instead, just in case he went down to his room on the floor below ours. Jalen answers on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Jalen, it’s Drew.”
“Hi. I’m kind of busy right now—”
“Wait, listen to me. I think that Leah might have just walked through the lobby of our hotel. She went up the elevator, so she might be on her way to Cameron’s room.”
“Okay,” he says, confused. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“I tried to get a hold of Cameron, but he wasn’t answering his phone. I can’t explain it, but I just have this bad feeling.”
“Cameron is right here in front of me.”
“Oh, thank God.” I pause at one of the steps to catch my breath. “Can you put him on, please?”
“Drew?” Cameron asks a moment later. “I’m so sorry I missed your calls. I didn’t expect—”
“Cameron,” I interrupt, still out of breath. “Listen to me. I think that I just saw Leah in the lobby.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, because she was all covered like she was trying to hide, but I just have this weird feeling . . .”
“Where are you?”
I start moving again so that I can make it up the final steps to Jalen’s floor, completely out of breath, and grab the handle of the door that leads to the hallway.
“I’m here. I just made it to the—” I start, but my words are interrupted by the sound of loud knocking on the other end of the phone.
“There you are,” Cameron says. “One second, I’ll let you in.”
“No, wait, that’s not me. I’m still at the—” I try to say, but the phone disconnects before I can finish.
I push open the heavy metal door and start running down the short corridor that turns into the hallway in a full-blown panic to find the woman in black standing a few doors down, right outside of Jalen’s hotel room. I stop, dead in my tracks, as she reaches into her flowy top and pulls out something shiny and silver, and then tilts her head in my direction.
When our eyes meet, Leah frowns deeply. “I told you to stay away from Cameron, Drew. You should have listened to me.”
I lurch forward with no discernible plan other than to try and tackle her before Cameron opens the door, but I am too late. The door swings open wide a second later, and Leah turns away from me to look inside, and raises the gun to point directly at the person who answered it.
