Shit.
I glanced at my watch, and my pulse kicked up. Five minutes had passed.
“Tim texted me back,” Varesh said.
I whipped around and locked eyes with him, my heart in my throat. “What’s going on? What happened?”
“You tell me.” He strode the few steps toward me and shoved his phone in my face.
Sadies hurt needs help. Cars not wo in On Bradley St. Can’t muiss us.
I reread the message. “Car’s not… what? Working? Can’t miss us? What the hell does that mean?”
Sadie’s car looked like a thousand others in the city. It blended in everywhere.
Varesh’s eyes met mine. “I don’t know what he’s saying exactly, but Bradley Street’s close by. We could be there in two minutes.”
“I'll drive.”
Eleven
theo
Istopped by my apartment and grabbed a couple of masks and a first aid kit, praying whatever had happened to Sadie required nothing more than bandages and gauze. Unfortunately, Tim’s text wasn’t written in English, so I had no clue how serious her injuries were.
“I don’t know what we can do if it’s bad.” Varesh pulled off his beanie as we rushed down the next flight of stairs, tucking it in his coat pocket.
“I’m trying not to think about it.” Picturing her seriously injured only made me feel helpless, and we hadn’t even found her yet.
If she’d been hurt badly enough to need a hospital—
Nope, not thinking about it.
We reached the landing on level three just as Dustin was backing out of an empty apartment.
My pulse jumped, and I tightened my grip on the first-aid kit. After not running into him for days, it was almost like seeing a ghost wandering the halls.
Varesh and I stopped short and exchanged a look.
A retired couple, Janette and Clive, had lived in the apartment before Ultimus took them. Pre-pandemic, they’d spent more time on cruise ships than in the building, so we were never close. Dustin hadn’t known them well either, and he had no good reason for being in there.
He turned the key and checked the handle twice before clocking our presence.
“What are you doing?” I asked, catching my breath.
He flinched and shoved a scrap of pink fabric in his pocket, his eyes flicking from Varesh to me.“Why do you ask?”
“Because I want to know the answer?” My gaze dropped to the keys dangling from his hand, and for the first time it hit me he could access all our homes.
Mine. Sadie’s.
Ellie and Willow’s.
He pulled his shoulders back and gave me a withering glance. “That’s none of your concern.”
“What did you put in your pocket?” Varesh asked, jittery with the need to keep moving. “And why are you being so shifty?”
Dustin opened his mouth as if to respond, but he must have known his explanation wouldn’t wash. “I don’t need to justify my actions to either of you. Entering apartments from time to time is part of my role as the manager.”
