“She’s not answering Lyric’s or my calls either. Something’s wrong.”
“No shit.” I blow out a sigh of frustration. “Where could she be?”
“I don’t know, but I think it best that we divide andconquer. I’ll head to her dorm. I have a key, so I can get in if she doesn’t answer. I’ll have Lyric check her usual study spots. In the meantime, maybe you could check any places you know she likes to frequent. Maybe the coffee shop. The bakery. The soccer field. See if anyone has seen her.”
“I’m close to the soccer field. I’ll start there. You’ll call me if you get in touch with her?”
“I will. And you do the same.”
“Will do.”
“And, Mac, don’t worry. I’m sure she’s fine. Probably just got held up doing something and her phone is dead.”
“Yeah.” My response is about as believable as her attempt to make me, and herself, feel better.
I end the call without another word, immediately jumping into my car to head over to the soccer field.
It doesn’t take me long to get there, but when I do, the field is empty and the locker rooms are locked, indicating there’s no one inside.
I hit the coffee shop next, showing Maisie’s picture to the barista like a panicked parent who can’t find their child. Unfortunately, while she recognizes her, she hasn’t seen her today. The same with the bakery.
I’m just heading outside when a text comes through on my phone. I damn near collapse in relief when I see it’s from Maisie.
Maisie: Meet me at the old milling building.
Something immediately feels off.
Why would she skip my game? Ignore my calls and texts, as well as the texts and calls of her two best friends, only to text me to meet her at an abandoned building.
Regardless of how suspicious it sounds, I hop in my car without a second thought and head in that direction. It takes me less than ten minutes to get there, and I textCharlotte as soon as I arrive, to let her know what’s going on to the best of my ability before abandoning my car in the parking lot to enter the dark building.
It’s eerily quiet as I make my way inside, which is not unusual for an abandoned building, but still, for some reason, the silence sets my nerves on edge.
Climbing the stairs two at a time, I reach the roof in no time, pulling in a deep breath as I push open the door that leads outside, still not sure what I’m about to find.
Call it intuition, or just a sixth sense, but I’ve known since the moment that she didn’t show for my game that something was up. Now I guess it’s time I find out what exactly that is.
I had run through every worst-case scenario I could think of over the last several minutes, but none of them could have prepared me for what I find when I step out onto that roof.
My eyes find Maisie instantly. She’s tied at the hands and feet, her hair covering her face where she’s lying on her side, appearing to be unconscious on the blanket that I left behind the morning I awoke here. In the next second, they land on Lana, standing over her, twirling a pocketknife in her hand.
“What did you do?” I move to head toward Maisie but stop dead in my tracks when Lana lowers the knife, using it to push the hair away from Maisie’s face. Her eyes are closed, expression relaxed, like she’s deep in the thralls of sleep.
“I didn’t do anything you didn’t force me to do.” She tsks, rising to her full height, knife firmly clenched in her right hand, letting me know that if I don’t behave, she’ll be able to plunge it into Maisie’s still form before I’d ever reach them.
“What did you give her?”
“Oh, this?” She nudges Maisie’s limp form with her foot. “Just a little GHP in her water bottle. Just enough to get her up here, and then a little more to ensure she wouldn’t remember my involvement inhowshe got up here. Don’t worry, she’ll wake up eventually, and with no knowledge of what happened. While getting her up here was more work than I bargained for, it made for such a dramatic scene that I simply couldn’t resist.”
“What do you want, Lana?” I clench my back molars so hard it’s a fucking wonder they don’t crack wide open.
“You know what I want.”
“I’m not yours. I’ve never been yours. I’ll never be yours.”
“Now. Now. Never say never. Besides, I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about the video. You know, the one you made without my knowledge with rather damning evidence on it.” She cocks her head, a malicious smile tugging at her mouth. “You didn’t think I’d just leave, did you? That I’d let you win.” She laughs, but there isn’t an ounce of humor behind it.
“You want me to delete the video, fine. Get away from Maisie, and I’ll delete it.”
