Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Something wasn’t right. Annalise wouldn’t just quit. Even if she were pissed, she wouldn’t not show up for a scheduled client meeting. She took pride in the way she handled herself, always fair and professional. And why wouldn’t she talk to me about something like this?
I re-read the letter one more time and then dropped it on my desk and grabbed my jacket off the back of my chair. “I gotta go.”
I was at the door to my office before Jonas could object. “Where are you going?” he yelled after me.
“To figure out what the hell is going on.”
***
“Annalise?” I banged on her door again, even though I was pretty sure she wasn’t home. I’d rung every bell until someone buzzed me in the front door and then bolted to her apartment before I got kicked out. Her car wasn’t parked on the block, and no sound came from inside. Yet I banged louder.
Eventually, the neighbor across the hall opened his door. He cradled a cat in his arms the way most people would cradle a baby. “I don’t think she came home last night.”
“Oh?”
He scratched at the cat’s belly, and the thing purred loudly. “She was supposed to feed Frick and Frack for me last night. I left the cans on the table, but they’re still there.” He looked down at the cat and spoke to it, rather than me. “Mr. Frick here has forgiven me, but Mr. Frack won’t even come out of his room. I’m lucky my flight this morning wasn’t delayed or my babies would have starved.”
Starved? I shook my head. Whatever. “When was the last time you spoke to her?”
“Yesterday morning when I gave her my key.”
I turned and started back toward the stairs without saying another word. The cat freak yelled after me.
“When you see her, tell her she owes Frick and Frack an apology.”
Yeah. That’ll be the first thing we discuss.
I sat in my car outside of her apartment building double-parked, trying to figure out what the hell had happened. She hadn’t come home last night and had quit without ever even discussing it with me?
Actually, she had mentioned work the other night. Well, sort of. She’d asked if I thought we’d be together next year if one of us weren’t forced to relocate to Texas. And I’d said no. I knew I’d hurt her, but was she so upset with me that she’d up and quit without even letting me know?
I hadn’t thought so.
Although…
She had been quiet the other night. I’d even asked her a few times if everything was okay. She’d said she was just nervous about her Pet Supplies presentation. My gut thought something more was bothering her. Now that I thought about it, she’d been quiet ever since that call from her mother. I hadn’t pushed.
Was it a coincidence that she’d had dinner with her ex’s sister last night? Maybe it reminded her that all men were assholes.
Even so, she would have at least come home last night.
Unless…
I shook my head. No, she wouldn’t go there. She sees what a douche that guy is now.
Doesn’t she?
But where the fuck did she sleep last night?
I started my car and dug my phone out of my pocket. No missed calls. No missed texts. Frustrated, I hit redial again before heading back to the office. Maybe she’d shown up at work while I was gone. We’d probably passed each other on the highway. She’d crashed at Lauren and Trent’s house last night and her cell phone had died. It had been raining pretty hard, and she didn’t like to drive to begin with. It made sense.
Yeah, that’s what happened.
Deciding that had to be it, I tossed my phone on the passenger seat and put my car in drive, forgetting I’d already hit re-dial. Which was why I was confused when a man’s voice came through the speakers of my car.
“Hello?”
I furrowed my brow, waiting for the rest of the commercial on the radio.
“Hello?” the voice said again.
The illuminated cell phone on the seat next to me caught my attention. Shit. My cell had connected through my Bluetooth and was coming through my car. But who the hell did I accidentally call?
“Who is this?” I asked.
“Andrew. Who is this?”
I froze. What the fuck? Lifting the cell phone to look at it, I confirmed Annalise’s name on the screen, and the call timer underneath was ticking away the seconds.
“Where’s Annalise?”
“She’s in bed. Sleeping. Can I help you with something?”
The blood in my veins started to boil. “Yeah. Put Annalise on the goddamn phone!”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Put Annalise on the phone.”
Click.
“Hello?”
Silence.
I screamed louder. “Hello?”
The asshole had hung up on me.
Fuck.
Fuck.
“Fuuuuuck.”
I hit redial. The phone didn’t even ring this time, just went right to voicemail. So I hit redial again.
Then again.
Then again.
I called over and over. But it kept going straight to voicemail. The fucker was either hitting reject call, or he’d turned her phone off. Either way, he was keeping me from talking to Annalise.