hunch, but something about Skylar accidentally dropping his phone didn’t sit right with me. That wasn’t like him. He lived on that phone. If it was missing for five minutes, he’d notice. If he’d made it home and found it gone, he’d have retraced his steps or called with one of his friends’ phones to see if he’d left it at my apartment.
But then I remembered he couldn’t have called me because I’d smashed my phone to bits.
An older woman waited a few feet from the entrance. She looked to be in her midfifties. Her silver-brown hair was styled in a gentle bob, and she was dressed for an office job in a pencil skirt, blouse, and a nice jacket with a purple fabric purse over her shoulder.
When she saw me, she thrust Skylar’s phone in my direction. “I found it lying on the ground over there,” she said as I took it from her. She pointed toward the far row of parking spaces that led deeper under the covered structure. “I was just getting home, and I heard this ringing and ringing. At first, I ignored it. I figured it was someone nearby, but when it didn’t stop, I realized I was alone, and this phone was lying there on the ground.” She shrugged. “So I answered it.
“Thank you. It belongs to a friend. I’ll make sure he gets it back.”
She nodded but seemed uncomfortable. I didn’t blame her. It was dark, it was evening, and Levi and I were strangers. Male strangers. When I thanked her again, she scampered off and let herself into the building.
For a minute, I turned Skylar’s phone around in my palm. I pushed the button to light up the screen, but it was password protected.
“Do you know his password?” Levi asked.
My cheeks heated as I glanced once at my best friend. Then I punched it in. “I’ve seen him unlock the thing a hundred times or more. I wasn’t being nosy.”
“Of course not.”
A music app was playing—no surprise. I shrank it and hit the home screen button, pulling up a list of Skylar’s contacts. It took a minute since he had hundreds of peoples’ numbers saved into his phone, but I found Hunter’s name and hit Connect.
Levi hovered, worry all over his face, standing close enough he could listen.
“Dude, oh my god, tell me he’s not mad anymore. Is everything cool?”
“Hunter?”
A pause. “Dr. Palmer?”
“Is Skylar there?”
“What? No. He’s with you. I thought he was with you. Why are you calling on his phone?”
“He’s not there at the apartment with you? He didn’t come home and slip into his room without you noticing?”
“No. Mav and I have been waiting to hear from him because… Well, you know. Um… because he was going to try and… Why are you calling on his phone?” he asked again.
“It was found in the parking lot at my building. He left here an hour ago.”
Levi moved away from me and scanned the rows of cars. “What does he drive?” he asked.
“You found his phone? But… Where’s Sky?”
“A beat-up Ford Taurus,” I told Levi. “Red.”
Levi walked away from me, and it registered too late what he was implying.
Hunter was saying something, his voice growing frantic.
“I’ve gotta go,” I told Hunter.
“Wait. What the fuck? What’s happening? Don’t hang up.”
“I see it,” Levi called from twenty paces away. He pointed down a row of cars. “Jason, he didn’t leave.”
My heart pounded in my ears as a million scenarios raced through my mind. The nightmares I couldn’t shake came back to me, and my knees threatened to buckle. There was another voice on the line. Maverick. Two people yelled at me at once, asking questions I couldn’t answer.
Lightheaded, my gaze caught on something in the distance. I moved toward where the woman had claimed she’d found Skylar’s phone, my attention riveted on a small stringy object lying on the ground. When I was within ten feet, the bottom dropped out of my stomach.
Everything clicked together, and the roar in my ears was deafening. Skylar’s music app had been playing. He’d been wearing his headphones. Alone. In a dark parking structure. How many times had I told him…?
I heard voices in my ear, yelling, demanding answers, an explanation. Without fully processing what I was saying, I sputtered, “I have to go.”
“No. Wait. What’s happening?”
“I have to call the police.”
Levi grabbed Skylar’s phone from my hand when I hung up. I was shaking so badly it had almost fallen. He had his own phone out,