I looked up, stopping dead in my tracks. My blood turned cold and my stomach dropped as if the floor beneath my feet had suddenly disappeared.
I wanted to believe that I was dreaming, and this was only a nightmare that I would wake up from at any moment…
But I already knew that wasn’t the case, and that Zander really was standing there in front of me on the porch, sloppy drunk with a bruise across his left cheek. His eyes were glassy with intoxication, but that didn’t prevent him from sneering, proud to have successfully tracked me down.
“Told you I was coming, didn’t I, love?” he said.
Survival instincts finally kicking in, I quickly moved to slam the door in his face. My mind raced with what I needed to do, like lock the door and call the police…
But even in his state of drunkenness, he was able to react quickly enough to grab the door and force his way inside.
“Did you really think you could get away from me?” he spat, painfully grabbing my arms.
I twisted, panicking and trying to free myself from his grasp. I kicked him in the shin with every ounce of strength I could muster, catching him by surprise.
“You bitch!” he yelled, momentarily releasing my arm.
I turned to run, but his hard and heavy footsteps followed closely behind me. A scream got stuck in my throat.
And just as I reached the edge of the steps, he lunged forward me, sending me crashing down. My body exploded in pain as I landed roughly on the steps, right on my stomach. The wind was knocked right out of me.
“What did I tell you about trying to run from me?” Zander bellowed.
CHAPTER 26
Anderson
To say that I was a nervous wreck was probably the understatement of the century. Ever since Tobias had revealed that Joanna had left his house without leaving any indication of her whereabouts, there had been a ball of dread in my stomach, especially since I had learned the full details about her fucking asshole ex. Something just wasn’t right, and Tobias and I both knew it. But with Joanna not answering her phone, returning our calls, or showing up for work, we just had no way of figuring out what was going on.
We had tried in vain to find her, visiting places she had frequented—such as favorite restaurants, bookstores, shopping malls—all to no avail. Tobias had even resorted to calling a few of her friends, but no one had heard anything. It was like she had somehow disappeared right into thin air.
“She’ll turn up,” Tobias had kept saying. “She always does.” But the more he said it, the more it became apparent that his words were solely an attempt to comfort himself.
When we had exhausted all of our ideas of places she could potentially be found, we were forced to throw in the towel.
“Maybe she’ll show up for work this week,” I had offered, but my words were just as hollow as Tobias’. I strongly doubted she would just report to the firm after avoiding everyone for a full week.
“Maybe so,” had Tobias said. But we both knew we were kidding ourselves.
Nevertheless, Monday morning, I had managed to fool myself into believing she might actually turn up and that I would walk into the office to find her stepping off the elevator, wearing a pencil skirt with her curly hair pinned on top of her head, grinning at me and saying, “How’d you fair with the latest set of numbers?”
I woke early, deciding that I wanted to get to the office early, just in case…
When I got to the firm, it was mostly empty, just as I had expected. I headed to the break room to make myself a cup of coffee that I didn’t really want. I took a sip, grimacing at how bitter it tasted because I’d been too distracted with my thoughts to make it properly. But I kept it anyway, and then proceeded to Tobias’s office, hoping with bated breath that he had managed to make contact with Joanna at some point over the weekend. I wanted nothing more than for him to look at me and say, “Oh, I forgot to tell you—she came back Sunday evening. She’s fine. In fact, she’ll be here in a little while.”
But the second I stepped foot into his office, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case judging from his tensed expression. He looked up at me expectantly. “Heard anything?”
I sighed and shook my head. “Nope. Was hoping you had,” I said, staring down into my bitter coffee.
“Shit,” Tobias said, flopping down into the chair behind his desk and staring out the window beside it. The day outside was dark and gloomy, the clouds in the sky threatening thunderstorms even though rain hadn’t been in the forecast.
“Look, I’m not feeling good about this at all,” I said. “Don’t you think it’s time to file a missing persons report? It’s been too long now, hasn’t it?”
Tobias bit his bottom lip. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I’ve thought about it, believe me I have. But I also know how Joanna is. On one hand, I’m worried sick, but on the other, I get the feeling that she’s just holed up somewhere, wanting to be alone and not wanting to answer to anybody. She can get like that sometimes. She has before. If I file a missing persons report and she isn’t in any real danger, she’ll be pissed. And that will just push her farther away. She’ll accuse me of meddling in her business, like always.”
“Okay, fair point. But what if something really is wrong?” I argued. “Better safe than sorry, right? This just isn’t something we should be risking at this point, especially if there’s even the slightest chance that bastard Zander is on the loose.”
Tobias shook his head. “I don’t think Zander is involved. If Zander was the problem, she would have said something. That’s probably the only thing that would make her say something.”