Page 24 of Obsession

“So she probably didn’t come home,” I supply.

“No.”

Lottie’s companion shifts on his feet, as if enduring something uncomfortable.

Violet keeps her voice gentle. “What makes you think she didn’t just go back out with him? Why call us?”

She turns to face me. “She left her phone here. She didn’t tell me where she was going. And that on its own might not have really concerned me. But we have a rule, we always tell each other where the other’s going.”

The one smart fucking thing she’s told me today.

“I’m going into her room,” I tell Lottie over my shoulder, halfway in.

“Mr. Master, I don’t think that’s a wise idea?—”

I ignore her. Violet walks in behind me and voices my thoughts when she looks around the room.

“Oooh. Oh my.”

The gauzy black curtains are drawn over the windows, but it isn’t dark enough to hide the large, king-sized bed decorated with a circular, plush blanket in purples and blacks, the skeletons that dance along every flat surface in a macabre display, or the feathery dream catchers that hang from the ceiling. That isn’t what’s got my attention, though, nor Violet’s.

A curved, black leather chair sits in one corner of the room.

“Is that what I think it is?” I say out of the corner of my mouth to Violet.

“A chair designed for tantric sex and multiple positions or partners?” Violet responds. “Ohhh yeah.”

I curse under my breath. “And you know this because…”

“I believe that question violates our confidentiality agreement, Mr. Master.”

“We don’thavea confidentiality agreement, Miss Price.”

Her tight-lipped smile makes me want to smack her saucy little ass.

She steps further into the room and looks around. “Something for sure’s off,” she says. “Look.”

She points to where Skylar’s phone sits, plugged into the wall. Her laptop’s beside it, and the little bowl for her cats is empty. “No way she’d leave without putting fresh water and food out for her pets.”

Lottie stands in the doorway. “And you called the police?”

“I did.” She sighs. “They won’t touch the case. They said that she hasn’t been missing long enough and we have no evidence.”

What she doesn’t say is that knowing I’m Skylar’s brother doesn’t help the situation.

Violet’s frowning, my sister’s phone in her hand. It’s password-protected, and she hasn’t gotten far with it.

“We’re taking this with us,” she says. “I’m sure I’ll be able to get in.”

Lottie doesn’t protest.

Moons line every surface of the room. Half-moons pinned to the wall with Latin phrases I don’t know, a full moon framed in silver above an end table that’s actually a half-moon shape.

“Why all the moons?”

Violet frowns, her eyes quickly flitting over every detail. “You said she was dating a vampire?”

“Miss Price, there’s no such thing as fucking vampires.”

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