Page 110 of Shattered Veil

Zoey shot me a side-eye. “You have his location?”

“He asked for mine and gave me his.”

She clicked her tongue several times. “Possessive, Jay.”

“He was worried about me,” I retorted with more bite than I intended.

Zoey smiled wide. “Defensive, Cas.”

“Point,” I reminded her in a stern tone, “is that I had his location. Had. It’s gone now. It’s not showing up anymore.”

Her expression pinched together. “You think he turned it off? Unshared or something?”

“He wouldn’t do that,” I said confidently. “And no way any of those new messages are James. They’re too short, they don’t make sense considering I’m living with him for the time being, and if I told Jay this morning that I was planning on going back to my place instead of his,” I let out a sharp, bitter laugh, “he would have freaked. I mean, the man’s been anxious as fuck. All,” my voice lowered to imitate him, “‘I need to be around you. I need to know you’re okay—’”

“Stop, stop! Specifics later. And I really mean that—if you don’t give me details, I will perish, Cassie.” She paused and then clarified, “Your point is that he wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, sure, stay at your place! Deuces.’”

“Well, I don’t think Jay would ever say deuces in place of goodbye, but yes.” I sighed loudly. “That was my point.”

Zoey questioned slowly, “Maybe…a friend from work got ahold of his phone?”

“And decided to turn off his GPS, text me to say that I shouldn’t come over tonight, and that I should just stay at my house?” I frustratedly threw a hand up only for it to fall back to the wheel. “Why? Why would anyone do that?”

“Okay, ah…what are you getting at, here?” Zoey asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “Just have a bad feeling.”

“Well, where are we going?”

“I don’t—I—I’m retracing steps, I guess? He was on his way to work, obviously.”

“Right…one sec.”

Zoey placed my cell back in the cup holder and retrieved her own from the front pocket of Liam’s black hoodie. Her fingers tapped away, and just as she was lifting the phone to her ear, I asked:

“What are you doing?”

“Covering all bases,” she said quickly before she spoke into her phone, “Hey, Claire. Quick question. No context. Have you heard from Jay this morning?” I caught her eye as she admonished, “I said no context—’kay. What about Luke?” She listened to Claire’s response, and then abruptly trilled, “Mmkay, cool, thanks, bye!”

Claire yelled through the speaker, “Zoey, wait! Why—” but it was cut off by Zoey immediately ending the call.

“You hung up on her,” I noted.

“She’ll forgive me,” Zoey returned. “No one needs her digging for details right now—she said no, by the way.”

I had already assumed that was the case. I mumbled back, “Thanks for that.”

“Mhm,” she offhandedly hummed. “What are your thoughts, exactly?”

“Best case scenario…I guess I find him safe at his work because a fuckin’ class clown of a coworker took his phone?” I murmured, “As much as I want that outcome and know that I shouldn’t cause an act of violence at his work, I swear to God, I’ll punch whatever fucker thought this was funny.”

“Atta girl,” Zoey mumbled.

“Hold me back, for Jay’s sake?” I asked.

She chortled, “I can try, but that may be on him.”

I looked over to give her the smallest of bitter smiles, she returned it, and I continued, “Worst case scenario…”

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