Page 150 of Unexpected

The name at the top of the profile was “Lexi.” No last name, just Lexi, but the description read:

ATX

Cat Mom

GoGREEN

My motto: expect the unexpected

The last one stopped me. This was all for me. That final line sealed the deal that I was meant to find that profile at some point.

I’d heard the name, that stupid name before, but I couldn’t think of where I heard it from. It was Valerie, not Lexi, and the photos proved it unless someone was using her photos. My head was spinning, and I felt like I was in a thick fog until it all clicked together.

Rage like I’d never known pulsed through me in increasing waves. The fog around me lifted, but it was anger, red and intense, that blurred my vision. I looked for the nearest object. My hand landed on a decorative vase that Blakely, of all people, had gifted me last Christmas. It shattered into a million pretty little pieces when I threw it at the wall. It was a good sound, but it didn’t do anything to make me feel better.

“Whoa there, dude. I understand this is bad, but I feel like I’m missing something. Why is Valerie pretending to be someone named Lexi?”

I scrubbed my hands down my face and pulled at my hair. “Lexi,” I said through clenched teeth, “is Hazel’s new neighbor.”

Josh’s brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed to slits as he peered down at his phone once more. In another few seconds, his confused expression morphed into one of understanding. “You’ve never met Lexi, I’m assuming?”

I shook my head because in that moment, I was beyond words. And I was already past the realization—I was on to planning and figuring out what the fuck was going on.

“While you contemplate that, I’m going to go get my fucking shoes, and we’re going to the restaurant where her fucking phone says she is.”

“Do you really think she’s still there? I don’t think—” I stopped my retreat from the entryway and cut off Josh’s words by whirling on him.

“Do not finish that sentence. Do you have a better idea?”

Gauging my reaction, Josh only shook his head and waved me off.

In a matter of seconds, I was leaning against the doorframe of my closet, pulling on my boots. It wasn’t even a thought to grab my gun and holster and position it at my back, partially below my belt. I grabbed another loaded magazine and shoved it into my front pocket.

I didn’t know what I was walking into, but I knew Valerie had been planning this. We were so many steps behind her that I couldn’t even begin to fathom where she was going with it. We thought she had been biding her time or taking a back seat and settling on mind games, but she had been plotting.

How she figured out where Hazel was moving and had leased the unit immediately next to hers under a fake name was beyond me. But I had sorely underestimated her and doing so meant Hazel was in danger.

I positioned the gun that I hadn’t carried in a while at my back and tried to keep the anger at bay. I hadn’t carried a gun since just before I left Valerie.

Getting angry and letting it take over was not going to help find Hazel, even if it was doing a damn good job of overwhelming the rest of my emotions and rationale. I would keep a lid on it if it meant we had a better chance of finding her. I did not have the luxury of panic.

I shut off the light to the bathroom and pulled my phone back out to try Hazel again. It continued ringing like it had before, but I lifted it from my ear when something outside of my bedroom window caught my eye.

We hadn’t left the house yet, and I was already pulling my gun from where I’d just placed it. Slowly, I pushed aside the partially open curtain and lifted one of the blinds. I squinted through the small opening and tried to identify what I’d seen. I scanned the ground between the houses, looking carefully from left to right, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary there.

I parted the dark curtains and lifted the blinds all the way to the top of the window with one quick pull of the cord. With the curtains parted and the blinds open, it was obvious what had caught my attention. The space between the houses was empty, just as I thought it would be, but written on what used to be Hazel’s bedroom window, in large, red letters, were the words: Game’s Almost Over.

My gun was at the ready, poised in front of me, but as I read the text, I lowered it, realizing the threat wasn’t in front of me. I’d heard those words recently, directly from Valerie’s mouth and in the same breath as when she claimed picking Hazel over her would be the worst decision and that I was lying to myself. As if there was a decision to be made or she knew my thoughts, she said that it would all be over soon enough.

I heard Josh enter the room behind me and when he noticed the words on Hazel’s old window, he mumbled a few curses. “That’s not blood, is it?” he asked, worry evident in his voice.

I shook my head. It was paint, that much I could tell by the opacity and the way the bottom of each letter only ran slightly. Her intention was obvious, though. She wanted to make me second-guess if it was blood. But I tried to take what little comfort I could in the fact that it wasn’t and that she’d used the word “almost.” It would have been simpler to just write Game Over.

“I cleaned up the broken vase, and I tried to call Blakely. No answer, though. So, let’s go,” Josh said, snapping a picture of the window and turning on his heels. “Do you want me to drive, or—?” he asked, throwing open the front door.

I locked the door, and we jogged down the porch stairs to where I’d left my truck parked in the driveway. “No, I’ll drive, you call the restaurant and see if they’re still there or whatever else you can find out.”

I needed some type of control and driving seemed to be the only thing I could control in that moment.

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