Page 16 of Silver Secrets

Sloane’s arm reached out from under her warm comforter and slapped aimlessly at her phone. The blaring music was a dramatic reminder for that particular Saturday morning: she wasn’t getting to sleep in. No. She had to get her ass up and go run through Silver Springs with her friends.

It’s for a great cause. It’s for a great cause.

Yeah. No amount of repeating those words seemed to give her the motivation to leave her bed. However, the promise of the last blueberry lemon muffin she’d picked up in Bell Ridge earlier that week was exactly the motivation she needed.

She shuffled to the kitchen a few minutes later, knowing full well that she should have forced herself to shower and get dressed before diving into the treat. But again, she couldn’t find the energy to care. Mornings were the worst. She’d been a night owl for as long as she could remember. But nights were also torture once the sun went down…

Sloane forced her body to stop the shiver running through her shoulders. There was no time for those memories. She needed to be in town early but completely forgot to confirm what time Lily would be expecting her, and what time Mae would be there to pick her up.

The bite of muffin was absolutely to die for. Wiping crumbs from the corner of her mouth, Sloane grabbed her phone. A quick text to Mae would probably solve the timing mystery.

Before she could pull up her messages, the phone vibrated in her hands.

Her eyes darted up to the caller ID, and her mind went blank.

KL Rescue and Crew.

Her breath froze in her chest. The code name she’d put in her contacts fourteen years ago and hoped to never hear from again shocked her as it illuminated her screen. How long had it been since she’d heard from her?

The third ring buzzed through her body and Sloane snapped out of her stupor. She nearly dropped the phone trying to accept the call.

“Why are you calling me? What’s going on?”

Sloane tried to play it cool. The FBI agent who saved her ass in the weeks following her escape wasn’t supposed to call. Not unless he was back. Not unless they thought he was a threat again.

“Sloane. Where are you right now?”

Her voice sounded the same as the day she found Sloane running through the woods. God. Sloane looked at the ceiling, willing the tears in her eyes to go away.

“I’m home.”Alone.Her eyes darted around her kitchen, looking for any sign that someone had been in there. “He’s back?”

“No.”

Her stomach swooped. “I can tell you’re lying, Kimi.”

“The truth is, we don’t know.”

Sloane’s legs gave out and she crashed to the floor. “Tell me.”

“There’s a missing college student in Virginia. Five-five, a hundred and twenty pounds, strawberry blonde hair.”

“Her eyes?”

“One green, one blue.”

A sob sat heavy in Sloane’s chest. Her contacts were sitting on her bathroom sink and the loss of their safety ricocheted through her chest.

“She looks like me.”

“Yes. And I think you know I wouldn’t be calling if that was the only matching parameter.”

Sloane pulled in a sharp breath to clear the spots dancing at the edge of her vision. “What else?”

“All accounts of her last being seen state that she was walking home from an event on campus. With her boyfriend.”

Sloane nodded robotically. “And he’s dead.”

The line stayed quiet for a moment before Kimi said what Sloane had known right from the beginning.“I shouldn’t be telling you this… but I want you to be on alert. He was stabbed eight times before his throat was cut.”

---