Page 45 of Uncontrolled

She’ll see I was right. She’ll understand I can be an asset.

I make it up the stairs and down the hall, dragging my fingers along the wall. My palm bounces over the trim of the entrance to the unoccupied apartment on my way to hers. From outside her door, I hear her ringtone. Guessing she’s on the other side, I knock to save myself the trouble of getting my key.

“Allie?” I call. “Can I come in?”

The phone goes on ringing. Stops. Starts. It takes me almost the entire run through her ringtone before I fish into my pocket for my key. Half a second later, her phone goes off again.

She has to be in the shower.

I grab the knob, unnerved when it twists in my hand without me unlocking it.

The hairs along my arms prickle. They got her.

I replay the strategies Nico outlined after they agreed to give me my two days, the information she craved, all the ways she kept me in the house, minutes dragging into hours. The longer the conversation went on, the more agitated East seemed until he disappeared at some point. Could he have come here?

“Allie?” I call as I open the door. Her phone is on the end table near the armrest of the couch. “Allie?”

She doesn’t answer.

The ringing stops. A notification blinks. Six missed calls. The screen lights up with the same number as it rings again.

I carry her phone with me to the kitchen, my steps quickening as I hook my fingers on the threshold to her bedroom and do a quick visual sweep. Empty. The bathroom door is open, the light off.

She should be here. She wouldn’t leave the apartment unlocked any more than she’d go anywhere without her phone. You blew it, Jamison whispers.

This isn’t happening. I scan the room as if Allie will manifest and then hit the button to accept the call. “Hello?” I say.

Silence.

My grip on the phone tightens. I wait. It’s Nico. They decided I wasn’t worth the shot or East overruled and went solo to the source like he wanted. Allie’s gone. I’m too late. They’re calling to… What, torture me? Brag? Tell me to keep the cash and enjoy the free place to stay? My tongue darts to wet my lips, voice rough as I force the words. “Do you have her?”

Whoever’s there exhales. “Oh thank God. No one answered! I called and called and no one answered.”

My body unclenches. I don’t know who’s on the other end, but it’s not Nico. So where is Allie?

“You fix things? This is the right number?”

As if I don’t have enough on my plate, the universe piles on another spoonful of problems. Why did I answer her phone? “Um, did you need—how’d you get this number?”

There’s a pause. “I bought it,” she says. “On the dark web.”

“Seriously?” I ask. I mean, it makes sense. It’s just not the answer I expected. I probably shouldn’t have even asked. “Okay, so you’ve got the right number but she’s not available at this exact second.” I’ve got the presence of mind to head toward the kitchen for a pen and some paper. Something tells me I’ll need it. I’ve never heard Allie take a resurrectionist phone call. I don’t know what secrets they keep and what they reveal. “Listen,” I say. “I’m going to ask you questions.”

A shuddering breath blots the background noise, a moan, then a clatter.

“What address do you need her to come to?” I ask, opening a drawer for a pen I don’t find. I swipe my hand over the top of the fridge before I spot a magnetic marker attached to a shopping list stuck to the freezer door.

The woman rattles off the name of a street and house number. It’s right down the road from us, but I’m not about to tell her. “What happened?”

“He’s in the garage. In the car.”

I’m grasping at all the things important for a resurrection. “Do you know how long ago he—” I cut off. I can’t bring myself to say it.

“Um… Not long?” It’s as if she’s trying to invent the answer she thinks I want.

“Okay,” I say. “Not long is good. We’ll be there soon, all right?” I’m about to start searching for Allie again when something else occurs to me. “Is the garage closed? Did anyone see him besides you?”

“No,” she says. Except I heard noise earlier and I’m not sure if her answer was to my question, or someone else’s. If others saw this guy dead, as far as I know, Allie isn’t supposed to do the resurrection.

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