Page 10 of Playing A Risk
The small talk is going to kill me. I need to find her. But if I jump off the call, I’ll definitely alert him to the problems—time to suck it up and settle in for some bonding with my best friend.
After we discuss a few minor topics, he tells me he’s going back undercover on New Year’s Day. By the time I get off the phone, my blood is racing.
With each minute that passes, the muscles in my neck grow tenser. I shift around, unable to concentrate, check my emails, and stare at my phone. Nothing from her comes in.
She’s out there somewhere without shoes, a coat, or a phone. I’m sure she’s replaced the first two items, but she needs her phone.
Where the fuck could she be?
She wouldn’t have gone to Hunter’s, would she?
I shake off the thought. She was too upset to go to him. She wouldn’t want him to know I had hurt her so badly because she’d have to explain too much to him if she did.
And even though she’s angry with me, my personal life isn’t something she’d share with him. She knows Hunter and I are at war.
He says he won’t badmouth me to her, but I don’t trust him. Seeing him won’t help her right now. Even she has to know that.
I take the bag of her belongings and go to Melanie’s cubicle. “Hey, Mel. Any word?”
She pushes her rolling chair away from her desk and spins my way. “Sorry, Jamison. I haven’t heard a thing. Now, would you please tell me what you did to my best friend that put her in hiding?”
I shake my head and swallow. My stomach knots, causing bile to crawl up my throat. I turn around and march back to my office, too upset to discuss it.
“Jami, wait.” Mel comes rushing to my side.
“Mel, I can’t talk about this right now. I have to find her.”
“I understand, but I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened. When you called me last night, you said she wouldn’t run to Hunter with what was bothering her. So throw me a bone or I’ll be useless to you.”
She may have a point, but fuck… She’s going to lay into me so hard that Dori will be an afterthought.
“If I give you some context, will that suffice?”
Mel follows me into my office. I wait for her to pass before I shut the door. We need all the privacy in the world for this discussion.
Once we’re alone, she rests her butt against the desk and folds her arms across her chest. “Spill it, Stone.”
Great.
I’ve got Melanie, the bad cop, in my office.
This should be fun.
My heart thuds against my rib cage in despair. “Dori stopped by unexpectedly last night and things didn’t go as planned.”
“I already know that part. What happened?”
“We were talking about our relationship and putting things in place so we could give it a real go, but she left suddenly.” I drag my feet to the window.
Big snowflakes fall from the sky and another wave of dread cloaks me. She left without shoes last night.
Mel huffs. “Yeah, I got that.”
I twist back to face her. “We went through this last night. Will you please help me find her?”
“It’s simple.” She shrugs. “Tell me what made her leave and then I’ll know where she is.”
I have to give Mel something to go on, so I give her the lesser of two evils.
