Page 68 of Blindsided

“I’m sorry, sir. It seems like she’s out.”

“Thanks for trying.” I walk away from her, my duffle bag bouncing against my thigh. I have no idea what to do now. My panic is growing, and an idea comes into my head that I know is insane, but I’m out of options.

I order another car to take me to Desmond’s apartment. He’s not going to want to see me, but the fucker doesn’t have a choice. I’m going to force him to talk to me because my gut is telling me that something is wrong. Tilly doesn’t go dark without telling someone. She would always send a text when she was going to put her phone away while she wrote. She didn’t want me to worry if she didn’t answer when I texted.

This feels different.

The car takes me through the city. Traffic is horrendous, as usual, and it takes me a solid half hour to get across the city to Desmond’s.

The doorman standing outside the building holds the door open for me. I go straight to the front desk, knowing they’d never let me go straight up.

“Hi, can you call Desmond Areneto’s, please? I need to speak to him. It’s an emergency.”

“Of course, sir.” The man picks up the phone to call. He asks for my name, and I just repeat that it’s an emergency.

He hands the phone over to me, and I try to keep my voice neutral. “Des, I know you don’t want to talk to me, but I can’t find Tilly.”

“This isn’t going to work. She was here already, and I don’t want to speak to either of you.”

“She was here? When? She isn’t answering her phone.”

Something in my voice must give him pause. “She was here this afternoon. You aren’t together?”

“No, I just got into the city. She hasn’t answered her phone since this afternoon.”

Desmond sighs. “Just come up. We’ll find her.”

I hand the phone back to the guy, and he gives me a visitor’s key to use in the elevator. In a few minutes, I’m on Desmond’s floor, and I find him standing out in the hallway.

“This doesn’t change anything.” He opens the door to his apartment to let me in.

“Whatever. Just help me find her.”

Desmond picks up his phone and tries to call her. Her voicemail kicks over immediately, and he frowns. “She never lets her phone die. She’s almost obsessive about it.”

“I know.”

He narrows his eyes at me, and I just hold my hands up in surrender. This is not the time to get into why I know personal things about Tilly.

With a sigh, he clicks around on his phone. “I might be able to use theFind My Friendsapp. I’ve never used it, but when she moved to the city, we both thought it would be a good idea in case she got lost and needed help to figure out how to get home.”

The line between his eyebrows deepens.

“What does it say?”

“Location unavailable.”

“Fuck.” I swipe my hand through my hair. “What do we do?”

“Call the police. Since she’s got a stalker, they might be willing to start searching right away.”

I swallow hard. I’ve been ignoring the possibility that her stalker finally got to her. It’s just been a buzzing in the back of my mind that I’ve pushed away, rationalizing it as my anxiety talking. With Desmond’s words, the idea begins to fully form. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

“Des, doeshehave her?” I don’t care that the quiver in my voice makes me sound weak.

“She’s going to be fine. She has to be.”

CHAPTER30

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