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I flipped the light switch down and turned around to leave, but something stopped me.

A blue latex glove lay on the floor by the light switch. My eyes widened and I tried to run, but I was too late. A blow to the back of my head took me down and everything went black.

twenty-eight

RAFAEL

After gettingmy phone back from intake, or whatever the hell they called it, I tried to call Ellie but she didn’t answer. She was probably still convinced I was a liar and possibly a murderer. My chest ached at the thought.

Theo and I walked outside and he was about to drive me home when we saw Alex pull into the parking lot like a wild woman.

“Woah there, slow it down, Benning. Or is it Waters, now? Did you change your name?”

“Shut up, where’s Ellie? Is she with you?”

“No, she’s not here. Why?”

“She was worried about you, and I said I’d pick her up. She said she’d wait for me, but when I got to her apartment, the door was locked and the door to the shop was open and no one was there.”

The ache in my chest had turned into a full-blown gash. It was as if someone had cut me open.

“Stay together,” Theo said, before running to his police cruiser and hightailing it out of there. There was no way I’d wait around for something to happen to her.

“I can’t just sit around and do nothing.”

“I grabbed her phone. It was on the floor of the shop. Maybe there’s something in here.” Alex punched in the passcode everyone knew Ellie used—her parents’ wedding anniversary—and started scrolling through it.

“Fuck. She wouldn’t go anywhere without her phone. She had to have been taken, for sure.”

“Wait a second. GPS.”

“What?”

“Ellie. She got a new safety necklace, a whistle thing. It has GPS in it.”

“Holy fuck, that’s so smart.”

“Right?” My girl was so fucking smart. God, I wanted to wrap my arms around her and never let go.

“Okay, do you know how to access the data? Did she set it up?”

“Shit. I don’t know, I just remember her saying it in passing after she was attacked.” I dragged my hands through my hair and started pacing. “Why didn’t I ask her about it?”

“There’s no point in regrets now. Let’s just figure it out.”

“She got it at that shop down the street.”

“Okay, get in the car.”

Alex drove like a bat out of hell for the four blocks it took to get to the outdoor supply store. She double parked on the wrong side of the street and flipped off the driver who honked at her when she got out of the car. I never realized how much of a badass Alex was, but I was damn glad she was here with me right now.

We ran inside so fast, the clerk put his hands up like we were going to shoot him.

“You sold a whistle necklace with GPS the other day, right?”

“Yeah, to that Ellie Waters girl. I told her the whistle was loud as hell and she shouldn’t use it outside unless it was an emergency. Told her to test it out at home.”

“Okay, whatever,” Alex said, shaking her head. “Is there a way to find her using that GPS signal?”