Page 142 of Fame & Obsession

“Where is she?” he fires back at me.

Zane peers around me. “Where’s who?”

“Tanna…”

“Bro, she’s at her apartment,” Zane says, lines daring across his forehead as he takes in Ty’s jerky movements.

“No! She’s! Not!” he shouts, enunciating each word as if the louder he yells, more answers will materialize out of thin air. “I went to check on her and she’s gone. Her door was wide open, and her bag was there.” Frantic, Ty turns to me with fear in his eyes. “She never leaves her bag, man. Tanna never leaves her bag.” He grips the doorknob so hard I thought he’d snap it off.

Moving toward to him, I place a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure she’s fine. Tanna’s smart. She wouldn’t let someone into her apartment just because they knocked…” I stop as Mia’s words come rushing back in a mass of letters and typeface.

AngelMia: Everything will fit perfectly step by step. This is my step. My beginning, her end.

She wasn’t talking about Phoebe. She was referring to Tanna.

Mia got to Tanna.

“Jag!” Shaking my hand off his shoulder, he shoves me against the wall with one thrust. “What the fuck do you know? Damn it, if you know something about Tanna, you’d better start talking right now or I swear to Christ, I’ll kill you.”

“It’s her…”

“Her,who?”

“My stalker. She sent a message, and I thought it was a threat against Phoebe.” Looking up at Ty, huge and monstrous with tears filling his eyes, I almost break. “But she meant Tanna.”

Gathering every ounce of strength, I tell them everything, and for once in my life I leave nothing out.

I slice every vein and leave them to bleed.

I tell them the grizzly details of Vivian’s murder, along with details Hough had left out when he interviewed them. I tell them about Faith Addison’s hacking skills. I explain my history with Mia, and how Phoebe and I had set up the fake blog and trapped her in her own arrogance. When I finish, I wait in silence for one of them to explode in anger or just beat the shit out of me.

What happens is much worse.

The rumble starts in Ty’s chest, bubbling until it exits his mouth in a roar of pain and anguish. “Noooo!” He slides down the wall, his fists clamped tightly against his eyes. “Rachel! No, not again…”

Tossing a look at a stunned Zane, I point one finger at him and Stan, and another at Ty, who’s now almost sitting on the floor. “You two get him and go to the house. I’m calling Detective Hough. This shit isover.We’ve got this bitch. Just fucking trust me.”

I slam the door to Ty’s torturous cries to his dead sister.

* * *

My brain knows taking the train would be faster but all I can do is move. Moving means I’m getting to Phoebe.

I swore to her nothing would ever hurt her again, and I meant it. Once I know she’s safe, I’ll find Tanna.

Please let Tanna still be alive.

I hit redial, and Phoebe’s phone goes straight to voice mail again. For the fifth time, I hang up cursing. I should’ve let Stan come with me like he’d demanded. Who knows if I’ll need backup.

Fellow pedestrians blur as my stride breaks into a full-out run. I dial again.

Voice mail.

Why the fuck won’t she answer?

Then the darkest of thoughts invades my head.

What if Mia has them both?