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JACOB

I glance up from my tablet screen and look around the boardroom table, searching for Skye.

She’s not here yet, which is totally out of character.

She didn’t text me last night when she got home like she promised she would either.

I figured she was too busy doing her weekly video tutorial for her channel. When she gets focused on something, the whole office could go on fire, and she wouldn’t notice.

She didn’t reply to my text this morning either.

Not wanting to come across as a paranoid boyfriend, because we’re not quite there yet, I didn’t want to call. But I have to admit, I’m beyond worried now.

“Where’s Skye?” I ask.

Every member of my team shakes their head and looks around the room.

“Did she take a sick day? Anyone know?” I ask no one in particular.

As if a rusty nail is scraping along the pit of my stomach, a gnawing sensation takes hold.

I pull my phone out of my pocket, locate her number, and call it.

Going straight to voicemail, I leave her a message before I hang up.

“Shona, please check with human resources to see if she’s called in sick today.”

My assistant pushes her chair back and heads out to check Skye’s status.

“We’ll wait for Shona to come back,” I inform the room.

While I’m waiting, I text Violet asking if she’s heard from Skye.

She messages me straight back with a no.

Fuck.

Shona steps into the room with a downturned mouth. “She hasn’t called in.”

“Meeting postponed. We aren’t doing this without her.”

As everyone filters out of the boardroom, I ask Shona, “Do you know where Skye’s roommate, Kimmy, is working now? Is she still at The Vault?” Kimmy changes job every two months. I can never keep up with where she works.

“Still at The Vault,” she confirms.

“Can you get me her number?”

“On it.” She lifts her phone off the table and within two minutes, I’m calling Kimmy.

On my feet now, I pace back and forth across the room.

Kimmy picks up. “Hello.” Her groggy voice greets me.

“Hi, it’s Jacob Baxter.”

“Urgh, morning.”

“Sorry to bother you, but we haven’t heard from Skye today. Is she sick?”

“I don’t think so. I was on the late shift last night and the house was dark when I came in.” She yawns down the phone. “Let me go check. What time is it?” she mumbles to herself.

“It’s quarter past nine.” Skye is usually the first one in here and the last one to leave.

A few shuffles and the opening of a door drifts down the earpiece of my phone.

“Her bed looks untouched.” With a hitch in her voice, Kimmy sounds concerned. “Let me check downstairs.”

Looking out the office window across the wild sea of the cove, I clench my fist.

Where are you, Butterfly?

I hear Kimmy running down the stairs. She’s silent for a few moments and I assume she’s searching the house.

“She’s not here.”

“Is her car outside?” My stomach begins tying itself in knots.

There’s a pause. “No.”

“Have you not heard from her at all?” My pulse is now racing.

“No. But I’ve been working late most nights. It’s normal for me not to see her. Did you try calling her?”

I grit my teeth together. “Of course I tried calling her, Kimmy, or I wouldn’t be calling you.”

“Geez, take a chill pill.”

I try a calmer approach. “I’ve called her. It goes to voicemail. She didn’t text me last night to tell me she was home safe after leaving the coffee shop. She hasn’t called in sick and she didn’t book a day off for today. So, where the fuck is she?” Unable to hold in my anguish, my voice raises as I speak. “This isn’t like her, Kimmy.”

“Oh…” She has a sudden thought. “We have the Find My Phone app. We have that on our phones to keep tabs on each other. She will have stayed at Owen’s or something, Jacob. Be cool.”

Her words are like a knife to my heart, even though I know she wouldn’t do that to me.

“Owen is in Barcelona. Check that app. Now,” I yell as I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“Okay, okay. Calm your shit.”

Feeling hot, blood racing through my body at a million miles an hour, I tug off my tie and undo the top three buttons of my shirt.

“Not found,” she whispers. “Last location…” she reads from the app, “…the alleyway past the coffee shop.”

“What?” I cry. “So she never made it home?”

“Were you with her at the coffee shop?”

“Yes… No… I was with someone else, and Skye had a meeting with this guy she made friends with. He runs some fucking arts group or some shit. She met him through her video chan—” I stop speaking and fall into my chair. “Oh, my fucking God.”

“What is it, Jacob?”

“She’s with him.” I fling my hand to my pounding heart as I feel like I’m having a heart attack. “The guy from the coffee shop. The guy from her video channel. The guy who said he was a fucking girl!” I stand to my feet and kick a boardroom chair across the room. Hitting the wall with force, it makes a loud clattering noise and leaves a huge dent.

Shona screams, and my father comes running into the boardroom.

Of all the days for him to come into the office, he chooses today.

“Jacob,” my father shouts at me forcefully. “What the hell do you think you are playing at?” he bellows.

I hold up my hand to say sorry. With my phone firmly held against my ear, I say, “Kimmy. Hang up the phone and call Skye’s parents. Call them, ask if they’ve seen her and I’m going to call the police.”

“Jacob?” Kimmy whispers.

I close my eyes and tilt my head back. “Yeah?”

“What if something happened to her?”

Then I will die in pain, with a broken heart, knowing I was fucking feet away from being able to help her.

“I’m sure she’s fine. It’s just a precaution,” I say unconvincingly. “Give her mom and dad my number, please.”

“Okay.” And she hangs up.

“Jacob?” My father walks round the table in my direction. “What’s going on?” Concern is written all over his face.

I cover my mouth with my hand, not believing the words I’m about to say. “I think Skye’s missing.”

“Phone the police.” My dad lays both his hands on top of my shoulders. “Now.”