Free American Quest by Sienna Skyy Page B

wrong.

    He’d made numerous calls. The people at the office knew nothing useful. One of her colleagues thought she’d seen her in the hall that afternoon. Another recalled a conversation, but then couldn’t remember if they’d had it today or yesterday. The receptionist said she went out to lunch, but didn’t know who she went with and had no memory of anything else that happened that afternoon. Candace’s phone bounced to voice mail as quickly as Gloria’s had, and none of her other friends knew anything more than Bruce did.
    The clock clicked over to twelve o’clock and Bruce’s anxiety ratcheted up. It was a new day. Why did that seem so daunting?
    He had to call Jamie. He realized she wouldn’t know where Gloria was, but she’d been his go-to person since preschool. If nothing else, she’d give him a little perspective. And if not perspective, he could at least freak out with her and know she would understand.
    He hit the speed dial.
    “Hello?”
    The sound of Jamie’s voice was a salve to his nerves. Instantly, he started to wonder if he’d been overreacting.
    “Hey, what are you doing?” he said a little sheepishly.
    “Not much. You know, sleeping, that sort of thing.”
    Bruce cringed. “Right, sorry. Listen, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    “What’s wrong?”
    The tone of Jamie’s voice caught Bruce by surprise. “Why’d you ask me that?”
    Jamie’s voice got a little sharper. “Bruce, tell me what’s wrong.”
    His anxiety was returning. “Nothing. I mean, it’s just that Gloria hasn’t come home yet and that feels weird to me.”
    “Oh God.” Jamie’s voice came in a flutter as though the call was breaking up.
    “I’m overreacting, right?” Bruce said nervously. “Can you imagine how possessive I’m going to be once we’re married ?”
    The little bit of levity didn’t muster even a chuckle from Jamie. In fact, she didn’t say anything. Maybe she was formulating kind ways to explain how Gloria was a big girl and how he needed to give her the latitude to be caught up in a business meeting and lose track of time without worrying about checking in with him.
    He waited for Jamie to tell him these things.

    But she never said any of that.
    What she said was, “It’s happening.”
    “What’s happening?”
    “I’ll be right there.”
    “What? Why will you be right here? What’s happening?”
    The line went dead. He dialed her again.
    Jamie’s voice came labored, as if she were hurrying. “I’ll be right over. You really don’t want to do this on the phone.”
    “Do what? What are we doing? Do you know where Gloria is?”
    But when she replied, her voice crackled through the receiver. “I’m go . . . down . . . phone’s gonna drop. . . .”
    The call dropped.
    Bruce squeezed the phone as if doing so would coerce it to cough up some answers. Why did Jamie react the way she did? Why couldn’t they “do this” on the phone? How could she know something about Gloria that he didn’t know?
    The pent-up energy in his body felt combustible. He wanted to move, to take action. But what kind of action? He didn’t have a clue. Jamie was maybe twenty minutes away. How could he possibly wait twenty minutes to hear what she had to say? How was he going to feel after he heard what she had to say?
    He lowered himself to the floor and knocked out some push-ups until his arms turned to spaghetti. He wasn’t really the exercise type, but he needed to do something. He flipped over and did sit-ups, then over again to squeeze out more push-ups. His muscles ached, but he wasn’t any less anxious.
    He went to the window. Why wouldn’t she just tell me over the phone ?
    Jamie finally arrived, coppery pixie hair mussed and blue eyes wide.
    “I have a lot to tell you and you’re going to be tempted to interrupt often,” she said sharply. “Avoid that temptation.”
    Jamie never spoke like this. What was going on? “You do realize I’m borderline psychotic at the moment,