Vigilant by Sara Davison

Author:Sara Davison [Davison, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781943959709
Publisher: Mountain Brook Ink
Published: 2019-06-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nicole knocked on the door of Gage’s apartment. No response. Same as yesterday. And the day before. Like there’d been no answer any of the times she had called or texted him over the last forty-eight hours. He’d been a little withdrawn since the Sunday after church when he’d called his brother Luke by mistake. She hadn’t seen him until the Friday after, the day she’d dropped all her groceries in the park. He’d been quiet that night, and only picked at his dinner. She’d called him Monday evening to see if he was coming over, but he’d been curt, telling her that he couldn’t talk because he was heading in to work for the evening. Then nothing for the next three days, despite her repeated attempts to get a hold of him. What was going on? Was he hurt? Sick? Maybe she’d pushed him too hard, and he was trying to tell her to back off. Since he wasn’t talking, she could only guess.

In any case, she wasn’t leaving this time until he came to the door and gave her a reasonable explanation for dropping off the face of the planet. Closing her hand into a fist, she pounded on the wood. “Gage?”

A door down the hall opened and an elderly woman stuck her head out. “Is everything all right?”

Nicole lifted her hand. “Yes, sorry. This is my boyfriend’s apartment and I haven’t heard from him for a while, so I’m making sure he’s all right.” She stepped away from the door. “You haven’t seen him around, have you?”

The woman frowned, creating more wrinkles in her already heavily-wrinkled face. “Mr. Kelly? No, come to think of it, I haven’t. I hope he’s all right. Should I call 911?”

“That’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine.” Nicole tugged her phone from her pocket and held it up. “If he doesn’t answer soon, I’ll call them. Thanks, though.”

“All right, then. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.” The woman disappeared into her apartment.

Nicole waited until the door closed behind her before taking a deep breath and typing a message into her phone. Gage Kelly, you have ten seconds to open your door before I call the police.

She pressed an ear to the wooden door. For eight seconds, she couldn’t hear a sound on the other side. She was about to type the number for emergency services into her phone when a sound stopped her. Heavy footsteps tromping across the floor.

The dead bolt slid open with a clang, but instead of the door opening, she heard the same heavy footsteps retreating. Seriously?

Nicole turned the knob and pushed open the door.

Surrounded by an empty pizza box and crumpled soda cans, Gage sat slumped on the couch, both feet propped on the coffee table in front of him. Blue light from the television flickered off the walls. He stared at the set and didn’t look at her as she picked her way around a couple of takeout bags that had been crumpled up and tossed onto the floor.

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