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I rush back to my room and grab my phone, pressing Ari’s number. It goes to voice mail, so I call Mac. She answers in a perky voice, wide awake. “I was just about to call to make sure you both were awake.”
“Ari isn’t in her room. She didn’t sleep here last night,” I reply, attempting to keep my panic under control. “Were you together when you came back last night?”
“No,” she replies. “Her and Jay were hanging out.” The captain. I release a sigh of relief. I mean, pilots and flight attendants…it happens. She must’ve slept in his bed.
“I tried to call her, but I’ll try again,” I tell Mac, then hang up and call Ari’s phone again. Voice mail again. I mutter a few curse words. Why isn’t she answering her phone? And why don’t I have Jay’s number? Not bothering to curl my hair as planned, I throw it up in a bun, and I’m down in the lobby in record time. Waiting. I asked the lobby if they could call Jay’s room, but he didn’t answer either. Mac comes down first.
She chuckles when she sees me by myself. “Ari had too much fun last night, running late?”
“I still haven’t talked to her.” An unsettled feeling takes root in the pit of my stomach.
“Guess her and Jay hit it off?” She wags her brows. I hope that’s it. “Oh look.” She tilts her head toward the fully dressed pilot, stepping off the elevator with his hat under his arm. “Trying the old you go before me so it doesn’t look suspicious.” She laughs, rolling her eyes.
I don’t wait for him to join us, and instead, I take long strides, meeting him halfway. “Where’s Ari?” I demand as his mouth opens to greet me.
His eyes move to the side for a beat, and with a flick of his hand, he offers a dismissive gesture. “How would I know?”
“Jay, you were with her last night. And she wasn’t in her room this morning.”
“Kali. She wasn’t with me last night. I mean, we hung out on Sixth Street, and she was talking with a guy.”
He left her alone? Our hotel is only a block off Sixth Street, and it’s not like I haven’t left her at a bar with a guy before, but it wasn’t in Austin where my psycho is still on the loose.
He shrugs at my annoyance. “She’s an adult, Kali. She said she was going to grab one more drink to help her sleep.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Austin. The weird man on the plane. The knocking. Ari disappearing. The unsettling rock in my stomach morphs into a level of panic I haven’t experienced since I heard about Shanna disappearing.
“Kali, I’m sure she’s fine. We both know Ari. She likes to have her fun.” He rubs my shoulder, but his reassurance does nothing to calm my nerves. She’s never spent the night in one of her one-night stand’s beds. There’s a first for everything, but even if she did, she would’ve set her alarm. “Let’s talk to the front desk and see if they remember seeing her come in during the night.”
We walk over. “Excuse me,” I say to the front desk staff member. “Another flight attendant that was with us didn’t come back to her room last night. I was wondering if you saw her at all last night? Her name is Arabella Lancaster.”
He winces. “Sorry, I only came on at five, but I can check with a night staff member for you,” he answers.
“Please,” I say. Stay calm, Kali.
When he appears from the back, he shakes his head. “Sorry, none of the night staff can confirm seeing her.”
This can’t be happening. I pull out my phone and press the one number I was hoping never to call again.
CHAPTER 39
Kali
“Kali, we don’t know if this has anything to do with you,” Martinez says, his eyes following my anxious pacing around his office at the Texas Rangers headquarters.
A sense of déjà vu looms overhead. I’ve felt this icy fear in my heart before, and then a woman was found dead. Martinez called the police department to start a missing person’s report when she didn’t show up for work. They questioned everyone and let Mac, Jay, and the other pilot leave.
They said I could leave. No way. Not this time. This time, he’s made it personal.
“He was on the plane,” I insist. “He knocked for god’s sake to let me know, too. Then he followed me to our crew hotel, which isn’t a secret. How does this have nothing to do with me?” I clip, my voice trembling as tears threaten to fall.
“We’re getting the plane’s roster right now. If—and that is a big if—he was on the flight, our suspect list just went from millions to less than a hundred.”
A glimmer of hope swirls around my spine as I freeze, struck by a realization. “No, it’s less than that. There were only a handful on the flight continuing on to Austin.”
Martinez points at me, nods, and then picks up his phone. “Get me the names of people flying on to Austin that were on that flight.” What are the odds he was on my flight? Was it a coincidence, or did he find me knowing I worked that flight? Paxton figured out where I was going to be. Maybe it’s easier than I thought. He hangs up, and I stop walking. “Still not on board that we’re dealing with your guy. Last time, he made it clear it was him, and so far, nothing. I had the local cops go out to the place Paxton found you, assuming he’d send a message if it was him, but…” He shakes his head.
