Page 35 of Abandoned

She was bound to be alone. Maybe she should get a cat or ten, then she could be a crazy cat lady. Too bad she was allergic.

Pushing herself off the floor, she shuffled to the living room and found a box of tissues. The first tissue still had remnants of fingerprint dust, so she threw it away and got another one.

She looked around her apartment. They’d gotten it clean, but something still felt off. But what was it?

Walking around, she checked everything—even her room and the bathroom. Nothing was out of place. No one was in her apartment. But something still felt off.

She strolled back into the living room, and that’s when she spotted it. Will’s dark blue Tar Heels baseball cap sat on the TV stand. She picked it up and chucked it across the room. It whacked into the air conditioning unit.

It wasn’t the hat. The AC unit was off.

She crossed the space and picked up the hat, drawing it close to her chest.

The AC unit wasn’t just not running, it was powered off. She depressed the power button. Nothing. Did the landlord give her a reject instead of a new unit to replace the one the intruder busted?

She checked the power cord. It was plugged in. Maybe it was sabotaged?

A shudder coursed through her body.

She looked down at Will’s hat. Why had she pushed him away? She should call him to come check her AC, but that wasn’t going to happen. He probably never wanted to talk to her again.

Could she call Logan? No. He was Will’s best friend. She’d pushed everyone away.

AJ was probably on duty, and who knew if she could help with an AC unit?

Zara put the cap on her head, pulled her ponytail through the hole, and fought the tears that threatened again. She needed to go to bed, but it was going to be a million degrees in her apartment by morning. It wasn’t like opening the windows would help, and she wasn’t about to do that on a ground-floor apartment that someone had already broken into.

Maybe something was wrong with the unit on the outside?

She went into her closet and pulled her sidearm out of the safe that was bolted to the floor there. She checked that it was loaded, snapped it into her holster, and slid the holster onto her belt.

After grabbing a large flashlight and her keys, she ventured outside. The apartment building was surrounded by trees and bushes, but there was about five feet of clearing around the building.

She rounded the corner and checked the window where the AC unit was situated. It looked fine. No wires cut or exposed or whatnot.

Her phone rang. She screamed, and her voice cracked. Why did she have to be a screamer?

She didn’t recognize the phone number. “Hello?”

“Zara?” A woman’s voice shook on the other end of the line.

“Yes, who is this?”

“It’s Miley. Can you … come over?”

“What’s wrong?” Zara left the AC unit and turned the corner back toward the front of her apartment.

“Brett and I had a fight—”

Zara stopped. “Did he hit you again?”

“No! But he left. Can you just come over?”

Zara moved the phone away long enough to look at her watch. It was pushing one o’clock. “I suppose I can come for a bit. I’m off duty, but it’s late. Give me ten minutes.”

“Thanks, Zara.”

“Sure.” She hung up and resumed her course to the front of the building.