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When I shake my head, a frustrated growl rolls out of him.

“Someone look up the address; see what kind of building it is.”

“Already on it,” Nico says from the back seat of Alexander’s truck. “It’s an apartment building.”

Alexander curses under his breath. “Can you see the layout in the pictures? Is it just one entrance and exit?”

Nico squints at his phone as he swipes through the pictures. “Looks like it’s a standard two-bedroom apartment. But there’s a balcony at the back.”

A relieved breath rushes out of Alexander. “Good, that helps.”

I don’t realize we’ve arrived until he pulls into a parking lot. “We’re here?” I ask, looking around for an apartment building.

“We’re a block down,” Alexander answers. “I didn’t want to be too close. But listen.” He turns his truck off and grabs my arm before I can jump out. “You both follow my orders, got it? I have no idea what we’re walking into, so I’m leading this thing.” He locks eyes with me, and I feel the full weight of his words when he says, “Whatever this is, we’ll get her out, okay? I promise.”

I try to swallow my fear down and fail. I can only nod my answer.

“Let’s go.”

My head darts around as we walk the block to the building, hoping like crazy that Charli is merely watching the apartment and not actually inside it.

But the sinking feeling in my gut is already telling me that’s too much to hope for.

Still, there’s some luck on our side when we find the front door to the building propped open for someone carrying their groceries in. I force a smile to keep from looking suspicious, but for the first time in my life, I don’t think a smile is going to solve my problems.

The apartment is on the third floor, so we decide to take the stairs. My heartrate increases with every step, my eyes looking constantly for Charli to be walking down to meet us.

But no such luck.

When we reach the apartment, I’m surprised to see Alexander raise his hand to knock. I grab his arm and hiss, “What are you doing?”

“I need some kind of information,” he murmurs in response. “I’m no one to anyone, so it means nothing for me to knock and act like I’m looking for someone random. But I need to see if she’s in there. She might not be.”

And even though my heartbeat is loud enough to drown out all other sounds, I force myself to step back and wait as he knocks.

There’s nothing, and then…heated whispers.

Which is bad enough, but then I hear, “Please don’t. I don’t know anything!”

Charli.

My mind goes blank as I dart forward, intent on breaking the door down. But Alexander grabs me and pushes me around the corner, away from the apartment.

“Lucas, listen to me,” he hisses. “You can’t just barge in there. Listen to me for two seconds.” He waits until my terrified eyes meet his steady ones. “I’m going to go around to the fire escape and come up that way. Put your headphones in so we can stay in contact. But I need you to stay here. Do you understand me? I need you to stay here. Charli might get hurt if you do something stupid.”

It's only because of the last part that his words register in my brain. Swallowing roughly, I nod. “Okay,” I croak out. “Okay, I’ll wait.”

Apparently, he believes whatever he sees in my eyes, because he nods and looks at Nico standing beside me. “You keep your head too, yeah?”

When Nico returns a nod of his own, I expect to see relief in Alexander’s eyes.

Instead, I see fear.

It washes over his face, the intensity startling to see on my usually composed brother. There’s something in his eyes I can’t read, something driven by a time in his life I know nothing about. For a moment, my heart aches for him.

With one last terrified glance at us, Alexander disappears down the steps.

Five seconds later, my phone buzzes with his call. I slip my earbuds in and answer. “Hey,” I murmur. “Can you hear me?”