AllFreeNovel
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Bored of waiting around, I push into the women’s changing space. Immediately, I feel the absence of another person. I don’t know what weird, spider sense tells me Mackenzie isn’t here, but it’s blaring like an alarm.
“Mackenzie?”
I turn and push open every stall door just to be sure, and then, heart picking up speed, I check the showers.
“Mack? You in here?”
No response comes.
Fuck.
I explode out of the door, sending Kirill stumbling back, but I don’t stop as I break into a run. As if we’re one hive mind, the other two don’t question me, but follow hard on my heels.
The bright sunlight has me blinking for a moment, but I look around. Nothing. Where the fuck is she?
I walk in one direction and Tino takes the other. Kirill walks over to the fence and looks out at the meadow beyond as if he’s going to see Mackenzie frolicking in there like a lamb.
“Hey.”
Tino’s shout has me whipping my head around. He’s holding something up, and as I jog over to him, my chest tightens. It’s a phone.
“What the fuck?” Kirill stares at it, his face blanched of all color.
“Who was she talking to?” I demand.
Tino scrolls, and then he holds up the screen to me. Lola.
“Call her back,” I say.
He does, putting it on speaker.
A female voice answers.
“Mackenzie? Oh, my God. What happened? Are you okay?” Lola’s tone is high-pitched and trembling.
Shit. What did she hear?
Tino speaks into the phone.
“Lola, this is Valentino. I’m a friend of Duch—erm, Mackenzie. Can you tell us what you guys were talking about? What happened? She’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone?” Lola sounds like she’s about to cry.
“She’s disappeared. Literally stepped out, likely to talk to you, and poof. She’s gone.”
“It’s him.” She starts to cry openly now. “It has to be him.”
“Who?”
“The professor. He and she … it’s weird. Something was going on. I can’t say. I just know he has her in his sights. He was here. Threatened me. The man is obsessed.”
Not as fucking obsessed as I am, and if he’s got our Duchess, I’ll gut him like a pig. I’ll make him eat his own entrails. The pain I will put him through if he hurts one hair on her head will be horrific, and I will drag it out.
“Did you tell him where she is?” Tino asks.
“No.” Lola sniffs. “I would never. He found her mom’s car. And then he found something with the initials VF on it, though I don’t know why that’s so important. I didn’t betray her, but he will find her. It seems he already has.”
“When was he with you?” I try to keep my voice calm.
