I didn’t answer the text. I shoved the phone into my pocket, tightened my grip on the flash drive, and did a half run back toward the parking lot, my heels slipping against the gravel path.
Lillian was already leaning out the driver’s side window when she spotted me. “Oh thank God, get in, get in… wait, why do you look like you saw a ghost?”
“Drive,” I said, yanking the passenger door open and dropping into the seat. “Just drive. I’ll explain on the way.”
She didn’t argue. The engine roared to life and we pulled out of the lot fast enough that my seatbelt snapped across my chest. I spent the next ten minutes recounting everything… Sofia, the flash drive, Elise, the disappearance that no one seemed able to explain, and finally, the text that had sent ice through my veins.
By the time I
