Ellie's boyfriend kissed her goodnight and disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again... until now.
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A week before their high school graduation, Austin and Ellie parted ways with a goodnight kiss, thinking they'd be seeing each...
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By four o'clock in the afternoon, I was outside the BioloGen building dressed in shorts and a t-shirt with a Boston baseball hat pulled down low. I tried to blend into my surroundings as best as I could, but I didn't exactly match the business crowd. My hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and I had sneakers on my feet, just in case I needed to hurry to keep up. With what I wasn't sure, but I was prepared.
I hadn't seen William at all, but that was okay. I knew he was in the building. His secretary had told me he was busy when I called from the hotel earlier and asked if William Rodgers was available.
By 4:15 I was getting nervous that I hadn't seen him, but I knew most of the employees worked until 5 pm and that there was a good chance I'd be waiting until then. That didn't ease my anxiousness, however. By 4:30, I was pacing along the sidewalk.
"Excuse me, Miss," a deep man's voice said from behind me and I felt a heavy hand land on my shoulder.
I swung around to find a tall, muscular man with short cropped hair behind me. He was leisurely dressed, kind of like me, in a golf shirt and a pair of dark shorts. But there was nothing leisurely about his expression. His dark eyes were hard, and the way he looked me up and down was like an assessment. It felt like he could see inside me. Or at least like he attempted to.
"Yes?" I responded shakily.
"I couldn't help but notice that you've been standing here for a while. Are you lost?"
That was kind of strange because I hadn't noticed him at all.
"Oh. No, I'm okay, thank you."
He nodded once, but kept his piercing stare on me.
"I was going to offer you some help with directions or restaurant suggestions, but I guess you don't need them."
"No, thanks. I'm good." I forced out a laugh.
He hesitated as if he wanted to say something else, but he didn't. Whatever it was he'd considered, I knew instinctively that he wasn't trying to come on to me. Which is kind of what I thought initially. But it was something else entirely. And it felt... darker. The man gave off an uncomfortable vibe, evil almost.
"Have a good day," I said and took my phone out of my bag, noting it was 4:40.
The man nodded and when he again hesitated; I made it seem like I was busy looking up something on my phone. A few seconds later, he turned around and walked back down the street.
"That was very weird," I mumbled to myself. I kept him in my peripheral vision and noticed how he approached a parked dark sedan. Whether or not he got inside, I couldn't tell because the foot traffic picked up on the sidewalk and blocked my view. I moved closer to the brick building, where I still had a view of the entrance to BioloGen.
I almost missed William when he exited the building ten minutes later. He was in the middle of a large group of both men and women, and it wasn't until it dispersed at the end of the street that I noticed William hurry down to the subway.
