Maybe she had gotten a new roommate who was rolling in it?
That would make sense. I was still living in my house that I was fixing up, and she didn’t want me to know that she probably had a walk-in shower and granite countertops while I was still saving for mine. Thea had never been the kind of person to be that humble but….
“What number is it again?”
I told him the apartment number she’d given me.
Right by it, Rip turned the truck into one of the spots that said they were reserved for guests. Based on the apartment number, the place was on the third floor. We got out, and he let me lead the way as I looked for the stairs or an elevator. I found the stairway first and headed up, with him following behind. On the third floor, it didn’t take long to find the number I was looking for.
I rang the doorbell and took a step back, bumping into Rip’s side. Peering up, I found him looking down at me, and I smiled at him. “Thank you again for coming with me.”
He watched me with those blue-green eyes. His voice was low, “Sure.”
“Let me see what she wants to do, and I’ll see if I can get a hotel room or something for you to stay at.” My eyes slid toward the door that still hadn’t opened and something that was pretty close to unease slid over me. “I had planned on just staying here, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”
Why hadn’t she told me?
I punched my finger to ring the doorbell again, then knocked on it too. It wasn’t even one in the morning yet. I knew she wouldn’t be asleep.
The door still didn’t open.
“Call her,” Rip said.
I pressed the buzzer again.
Still nothing.
Pulling out my phone, I dialed her number from memory and heard it ring inside. Abruptly, the chiming stopped like she had hit ignore or silenced it.
Was this really happening?
I glanced up at Rip and found him still looking down at me, this strange expression on his face.
Frustration and hurt built up in my chest instantly, and the next thing I knew, I raised my fist and banged the outer part of it against her door as hard as I could. Then I did it again, yelling “Thea!” into the door.
That did the trick.
Two seconds later, what sounded like a deadbolt turned and the next thing I knew, the door was swinging open to show my sister standing there. In a robe, with her blonde hair down and her eyes big and puffy and rimmed in red, she looked like a mess. Not that I was one to talk, but she genuinely looked like a mess, and she never did.
“Luna,” she muttered, genuinely sounding surprised.
“Hi,” I told her, trying not to sound awkward.
My twenty-one-year-old sister wiped at her face with the back of her hands, and I watched as she glanced at Rip behind me and let her eyes linger for a moment, this weird, weird expression coming over her before she took me in again. “I wasn’t sure you were coming,” she tried to claim in her equally weird voice.
I blinked. “You asked me to. I texted you twice while we were on the way.” I tried to give her another smile, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. Had she really been about to ignore my call?
“Yeah, I know, I just—” She shook her head and took a step back, sniffling as she did. “Come in.”
I took a few steps inside, Rip directly behind me. She barely closed the door when I looked over at her and gestured at Rip. “Thea, this is Ripley. Rip, this is my sister Thea.”
It was my sister who put her hand out first, Rip shaking it firmly but quickly before stepping back beside me. Her eyes slid to mine, and I didn’t like the sigh she let out. “The cops came and left about an hour ago.”
I nodded. “What’d they say?”
“Come on, come into the living room,” she said, her gaze sliding back to Rip for a second before leading us down a short hallway that opened into an airy living room and kitchen. Three pieces of velvet navy blue couches decorated the room with a nice glass table in the middle. There were lamps and pretty knickknacks decorating side tables, a huge TV mounted to the wall with floating shelves holding what looked like a DVD player and some kind of sound system.
It was nice, really nice.
And nothing looked… out of place. Or missing. It was all immaculately clean, like I knew Thea liked her things.
“Want something to drink?” she asked, clasping her hands in front of herself. Almost wringing them.
My throat suddenly felt dry. “I’d like some water.”
“I’m good,” Rip replied, his voice not like him, but I didn’t overthink it.
Thea nodded and headed into the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of water from the fridge. I noticed it wasn’t a no-name brand either. When I had left Thea in Dallas three years ago, everything in her pantry had been generic brand. Hell, most things in my pantry were the generic brand unless Lily insisted. Even when I bought organic stuff, if there was the generic label, that’s what I would get.
My sister handed me the bottle of water and just stood there.
I took it from her, unscrewing the lid and sucking down half before putting it back on. Glancing at the man to my side, I held the bottle out to him, just in case he really was thirsty. He was. He took it from me without hesitation and chugged the rest.
In any other circumstance, I would tell him that friends shared bottles of water, but… well, that wasn’t the time, and I wasn’t in the mood when my sister was being so strange.
“The cops came by and asked what was taken, made a list, and then they left,” Thea said, biting her lip every few words. “They didn’t take fingerprints or anything. They said they would talk to the property manager to look at the cameras, but I don’t know if they did.”
Exhaustion hit me right in the shoulders as I stood there, and I couldn’t help but glance around the rest of the apartment. There was a doorway right across that seemed to lead into some sort of hallway, and closer to where we were standing, there was a cracked door that showed like it had a half-bath, and another few doors that might have led to a pantry, maybe another bedroom, and I wasn’t sure what else.
But nothing seemed out of place.
The place was clean.
Too clean?
“What did they take?” I found myself asking my little sister.
Her hand went up to her face to wipe at her eyes again. “My laptop. Some clothes. Some jewelry.”
What jewelry did my sister have that was worth stealing?
“They went through my room and all my drawers and opened up everything in the kitchen, but I already set everything back where it was supposed to be,” she explained, shakily.
Oh. “Thea, I’m so sorry.” If she had been Lily, I would have hugged her, but it was my heart that wouldn’t let me raise my arms, and my brain that wouldn’t let me embarrass myself if she didn’t accept my comfort. Again. “What do you need help with?”
My little sister bit her lip again, shaking out her hands, and swallowing so hard I was sure her throat had to hurt. “I’m sorry, Luna. I don’t really need anything. I don’t even… I shouldn’t have even called you.” She swallowed again, and I couldn’t help feeling my eyes narrow. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come. I was just freaked out, and you were the first person I thought of to call. I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to apologize for asking me to come,” I told my sister. “I’d come if you just asked me to for the hell of it, Thea. You know that.” But….
Her hands flexed at her sides and she nodded, giving me a watery look. “I know, Luna, but I shouldn’t have asked you to. I just freaked out.”
None of this felt right. None of it. “It’s fine. You’re all right though, yeah?”
My younger sister nodded.
“Do you have rental insurance?”
She lifted a shoulder.
I pressed my lips together and ignored the growing ache in my chest. “What about your roommate? Did they take anything from her?”
Her “no” was the sharpest one she’d ever given me.