A wave of anxiety made MJ grit his teeth. He’d always been a junior with a missing senior. But no longer.
He rubbed his knuckles over his lips. “Yeah. Guess so.”
Rachael’s phone chimed again, making her jump. MJ watched her eyes scan her phone’s screen. She worried the peeling skin on her bottom lip with her teeth as her thumbs tapped letters texting back.
When she was finished, she sat the phone on her lap. Her knees trembled. She stared at her phone like she was expecting a reply, but the more time that passed with the phone remaining silent, the more she fidgeted.
When she finally threw the phone back in her bag and pounded her fist on her leg, MJ knew he had to say or do something. He couldn’t take the silence for one more second. “Was that him?” He nodded to the bag where her phone was stashed. “Merrick?”
She shoved her hair back off her face with both hands, then gathered it at the nape of her neck. “Yes.”
“You told him about me?” MJ’s heart stuttered like he was having a heart attack.
“Yes.”
He couldn’t take a deep breath. “What did he say?”
Rachael tilted her head and gazed at him with wide, pitying eyes. Slowly, she shook her head. “Nothing. He’s gone.”