I watched him, seeing he meant it. “Well, I think you do. Most people would have just given up and pretended like they forgot if someone told them a thousand times that they didn’t need anything.”

His “hmm” didn’t sound that convinced, but I knew I was right. There was no point in me forcing it down though.

Bringing out my phone, I pulled up my messages with Lenny and sent her one.

Me: Hey, going to Dallas. Thea’s place got broken into. Can you ask Out of My League if we can reschedule? Not sure if I’ll make it back in time tomorrow.

I couldn’t even say I was really that heartbroken about missing my first date in… six months? Maybe even a little longer? I doubted I’d be that disappointed if he couldn’t change the date either.

Lenny texted me back not two minutes later as Rip fiddled with the radio.

Lenny: She okay? I’ll send him a message. Sunday work for you?

I knew there was no way I would stay until Sunday with her. I was definitely going home at some point tomorrow. Unless she insisted, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. She was busy. At least that’s what she always said. It would take all of my fingers and Ripley’s to count the number of times I had asked her over the years if she wanted me to visit with the answer always being the same: it wasn’t a good time for her.

Lenny: Don’t answer that. Sunday is good. Let me see what I can do.

Dang it. That’s what happened when someone knew you too well.

Me: She’s fine. And yeah, sure, Sunday is good. The earlier the better.

Lenny: :-)

At least that was done with.

Music played softly in the background the entire drive to my sister’s, now that Rip and I were done arguing at least. I dozed off a couple of times, but he didn’t complain or give me a hard time. I’d left my phone between us with the navigation going. When I checked the arrival time and saw that we were only five minutes away, I sat up straight and started paying attention.

I hadn’t realized that my sister had moved.

When I had first trailed her up to Dallas three years ago, I had just followed her.

The place I had been to was a decent apartment complex that hadn’t looked too sketchy. It hadn’t been anything fancy by any means, but it had been all right. It had basically been the same kind of place that we had lived in after moving out of Mr. Cooper’s.

But this place, this place was nice.

Too nice.

Way too nice if the Mercedes and Audis and BMWs that were on the other side of the gate meant anything.

I gave Rip the code for the gate—Thea had texted it to me along with her address— and I couldn’t help but feel really weird about everything that I saw. Every single car was a late-model luxury car, with a handful of Hondas and Kias thrown in. Now that I thought about it, Thea hadn’t driven herself to Houston in forever. She usually met up with Kyra in Austin and rode with her.

Why wouldn’t she have told me that she moved?

“I thought you said your sister was in college,” Rip said as he slowly drove past one building and toward the other, following the complex’s signs.

I spotted a Range Rover just as I told him, my own voice sounding off and weird, “She is.”

“This is the nicest complex I’ve ever been in.”

“Me too,” I muttered, feeling really uneasy and maybe even a little hurt that she wouldn’t have told me. Did she think I’d be jealous or something?

But really, how the hell did she afford something like this? She had a job at the university. She took summer classes. She had an internship and loans.

I paid for her meal plan at school.

There had to be a reason she hadn’t told me she was living somewhere else.

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.