“I’m a traditional man. I’ve always imagined myself getting married. Again.” Gabe coughs into his fist. “But I won’t be able to marry Elise. None of us will.”

“God, man. I’m just hoping she talks to me again.” Tobias exhales roughly. “But since we’re on the subject, I’ve done some internetting and…there are commitment ceremonies.”

I watch Gabe sit up straighter in the rearview. “There are?”

“Yes,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “I checked into it, as well.”

Gabe curses. “I really need to figure out the internet.”

“When that day comes, you’re going to learn a lot more about me,” Tobias says. With a laugh that sounds pained, he asks, “How hard do you think it would be to convince Elise to exchange vows on the beach in a white dress while a violinist plays softly in the background?”

“Next to impossible,” I answer, strings tightening in my chest.

“We’d have to trick her,” Gabe laughs.

We join him. For about five seconds.

Then the car goes silent again. The air around us weighs a thousand pounds.

“Please. We really need to find her.” Tobias says, sounding winded. “Fast.”

It takes us another five minutes to get in the vicinity of the Times. By unspoken agreement, I find a metered parking spot and we don’t bother putting a ticket on the dashboard before we start to run.

“Elise took back her pass,” Gabe calls behind me. “I have no idea how we’re going to get in this time.”

“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” I say, picking up my pace.

I’m running through a host of options to get to Elise’s floor. But when we enter the lobby a moment later, I see a woman that looks familiar. She’s on her phone in the corner of the lobby. Elise was speaking to her the day we ambushed her in the office. The managing editor, Karina, right? The one who has been keeping her apprised of the situation with Alexander and Crouch? She looks…agitated.

“I don’t like that she looks agitated,” Gabe says, startling me by echoing my thoughts.

“Me either,” Tobias says, already storming in that direction.

It’s not until this moment that I realize Tobias never bothered to put on a shirt.

At least he managed pants.

“Excuse me,” Tobias says, putting all of his effort forth into a broad grin, though he doesn’t really have to bother, because the editor stops speaking mid-sentence to gape at his bare chest. “Have you seen Elise?”

Karina’s expression doesn’t change, but I watch very closely as the color leaches slightly from her face. She opens her mouth to speak and closes it, her eyelashes fluttering a hundred miles an hour. “I’m…” She begins to fan her face, regret clouding her features. “I’m sorry. Oh God, I never thought it would come to this. I’m trying to make it right—”

Panic is trying to shut my organs down one by one, but I manage to take her by the shoulders and look her hard in the eye. “Where is Elise?”