“What’s going on?” I growl, entering the opened door of the shop. Luka is already there with Danny, one of the other deputies.

I look around and I see Petal, crying. Nothing looks out of place though, except for the fact that I don’t see Addie.

“Black!” Petal cries and she comes running to me.

“Sis, what’s going on? Where’s Addie?”

“She’s in the back, still washing her hair. It wasn’t me, Black. I don’t know what happened, but this wasn’t anything I would have done!” she cries, and I’m so confused and worried.

Luka comes over and takes Petal out of my arms.

“Luka?” I ask, because I don’t know shit. All I got was a phone call from Danny telling me I was needed at the beauty shop. That’s it. Nothing else. All the way over here I kept having visions of Addie dead, or something happening to Petal. I could kill Danny—and I still might.

“When Petal and Addie got here the shop door was unlocked—”

“Hold up, Addie didn’t mention it when she texted and she seemed fine.”

“They decided to inspect the place themselves and didn’t see anything wrong,” Luka murmurs.

“Motherfucker,” I growl. It’s not a word I use often, but right now it about sums up everything I’m feeling.

“I’m so sorry, Black. I didn’t think. It all looked okay,” Petal cries into Luka’s chest. The words muffled, but I can still make them out.

“What happened to Addie and where in the hell is she?” I roar, tired of having this overwhelming fear surging inside of me.

“Black.”

I hear this weakened, quiet voice that sounds like my Addie, but different. My gaze darts around the room searching it out with all the chaos and that’s when I see her. She’s standing over in the corner, holding onto the door of the back room. She looks fine. My eyes scan her quickly. She’s got on jeans and a buttoned up, loose shirt. Her hair is wrapped up in a towel like she just got out of the shower. She’s perfect… except… she looks sad. I don’t see tears, however. I practically run to her, relief washing over me so instantly my damn knees are weak.

“Addie! Sweetheart, you’re okay,” I exclaim, picking her up and holding her tightly against me.

“Black,” she whispers again, but this time I can hear tears in her voice. I pull back to look at her face and sure enough there are tears just silently running down her face, I try to swipe them away with my thumb.

“Don’t cry baby. You’re alright, we’re together now. Please, don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it,” she wails. Her body trembling as the sobs take over and she clings to me as if her life depends on it.

Frustration is surging through me. I can’t fix something when I don’t know what’s going on.

“Tell me what’s wrong, Addie,” I urge her because I’m one step away from screaming like a madman, until someone tells me what is wrong with my woman.

Addie pulls away from me and I let her go, even if I don’t want to.

She looks up at me and slowly takes the towel off the top of her head that she was wearing.

As she takes it off she clings to it, holding it tightly to her chest. At first, I think I’m seeing things. I blink to just clear my eyes, in case I’m wrong… but I’m not. Addie’s beautiful blonde hair is now a bright florescent pink and has a little orange mixed in. It’s also short… really short… and frizzy. Addie’s hair was always long and silky.

What the fuck happened? I’m about to take heads off, and if my sister did this I may take hers too. Before I can, Addie breaks down. She slides to the floor a complete broken mess.

“I look like a troll doll!” she cries and I swallow my anger down. However this happened, it wasn’t Petal or anything Addie did… I have a sneaking suspicion that this came from Addie’s stalker, Lynn.

And now, I’m convinced that Lynn is…Linda.

Fuck.