Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Lukas scowls. I touch Lukas’ arm—probably a mistake, but it feels so right. “He’s trying to help us,” I say quietly.
“Delete the damn thing,” Lukas says.
“I will, but it’s in my apartment, not here. Do you want me to go there now?”
“No.” Lukas shakes his head, and then his phone buzzes. He checks it. “The PI will be here in ten. Drink some coffee and try to get your mind as sharp as possible. We need details, Finn, to save Seb and your sister.”
Finn nods. “I can do thi—” He pukes into the wastebasket again.
Lukas, Finn, and the PI—a man called Gabriel Walker—go into the study for their questioning. I’m in Kayla’s bedroom with her, my hand on her shoulder as she leans forward and stares at the floor, biting her lip.
“I can’t believe it,” she whispers. “He said it wasn’t all lies. He said he really does want to be a poet, and his childhood was exactly what he told me, but can I ever forgive him for this?”
I think she’s speaking rhetorically, but then she turns to me. I hate myself so much at this moment. It’s a sharp, acid feeling that flows through me. It’s the knowledge that, in a different life, I could support Kayla without this shard of guilt stabbing me in the gut.
“I don’t know,” I whisper. “I guess it depends.”
“On what?”
“If he’s telling the truth and whether he’s a good person or a bad one. He clearly has problems. It seems like even he doesn’t know who he is.”
“He’s been vulnerable with me before,” Kayla murmurs. “Now I don’t know if it was real or part of his scam.”
“It hasn’t been long,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “It’s not about the length of time, Maci. It’s about how deep the feelings are. Go on. Tell me I’m setting myself up for heartbreak again. Tell me that makes no sense.”
Yet I can’t say that. I know exactly what she means. The number of hours spent together isn’t the point. It’s the intensity of the feeling, the certainty of the connection. The same feeling makes me want to go to Lukas, hold him, and tell him everything will be okay, even if it’s a lie.
“Sometimes, if you know, you know,” I say.
“Whoa. I didn’t expect you to say that.”
“But you have to be careful,” I go on. “He’s drunk right now.”
“I know. He might wake up and regret all this. Even if he does, at least we know the truth.”
“Do you miss before… when you didn’t know? When he was just Ethan?”
She leans back, rubbing her hands up and down her legs. She’s got the same restless energy I’ve seen so many times before, at so many other times in our lives. I remember her doing this when studying for big exams or waiting for a boy to text her back and on and on. A thousand everyday memories flow through me.
“No,” she says finally. “Even if it’s painful, knowing the truth is better. At least now, if we build—if there’s anything to build—it can be on solid, real ground. I’d rather be miserable and have it be real than happy, and it’s fake. Maybe that makes me nuts.”
I swallow, a small voice hissing inside me. Tell her, tell her, tell her, but my cowardice won’t let me.
“Yeah,” I say lamely. “I know what you mean.”
CHAPTER 23
LUKAS
Afew hours later, Gabriel Walker and I stand on the balcony. Gabriel taps his pen against his notepad, looking over the city. During the questioning, I did my best to push the stuff about Maci to the back of my mind. I need to focus on Sebastian. He said it himself; he doesn’t have a family. I need to be there for him.
“There are a few options,” Gabriel says. “We could go to the cops.”
“Finn said Nobody has contacts with the police.”
“He has claimed to have contacts with them,” Gabriel murmurs. “That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true, but you’re right. We’d be taking a chance. If they know we’re coming, the chances of them hurting your friend are high.”
“And an innocent young woman,” I tell him. “Sebastian’s not the only one at stake here.”
Gabriel nods. “Of course, sir. We need both those civilians safe and sound.”
“Option number two?”
“We try to pay them off.”
“That won’t work. They sound nuts. If they want a second Dark Age…” Just saying it out loud makes me feel so damn ridiculous. “I doubt money is going to sway them. Let’s say they did agree to bribe. Then what? Maybe they’ll use the cash to do something even worse. I’ll be funding these psychos.”
“That brings us to option three,” he says calmly.
“Which is?”
Gabriel lowers his voice. “Strictly speaking, we should involve law enforcement,” he says. “I need to state, and for you to fully understand, that if we go ahead with any other plan, we’ll be doing so illegally.”