Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“Finn,” she whispers, her eyes filling with tears. She tries to shift her body and flinches. “Fuck, that hurt.”
“Don’t move,” I say, looking at her bandaged arm to make sure it’s still intact.
“I want you closer,” she says, blinking away tears. I stand and kiss her lips ever so softly.
“I’m serious, Josslyn. You own me,” I repeat, my voice hoarse. “My love for you is a living thing inside me. You’re everywhere all the time—on my mind, in my blood, in my bones. I don’t think we can get much closer than that.”
She tugs me closer and I get as close as I can without hurting her. “I love you,” she whispers as she starts to cry. “So much.”
I wrap a hand around her head and bring my chest closer so she’s against my beating heart.
“Hey, Finn,” she whispers after a moment.
My lips twitch as I pull away. “Yeah.”
“You know there are actual living things inside your body,” she says, scrunching her nose. “Like bacteria and fungi.”
I stare at her for a moment before I start to laugh. Fucking Josslyn.
64
FINN
3 Days Later
Icontinue to stare at Leo. He’s been apologetic and helpful these last few days, but I still don’t trust him.
“I really am sorry I didn’t do more to help,” he says for the third time since we sat down across from each other at the coffee shop.
“I don’t want your apology,” I snap.
“We understand,” Hamilton says calmly, setting a hand on my forearm and squeezing so I shut the fuck up. “We just want the footage you promised and we’ll be on our way.”
I almost snort out a laugh. I swear he missed his calling as a lawyer. He and Damian insisted in coming along and I didn’t have the energy to tell them to fuck off. Josslyn was sent home from the hospital late last night, and our apartment currently looks like a birthday celebration with the amount of people, balloons, and flowers. It took more willpower than I knew I had to not kick them all out.
After an eternity, Leo slides his phone across the table. I pick it up and press play. Hamilton and Dame lean closer to watch. The video starts out with the three of them—Josslyn, Olivia, and my sister—walking into Onyx. Seeing my sister makes my skin crawl. The quality of this video is better than the one I have, and I’m able to pay close attention to the expression on their faces. Josslyn looks concerned. Olivia looks like she doesn’t want to be there. My sister looks strange, with huge pupils and an expression that borders on deranged. My stomach twists. Beside me, Damian mutters a quiet curse and Hamilton shifts closer.
In this video, I see Josslyn and Olivia walk toward the bar, and my sister takes a right. The next shot is of her walking into that room I saw her disappear into in the footage I have. She smiles and waves at someone off camera. She walks into the room, and shortly after, a man wearing a mask walks inside as well. The video skips to him walking out, and I know from having watched the footage of the rest of the club that Josslyn is outside with Titus and Olivia is gone.
The timestamp up top skips to three hours later, when the door opens again, and my sister walks out. My heart pounds hard and loud in my ears as I watch her walk toward the bar, give something to the same man with the mask that had been inside the room with her. He takes a small envelope from her hand and starts arguing with her, but Mallory shrugs and glances into the bar. My stomach turns.
Thirty minutes pass and people start leaving the club. I hadn’t noticed when I watched the footage before, but there weren’t many people there that night.
“Is it usually that dead on a Saturday night?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the phone screen.
“No. It closed early that night. Everyone who made a reservation had to be out by midnight.”
“Is that normal?” Damian asks.
“No.”
I press pause on the video and glance up, waiting for him to explain himself.
“Mallory rented out Onyx quite a few times,” Leo says. “Normally, when people do that, we keep a record of it. That night, there is no record. I found the guest list that I showed Josslyn, but no record of anyone renting the entire club.”
My jaw clenches and I press play again. A man walks inside with a body bag hanging over his shoulder and steps into the room Mallory vacated. At first, I figure she’s inside there, but the video cuts to the empty bar, where Josslyn is sitting with her head down on the bar as if she’s taking a nap.
“Fuck,” I whisper, my stomach curling. I don’t know if I can watch this.