I hurry and give him an account of what I saw while I was under. When I get to the part about my father killing my mother, the room grows so quiet you can hear everyone’s heavy breathing.
“Ayden, I don’t even know what to say.” The detective shows the slightest bit of compassion. “This must be so hard for you.”
“Say you’re going to find him.” I curl my fingers inward, balling my hands into fists, battling back the tears burning in my eyes. “Say you’ll find him before he tries to cleanse his soul with Sadie’s life, or whatever the hell he has planned for her. Then when you find him, you’ll make him pay for everything he’s done.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen,” he assures me.
“Did you know about this cleansing soul thing?” I ask, gripping the armrests. “Did you know he—that the Soulless Mileas wanted to sacrifice someone they loved because they believe it’ll cleanse their souls?”
His prolonged silence answers my question.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I shake my head, struggling to keep my cool. But I hate how much I’ve been lied to throughout this investigation, how much they’ve left me in the dark.
“Over the last couple of months, I’ve learned enough about these people that I’ve had a hunch for a while what they’re intentions have been,” the detective says, setting his pen down on his desk.
“Do you think that could be why my brother was murdered?” My voice comes out off pitch, wavering, jam packed with the sadness and anger I’m carrying inside me. “Do you think he was one of my dad’s sacrifices?”
“At first I wasn’t sure, but over the last couple of weeks we’ve stumbled onto some evidence that opens that possibility,” he explains. “But Ayden, that’s about all the details I can give you right now about your brother’s case.”
“And what about Sadie?” My tone is clipped. But I don’t give a shit. I’m so sick of him not telling me what’s going on. “Is she going to be next?”
He doesn’t answer, instead pushing to his feet. “I’m going to need some more information from you, but I’d like to get you started on looking through some photos.”
Lila turns to me, her skin pale. She seemed like she was going to faint when I told everyone my mother had us for these people and their sacrifice. I’ll admit, telling that part hurt worse than nail scratches, broken bones, and wounded souls.
“Ayden, I can’t believe . . . I don’t know what to . . .” She struggles for words. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t need to say sorry. This isn’t your fault.” My voice is strained. “What’s done is done and I just want to forget about it and move on. But after I help find my sister.”
She nods, covering her hand over mine. “You can move on from this. In fact, I promise you that you will.”
“I hope so.” God, I hope so. Hope my sister’s alive. Hope that through all the darkness, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m fucking restless as I get situated in front of the computer to scroll through photos. Blood roars in my eardrums as I wrap my fingers around the mouse. Lila is just as anxious, pacing the floor behind me while Ethan tries to get her to relax.
“Honey, you need to calm down,” he says, wrapping an arm around her and steering her toward a chair.
“I’m trying.” She bites her nails, looking at me. “Do you need anything? Water? A snack.”
I’m not hungry but clearly she wants to help me. “Water sounds good.”
Nodding, she springs to her feet and hurries off toward the vending machines just outside the room.
Ethan slumps back in the chair, letting his head rest against the wall. “I love that woman to death, but she doesn’t handle stress very well,” he mutters.
“I’m sorry,” I say, knowing it’s my fault. “For putting you guys through this.”
“Stop apologizing, Ayden.” He raises his head to look at me. “We’re glad we get to be here for you. We just want you to be safe.”
Nodding, I focus back to the computer. One photo after another, I sort through so many they all start to blur together. I’m there for so long that I worry maybe I won’t find them.
But then my heart slams to a stop.
“That’s him.” I point at the photo on the screen of a man with the same eyes and hair color as mine.
“Are you sure?” the detective asks, leaning over my shoulder to look at the screen.
He looks younger in the picture, but I can still tell it’s him. “Yes, I’m positive.” My heart goes from a complete standstill to beating uncontrollably. “That’s the man who killed my mother. That’s my father.”
See his face.
It’s branded in my mind
Like the tattoo on my side
Put there to remember.
You never wanted me to forget.
Guess what. I didn’t.
IT’S BEEN A COUPLE OF days since Ayden did the treatment. For the most part, everything’s been quiet in our lives. There hasn’t been much drama, and we weren’t even grounded for sneaking off to the therapy session. But Ayden is getting restless, waiting for something to happen with the case, although he won’t say much about it.
I spend a lot of time trying to cheer him up, and from the outside it seems like it’s working. But in the back of my mind, I worry he might not be dealing with stuff. It has to be hard for him. After finding out all those things about his parents. After seeing what they did. Finding out that his father paid his mother to have him.
My heart breaks for him and the pain he has to be going through.
“Did you hear anything I just said?” my friend, Maggie, asks me.
We’re sitting in front of the school beneath the tree, lounging in the sun. We’re supposed to be in class, but since it’s the final day of school, and then I’ll officially be a high school graduate, my English teacher let us have a free period.
“Not really,” I answer truthfully, stretching my legs across the grass. “Sorry, I’m just a little distracted.”
“You’re always a little distracted.” She rolls up her shirt to the bottom of her bra so the sun hits her stomach. “And I think I know why.”
“Really?” I ask with skepticism. There’s no way she could possibly know.
“Yep. It has something to do with a certain sexy Goth boy you can’t keep your hands off of.” She rests back on her hands, smiling smugly.
I relax against the tree behind me. “Okay, enlighten me then. Because I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you so do.” She pulls her glasses down, looking at me from over the top of them. “I can see it in your eyes every time the two of you are within a mile of each other.”
“See what?” I say innocently, only so she’ll have to say it aloud.
“You know what I’m talking about.” She sits up and tucks her legs under her. “But if you want me to say it then I will. I’m talking about S.E.X. Sex.” She raises her voice loud enough that the people around us can hear her. “You want to have sex with Ayden. You want him to put his—”
“All right. All right.” I cut her off, laughing. “I get it.”
“But do you really get it?” she asks, retrieving a tube of lip-gloss from her purse.
“Maggie, I love you to death, but I’m totally not following you.”
She applies a coat of gloss then smacks her lips together. “I’m asking you if you get how much the two of you need to get your freak on.”
“Okay, we’ve talked about that reference,” I say. “No calling it getting our freak on. It makes it sound so gross.”
“Sometimes, it is gross.” Her nose scrunches. “Like with Sage.”
“Don’t go there.” I point a finger at her. “If you tell me things, I might not be able to look him in the eye anymore. I need to be able to do that for the sake of the band.”
“Fine.” Her eyes sparkle mischievously as she sits back in the grass. “I won’t tell you all the horr
ible details just as long as you admit you want to have sex with Ayden.” When my lips remain sealed, she adds, “If you want, you can call it making love, but I kind of wish you wouldn’t.” She pulls a face like the idea is appalling.
“Fine, I’ll admit it, just as long as you’ll drop the subject of my sex life.”
She grins, bouncing up and down. “So you’re saying it’s true? You’re thinking about having sex with Ayden?”
I nod, trying not to smile idiotically. But the idea of being with Ayden like that makes me grin. “I think about it a lot.”
“Think about what a lot?” Ayden asks from right behind me.
Maggie smirks at me then bats her eyelashes as she looks up at Ayden. “About you and her getting your freak on.”
I glance over my shoulder at Ayden and offer him an apologetic look. “Just ignore her. She ate too much lip gloss today.”
“Hey, I don’t eat it,” she protests. “I use it to draw attention to these bad boys.” She smacks her lips.
Ayden’s never been a fan of Maggie, and he simply stares at her before focusing on me. “Why aren’t you in class?”
I shrug, picking at the grass. “We got a free period so we thought we’d come chill in the sun. What about you?” I look at the parking lot behind us where I think he just came from. “Did you just get back from somewhere?”
“Yeah, I did.” His gaze flickers in Maggie’s direction.
I get to my feet, reading his mind, because we’re in sync like that. “Hey Mags, I’m going to go talk with Ayden for a bit. Catch you later, okay?”
“Oh whatever.” She stands up, brushing the grass of her legs. “I know you two are going to go make out in the car.” She winks at me before strutting across the grass, giving her ass an extra shake as she walks by a group of football players.
“We need to talk, huh?” Ayden asks, his brow cocking.
“I could tell that you wanted to.” I gently tap the side of his head. “Remember, I can read everything going on in there.”
A soft laugh escapes his lips, but he quickly turns serious. “I do want to talk, actually.” He gives a quick scan of the campus yard. “But maybe somewhere where there aren’t so many people around.”
The air is stifling today and I’m roasting like a beast, even in my purple tank, denim shorts, and gladiator sandals. “I am in desperate need of some air conditioning.” I loop my arm through his. “How about we go sit in your car?”
He nods and we start across the grass, the sunlight flickering between the tree branches canopying above our heads. Neither of us speaks as we cross the parking lot and get into his car. I can tell something’s stressing him out, and that he’s stuck in his own little Ayden world of despair. I don’t push him to confide in me, though, figuring he’s been pushed too much already. If he wants to talk, then we’ll talk. If he wants to sit in the car with me and simply hold my hand, then that’s what I’ll do.
He turns on the engine to crank up the air, then sits back and cracks his knuckles while gazing out the window.
“I’m sorry Maggie’s a perv,” I say as I prop my feet against the dash.
He glances at me from the corner of his eye. “I’m used to Maggie and her mouth. In fact, my day would seem oddly incomplete without hearing at least one dirty remark from her.”
“Well, that’s a huge change for you. Usually, you get irritated when she opens her mouth.”
“I said I was used to her, not that I wanted to be used to her.” He’s smiling and it’s so beautiful and rare that I have to grin along with him.
“I think I might be with you on that,” I say. “Can you believe she tried to tell me everything that happened between Sage and her? And I’m talking everything. Could you imagine? I’d be scarred for life.”
“Sage would be so pissed if she did.” He rests his head back and stares at me for a heartbeat or two, his eyes smoldering so intensely I have to catch my breath.
I never thought it could be like this.
That love could be so raw and potent.
So intoxicated.
So mind erasing.
My breathing is fading.
My heart isn’t cooperating.
Anymore.
“I found out something . . . about the case,” Ayden says with a heavy sigh. “Lila actually pulled me out of class to tell me. Then she made me go talk to Dr. Gardingdale to make sure I was handling everything okay.”
I practically get whiplash going from joking about Sage and Maggie’s dirty rendezvous to talking about the case.
“What happened?” I sit up straight, my feet falling to the floor. “Did they find them? Did they find your sister?”
He reaches forward and gently places his hand on my arm. “Lyric, calm down. Nothing has happened yet. They just got a lead.”
“But that’s good news, right?” Please, please, let it be good news.
“I’m not sure.” He seems so calm, which is strange. “Maybe. The detective said he’d give me an update when he had one. It might take a few days, though.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay?” I ask him for the eleventh-hundred time since the amnesia session. “You’ve seemed sort of, I don’t know, sedated lately.”
“That’s not a bad thing,” he assures me with a forced smile. “It’s good to be calm, right?”
I nod, but I’m not buying it. I have a hunch Ayden’s cool-as-cookie-dough-ice-cream behavior is like a calm before the storm. I want to press him to talk, but worry I’ll only stress him out more.
What do I do?
To get through to you?
To get inside your head?
See your thoughts.
Feel what lies under your skin.
In your veins.
In your heart.
The bell rings and I sigh as we get out of the car to go to class.
“If you get a free period, meet me out front, okay?” Ayden asks as we part ways in the hall.
“Surely durely.” I throw him a wave over my shoulder, then make a quick pit stop at my locker to douse myself in perfume because I’m one sweat away from having a serious case of BO. As I click open my locker, a piece of paper floats out and lands on the floor by my feet. Not thinking too much of it, I bend down to pick it up and realize it’s a letter.
We found the way to Ayden’s heart. Make sure to pass along the message.
My attention whips up, and I cast a panicked glance up and down the hallway, skimming the faces of everyone. I swear I see a blur of red race out the front door, but I’m not about to chase the person down.
I grab my phone out of my pocket and run straight for Ayden.
“LYRIC, WHAT’S WRONG?” I GAPE at her as she races up to me in the hallway, her eyes wild with panic.
Panting, she hands me a piece of paper while dialing someone’s number on her phone. “This was in my locker.” She hunches over, bracing her hands on her knees as she catches her breath.
My hands shake as I read the note. “We found the way to Ayden’s heart. Make sure to pass along the message.” More fear than I’ve ever felt pulsates through me. They left this in Lyric’s locker. My Lyric. God fucking dammit! “Fuck.” I kick the locker, then grab Lyric’s hand and guide her with me as I stride down the hallway and burst out the exit doors.
“Where are we going?” she asks as she jogs to keep up with me.
My gaze is everywhere, taking in every person, every door, every vehicle. “I’m getting the police.” Getting her to safety.
When I reach the police car, I startle the officer when I rap my knuckles on the window.
He rolls the window down, his brows knitting. “Ayden, is everything all right?”
Shaking my head, I hand him the note. “This was in Lyric’s locker.”
He reads the letter and mutters, “This sounds like a threat.” He curses then hops out of the car. “You two go wait in the main office while I check the area.” He calls for backup as we jog across the yard, parting ways at the entra
nce door.
“Do you think they’re still around?’ Lyric asks as we hurry down the now empty hallway and toward the main office.
“I don’t know.” I keep ahold of her arm, never wanting to let her go. “I honestly don’t think so.”
Her eyes are wide as she works to keep up with me. “Why?”
“Because I think this is another way of them messing with my head,” I say as I yank open the door to the main office. “This has to be part of their plan. Every one of their moves always seems so calculated. So deliberate.”
The question that’s really bothering me, though, is how did they know about Lyric? The answer is fucking terrifying. That they’ve been watching me close enough to know how much she means to me.
I don’t know what their intentions are with putting the note in her locker, but I have a feeling the move was deliberate. Maybe they’re going to try to use her to get to me. Or maybe they think they can scare me into handing over myself by threatening her. If that’s the case, then they’re right. I’d walk straight into their hands if it means she’ll be safe.
AFTER I FIND THE LETTER, I call my mom while Ayden and I wait in the main office. The police make a huge scene as they search the school. Thank God it’s our last day; otherwise, we would’ve had to spend the rest of our school days with everyone gossiping about what happened. While I can handle staring, Ayden, my Shy Boy, has trouble with extra attention.
Aunt Lila is the one who ends up picking us up, because she’s closest to the school. But my mom, my dad, and Uncle Ethan are headed home.
By the time Lila arrives, the police have searched every nook and cranny of the school and surrounding area and found no sign of who left the note.
She doesn’t say a word as she barges into the office and strides straight for Ayden. “This has got to stop.” She throws her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “They can’t keep doing this to you.”
“They didn’t do it to me.” Guilt laces Ayden’s voice. “They went after Lyric.”
Aunt Lila looks over Ayden’s shoulder at me, then she snags hold of my arm and tugs me in for a hug too.
Unraveling You Series: The Complete Set Page 48
