Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
How did it end up like this?
I thought she had herself covered.
And how did Atreus escape?
I turn my head and look in the other direction, toward the Caruso camp. Aspen and Xavier are sitting next to each other, but neither of them has spoken a word since we came in. Xavier’s been scratching his leg nonstop, and a part of me wants to grab it and make him pause, but he probably needs this to work through his emotions.
I’ve gone numb, and my brain feels so fuzzy. All I can think of is how lonely it must be for her, locked away in that cell, and how we’re going to solve this mess, if there is even anything to solve at this point.
We helped her build her traps. We’re just as much implicated in this as she is.
Are we next?
“There must be something that can be done to speed this up, right?” Nathan barks at the employee at the desk.
“I demand to speak with my daughter,” Lana says.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but she is an adult and does not require her parents for processing.”
Lana slams her hand on the desk, and the employee is taken aback, but Kai, one of her other lovers, grabs her hand and pulls it off the desk.
“Thank you for assisting us. Please let us know when we can visit Sunny,” he says, and he leads Lana away from the desk.
The woman nods and waltzes off into a room up ahead, leaving us all to ourselves, steaming to ourselves in the wait room.
“Bitch,” Lana mutters.
“There must be something we can do, right?” Cecilia asks.
“Like what? Break her out?” Heath snorts. “Good luck with that.”
Apollo smashes his fist into his own hand. “I’m willing to try.”
“No, absolutely not,” Ares, Apollo’s dad, interjects.
Apollo rolls his eyes. “Boring.”
“The police have already arrested her,” Caleb, Heath’s dad, says. “Which means they’ve got the evidence.”
“Bullshit,” Nathan barks. “What evidence?”
“They raided her room,” Aspen suddenly says, and everyone looks at her. “Some of my friends saw them go in there.”
“Shit,” Elliot mutters to himself. “It must be the phone, right? Oh God, I’m gonna get implicated.” He buries his face in his hands.
“It’s gonna be okay,” his dad says, rubbing his back.
“What is she being accused of again?” Melody asks.
“Murder,” Silas fills in before anyone else can. “Multiple. And people say it happened at school too.”
“Do you think she really did it?” my mom, Crystal, asks.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Xavier’s mom, Penelope, replies. “She erased my men like they were just meat bags in her way last year.”
Lana shoots darts from her eyes. “If you hadn’t sent them, they wouldn’t have died.”
“Don’t start fighting again. Not now, please,” Alistair says, groaning out loud.
“He’s right. We have to keep our heads together,” Felix says, ruminating from a corner.
“Why didn’t you intervene?” Nathan barks at him. “You’re the fucking dean. You should’ve stopped her.”
“I tried,” Felix barks back. “You think she listens to me? Does anyone in this fucking room?!”
“Guys, guys, please. Let’s all chill and have a drink.” Aspen’s dad, Dylan, comes back with a tray filled with cups of coffee. “I have Mocha, Cappuccino, Espresso.”
Kai narrows his eyes at him. “Are you for real right now?”
“Drinks aren’t going to get my kid out of jail, Dylan,” Lana growls.
“No, but at least it keeps your head cool. Or maybe hot in this case. Since I ain’t serving iced coffees.” He makes a clicking sound with his teeth.
“You’re not as funny as you think you are, Caruso,” Kai deadpans.
The rest just stare at Dylan.
“Oh, come on,” he complains. “It’s gonna be a while, and if we have to wait for hours, might as well hydrate ourselves, don’t you think?”
Alistair raises his brows and gets up from his seat to go grab a cup. “Caffeine keeps the brain functioning.”
“So we’re just going to sit here and wait until the cops tell us about her charge and when her court date will be?” Atlas asks while Crystal goes around handing everyone a cup from Dylan’s tray, so at least everyone has a drink, and Dylan’s effort isn’t in vain.
Xavier suddenly gets up off his seat and growls. “No, I won’t accept it.”
“What, that she’s a serial killer?” Silas asks. “Because you know me, and me and her, we’re the same kind of animal.”
Xavier grinds his teeth, grabs his coat, and waltzes off.
“Where are you going?” Penelope asks.
“Out,” he replies.
I stare up at the door he just waltzed through to my right, while to my left my mother holds a cup of coffee in front of me.
“Here, drink something. It’ll take the edge off things.”
But that’s just it. I don’t want anything to take the edge off, because if I did, I’d be right back where I started, spiking my drinks, sipping hard liquor in broad daylight, just to get away from the truth.