He approaches the bed and leans over me, so close that I can see his eyes turning light brown. It’s beautiful and softens his face.
But when he speaks, I realize that there’s nothing soft about him. “I’m going to ask you some questions now, and you’re going to answer honestly, or I swear, I’m going to make youwishyou’d hit the ground when you fell off that building.”
I shudder.
“How did you know?” Finn whispers.
“How did I know… what?” I turn in the bed, feeling sore all over. Even though the inflatable cushion dampened the fall, I still dropped off a twenty-story building, and it left its mark.
“What drug they were going to inject you with.”
I go incredibly still.
“Did you hack Gina’s phone?”
“No.” I swallow hard. “I visited Gina’s aunt a while back, and her nurse was really weird, so I sent the nurse a scam email to get access to her bank account. Just in case.”
Finn’s eyebrows jump almost imperceptibly.
Sending scam emails is convoluted, but it’s the easiest way to hack into someone’s personal account. Trying to break into an encryption is a lot more time-consuming.
“When Gina insisted that I meet her last night, I had a feeling she would target my heart and make it look like an accident.”
It’s an easy vulnerability to exploit, and it would be too tempting for someone as manipulative as Gina to pass up.
“But Gina wouldn’t know enough about medicine,” I explain to Finn. “She’d need help.”
“How did you make the connection to her sister?”
“I didn’t know Elise was her sister at the time, but after Mrs. Codd warned us about Gina covering her tracks, I figured she’d have someone she trusted watching Kelly’s last living relative.”
“And with her credit card statements, you could see everything she bought,” Finn says in a low voice.
“A few minutes after Kelly—I mean—Gina texted me, the nurse made an interesting purchase. I forwarded the information to Dr. Kenji and told him to get whatever he needed to counteract it.”
Finn’s gaze intensifies and his nostrils flare.
I creep back, wondering if he’s going to yell at me.
However, when he speaks, it’s incredibly slow and measured. “You do realize… how many things could have gone wrong last night?”
“The alternative was letting Kelly kidnap and kill me,” I argue.
“The alternative was taking myhelp.” His voice doesn’t climb at all, and yet I feel like I’ve been spanked.
“You can’t protect me every day, Finn. It’s not feasible. Besides, I’d rather gamble on my life than just throw my hands up because my heart makes me an easy target. I meant everything I said in the car last night.”
Finn glances aside, his jaw muscles clenching.
“I’m going to face Gina.”I told him after he insisted on seeing the text Kelly sent.
“Alone? Not a chance in hell.”
“Look at me, Finn! I can’t run. I can’t fight. I can’t protect myself against anyone. If I ignore this chance, I’ll be in the dark until Kelly strikes. If I do that, I won’t be prepared. This way, I know what I’m walking into.”
“I don’t agree.”
“It’s my life. I don’t need your permission. But if you’re that concerned, I do need a favor.”
