Reed and Zeb exchange a look, and I pause to look them over after taking another swig, the drink sitting in my mouth for a beat before I swallow and wipe my chin with my wrist.
“What do you have?” I ask.
“Nothing,” Mads says, and the way he says it makes me glare his way.
“Okay. If you fuckers don’t have anything, I’m sure Foster does.” I spin the top back onto the bottle and push my sunglasses on again. “I’ll catch the bus with New Dawn,” I say about the band we’re touring with. “See you at the venue.”
“Bonnie, wait—”
But I’m out of the door and heading across the parking lot to New Dawn’s bus before the three of them can stop me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
GEMMA
I’ve been holdingin my vomit since leaving Bonnie last night.
I can feel my anxiety creeping into my throat every time I think about that phone call.
Tell your stalker I’m coming for her, too.
Fuck.
Kade is already on it, though he’s having a hard time tracking it as the phone was an unregistered burner. All he could pull was the location where the call had been placed—which is better than nothing. However, it also meant I had to go dumpster diving at five in the morning.
My morning run is usually about starting the day anew, breathing in the sunrise, and remembering that every day is a chance for things to go well or to hell.
I don’t usually drag the previous night’s bullshit with it.
However, I’ll drag myself through hell at any time of the night if it means she’s safe after.
The breeze from the ocean hits my cheeks when I look up, still holding that burner phone in my palm, my own phone in the other. There are only three suspects on the list of those whoknow about the night she wore those fairy wings all those years ago.
And as my goddamn luck would have it, we can’t find the location onanyof them.
The most recent apartment location is the one I’m standing in front of—just a mile from where the burner was dropped. I pivot to face the run-down building and stuff my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, squinted eyes dragging over the facade.
Just as I start to walk in, my phone buzzes, and I pause when I see Bonnie’s name and a text across the screen.
BONNIE
I need to clear my head.
Is it okay if I go on a hike?
My heart feels like someone is repeatedly stabbing it. I can only imagine how rattled she is. I should have stayed with her last night, helped her calm down and work through the feelings that phone call brought up.
Yet, I’d run out of there with only her safety on my mind instead of helping her when she needed it most.
You’re a good person, I can hear her saying.
I’m not a good person. I’m a selfish person. A low-life, wannabe vigilante who never learned to control her blackouts or regulate her rage. I’m tempted to set this building on fire when I leave so that there’s no memory of those bastards inside of it. I need people to forget they exist so I can delete them entirely, without cause of an investigation after.
Why does the death of someone so evil become a witch hunt, anyway?
I peer down at my phone again and sigh at Bonnie’s messages.
Yeah. I’ll pick you up around ten.
