It has nothing to do with that.
Killian’s smirk was pissing me off. He knew something.
Jade cleared her throat, trying to muster up a smile and failing. “This morning was a bit of a shock but I didn’t expect much from you. It’s everything else, Finn. You’re obsessed with Runo. It’s not healthy. You were back then and even more so now.”
“So? What’s it to you?”
She shrunk back, my father scooting closer to her as he placed a hand over hers. “Be nice, Finn. We care about you and your health. Runo is not healthy for you and now that he’s getting out… I need you to promise me you won’t have anything to do with him.”
“Fuck you. Both of you. You’re always trying these little interventions. They didn’t work with Killian or me or any of the other alters.Back off.” I stuffed another bite of roast into my mouth, loaded with garlic mashed potatoes. I fucking wish we were eating curry.
Silence filtered between us, my father blinking several times before he addressed me again. “There are others? Finn, you know what happened with your mother. You should have said something!”
I snorted. “HMD isn’t fucking hereditary. Yeah, I have it but it’ll manifest differently than Mom’s. So long as you don’t stuff me into a hospital while I wither away into nothing, we’ll be fine. I get the concern. I was the son you wanted but I turned out like this.”
“You used to be worse,” my father mumbled, causing me to freeze. What the fuck did that mean? Worse than this unhinged version of myself? I didn’t even know how that was possible. “Finn, we just want you to stop rushing into things. You’ve got a new lease on life. We don’t need to return to how it was. You can still go get that degree and start anew. Jade’s a good girl. She really is.”
She shot me a hopeful smile but I wasn’t convinced. I refused to live a manufactured life like that. “Dinner was excellent. However, I happen to know of a certain person getting releasedtonight.Don’t wait up.”
Horror bled through my father’s features as I pushed away from the table and stomped toward the front door. Runo said not to come but I was going to pick him up and take him out to dinner. He deserved the best. Jade followed on my heels, waving my phone at me. I snatched it, snarling in her face, hoping to destroy any crazy ideas she had. “Did you really come to help stage an intervention, Jade?”
“Look at your fucking phone, Finn. Look at all the calls you made to Runo and the texts you’ve sent.”
I stared at my device, scrolling through our conversations. “Why? There’s nothing weird about it.”
She let out an aggravated sigh, her hands fisting at her sides. “Seriously? Fuck, you’re impossible. Do you even know what fucking jail he’s at? No institution in their right mind would bereleasing someone like Runo this late at night. Just think about how crazy this is!”
“Crazy?”
“Maybe I should go to the police with everything I have. Maybe then you’ll see the truth.”
I just shook my head. “Jade. Oh, my sweet Jade.” I poured a little extra honey into my words, grinning as her eyes widened with fear. “You think I wouldn’t have planned for that? You said it yourself that I always have plans.Always.Go ahead and run over there, hoping and praying they’ll listen to you. They’ll pull you into an interrogation room, fingerprint you as is routine and then find out you were there at the scene of Nala’s murder. What? I needed a safety net.”
“How could you?!”
“You could have said no when I texted you but you like a little bit of the darkness. You like my crazy just fine until it became a little too much. That shit is on you, not me. Also, Jade, I would think real hard why all of the crime has gone under the radar for so long. It isn’t because my father is wholly incompetent. I’m just saying.” I blew her a kiss and then slipped out the door, heading to the car I still hadn’t broken in.
Runo would be absolutely surprised when I arrived.
Where are we going?
Grimrose Penitentiary. It’s just at the edge of Primrose.
I didn’tknow how Killian knew but it didn’t matter. I just wanted to make sure that I was there when Runo stepped out onto free soil so he knew that I would always be there for him. We were all silent as we focused on arriving in one piece at our destination, emotions riding us high but I needed to see him.
Nearly a half hour later, I was staring at a building that couldn’t have been used in the last fifty years. The stone was in ruins, the night air eerily whistling through the place. This couldn’t be the right jail.
“Are you fucking sure it was here, Killian?”
Pretty sure. He mentioned it enough.
It’s fucking creepy out here.
Can we leave? Runo is obviously not here.
How did I get this so wrong? And where the fuck was Runo? I returned to the car, scrambling for my phone as I brought up his contact, confused when the number sat empty. I scrolled through past calls, looking for the unknown numbers, and found nothing. When I tried the text messages, every single one had been sent me by me, an automatic text sent after message.
Message undeliverable. Phone number not in service. If you believe this is in error, contact your phone provider.
