35. Finn
Chapter 35
Finn
I t’s a new semester and I’m engaging in my new pre-lunch routine. I’ve gotten used to coming to The Circle and spending some time tossing a football around with Connor and Austin. I won’t exactly call them friends, because I don’t really know them on any deep level, but we’re not as antagonistic as we were before. Last semester, right around midterm, I went back to sitting at the legacy table, but I still make time to do this.
Connor sends the ball flying. I shuffle backwards, then run to catch it. It lands beautifully in my hands. Palming the ball, I prepare to send it back to him. My hand stops mid throw, as I spot Thea standing off to the side. I think I’m hallucinating until I see LJ get up to greet her. She stops a few inches away from her and they press their heads close, without touching, whispering to each other. Then they’re walking towards us. I lower my hand, my heart speeds up, and there’s a smile on my face. They stop to talk to Connor and Austin, then they’re walking towards me. Past me. Without speaking.
“Thea-” I call out, taking a step towards her. It’s LJ, who turns and shakes her head at me. Is she warning me not to talk to her? Fuck that. “Thea…” Her back stiffens, but she doesn’t stop, as the two of them continue toward the dining hall, then take a right on the path away from it.
“They’re having lunch in LJ’s dorm.” Austin says, coming up to me. He shoots out his hand to stop me when I move to go after them. “They said they needed girl time.”
Girl time. Right. I remember how important that is to them. But she didn’t even speak to me. Did she not notice it was me since I’m standing here throwing a football and that’s not what I used to do before she left? I quickly dismiss the excuse. No. That’s not it. She knew it was me, and LJ told me not to talk to her.
Thea’s back. My spiraling thoughts slow as I focus on that. She was gone. Missing. Deemed a traitor, and now she’s back. Maybe her dismissal of me is because of that. Does she think she can’t speak to me because she’s now labeled as a traitor? I mean, there are rules, but I don’t plan to abide by them.
I toss the ball to Austin and head to the dining hall to eat. Holden slides into the seat across from me. Even though I’m a little upset about what happened, the smile is back on my face.
“Who did you stab?”
“No one.” Disbelief is etched all over his face. “I didn’t.”
“Fine. Who are you planning to stab?” He asks, fingers swiping across his phone screen.
“She’s back.” I say, no interest in being coy or delaying this. “Thea’s back.” His fingers still, as he looks up at me. “Before you ask how I know, it’s because I saw her. She was here on campus with LJ.”
He goes to stand and I tell him what Austin said to me. “They’re having girl time.” His eyes slit, but he lowers back into his seat.
“What did she say? Where has she been?”
“I didn’t have time to speak to her.” My brows pinch. “That’s not true. I tried to speak to her, and she ignored me. That’s when Austin said they were having girl time.”
“And you accepted that?” His fingers are back to typing.
“You remember how important girl time is to her, so I figured I’d talk to her later tonight at the dorm. We can have a floor meeting.”
“That’s gonna be hard to do.”
“Why?”
He looks up from his screen. “Because Thea’s not assigned to our dorm.”
Deacon
I never thought I’d say it, but I missed this place. Not the school itself, but the gym and the structure of teaching and putting together a comprehensive course. It might be time for me to think about leaving and building up a more robust training program at Wolfe Pack.
I don’t know how much time I have left here. When Thea leaves, so will I. I’ve already got the money I’ll have to repay for early termination of my contract with The League of the Daggered Raven. Phoenix Foundation pays well for their jobs. I could have left a long time ago. But I stayed, because I got a perversive sense of joy from my failure to provide any great leads for The Guardian program.
Don’t get me wrong, the leads have been good, but they haven’t been the best . My eye for talent was supposed to make my finds superior to the other recruiters. I’ve been okay with living down to expectations.
My office door swings open without a knock. The assholes in the doorway are two of the only five people who would barge in like this. This should be fun. I settle back in my chair, fingers laced together behind my head.
“So you’re back?”
Stupid questions get stupid answers. “Nope. I’m an astral projection. My spirit’s here, but my body is somewhere else.”
Finn steps closer. “I’m happy to arrange for your spirit to permanently leave your body.”
“Get on with it. That means I won’t have to entertain stupid questions.”
Holden shakes his head and says, “We’re not here to separate spirits or body parts. We heard you were back from your sabbatical and wanted to see for ourselves.”
We’re not see for ourselves friends. Hearing about me from the school rumor mill should’ve been enough. They’re here about Thea. That means they’ve seen her and their reunion was a huge disappointment.
They need to get used to the feeling. She worked her way back from the first attack. Some of her resilience was because she didn’t remember that night. But what she’s been through this time… She remembers it all, and that kind of torture and abuse changes a person. She barely sleeps and when she does, she wakes in the middle of the night, thinking her freedom is an elaborate mind fuck.
“As you can see, I’m here. When you’re done eye fucking me, you can leave. I have a lesson to prepare.”
Finn steps closer, flipping through the stack of papers on my desk, and says, “Thea’s back.”
I put my hand on top of the papers, yanking them from his reach. It’s a statement, but I hear the question in his tone. Is it a coincidence that my return coincides with hers, or did I know where she’s been all along?
Thea and I agree that the sooner our story leaks, the better. Keeping it a secret only gives Malcolm time to throw a different narrative out there. He won’t admit he took her, but we don’t want him to have a chance to double down on the abandonment scenario already out there.
“I know. I was her ride into town.”
Now Finn’s flipping his knife in his hand. “You’ve known where she was all this time and didn’t tell us?”
“That’s what you heard. That’s not what I said.”
Holden interrupts Finn’s next emotional outburst. “You were her ride from where?”
“The courthouse in Riverside County.”
“Riverside county? Isn’t that Palm Springs?” He looks at Finn and shakes his head as if my words aren’t making sense. “I searched all the traffic cameras in the state. There was no record of Thea in Palm Springs.”
I’m sure he did. This will be the first test of the work Ryker and his team put in. “Did you search the courthouse or the jails? Because she’s been bouncing around between corrections facilities for the last six months, waiting for a trial.”
“For what?” Holden asks. “Littering? An unpaid traffic ticket?”
Finn is staring at me, and I know he’s putting it together. Thea told me he knows her secret about Michael. He obviously never shared it with Holden or littering, and traffic tickets wouldn’t be the first things that came to mind.
My gaze flicks between them as I say, “Someone dropped an anonymous tip that she’s the one who mugged Michael Pearse.”
Finn snaps, “Are you suggesting we had something to do with that?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, but since we’re talking about it, you do have a habit of fucking with her. Dropping a bogus tip so she couldn’t complete her challenge isn’t a farfetched idea.”
“We didn’t.” Finn says, through clenched teeth.
I’m almost certain they didn’t know it was happening. That doesn’t absolve them and I don’t trust them enough to tell them I know who did. They’re a part of the organization that runs the facility she was in and their third member’s father is the one who took her.
In my eyes, that makes them just as guilty as Malcolm.