Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Foster
“Collin’s a goddamn idiot,” Hunter growled, shoveling a mouthful of vegetable soup into his mouth. His face was set tight, every muscle around his jaw clenched. Something was obviously weighing him down.
“That was random.” Myles snorted with an eyeroll.
Finally, Hunter released a sigh and slouched back into his seat. “Why would he just go get himself beat up like that?” he demanded in exasperation. “Over what, some chick that went missing ?”
My eyes widened at his little slip up and I did a sweep around the cafeteria, making sure no one was eavesdropping. This wasn’t the time or place to have a meltdown. Baring my teeth, I planted my palms against the flat surface of the table and leaned forward.
“Watch yourself,” I growled.
A scoff fluttered past his lips. “Relax, master. Everyone knows that there are two missing girls, and almost everyone knows that Aspen and Collin had a fling. You’re too fucking paranoid.”
“He’s right,” Myles chimed in unhelpfully.
I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to take any chances. It was my life on the line. All of our lives were on the line. The last thing I needed was for him to say something else in his fit of rage and then we’d all be hauled off to prison.
None of this shit was okay. I did what needed to be done in order to save our asses. We were all involved in what happened to those two girls, and we’d all suffer the consequences for it if we were ever found out. Standing by while Aspen was sexually assaulted, might not have been the best thing for me to do. Especially since I’d endured something similar as a child. Maybe not to the full extent, but it was still scarring.
Hunter’s phone started ringing, slicing through my thoughts and pulled me back to reality. My gaze drifted to the cellular device on the table.
“Speaking of the devil,” Hunter murmured, glancing at the screen before placing it to his ear.
“Is it Collin?” Myles inquired, stealing the words from my own lips.
Collin had a broken nose and two fractured ribs. He was also severely dehydrated, so they wanted to keep him in the hospital for observation and to get some fluids back in him. He would be released any day now.
Hunter’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Wait, slow down, man. What the fuck are you talking about?” There was a pause as he listened, and then he rolled his eyes. “Yeah. We’re almost done with dinner anyways. We’ll be there soon.” He hung up and stuffed the phone in his pocket.
“What’s going on?” I asked, a frown tugging at my mouth. “Is he okay?”
“I don’t know. He sounded frantic and wasn’t making a lot of sense. He asked if we’d go visit him.”
This wasn’t the first time Collin had called one of us, trying to get us to break him out of the hospital. Hopefully, him being there would give him all the time he needed to think shit through, that way he’d have it over and done with and I wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.
That seemed like an unlikely outcome, but a guy could still be hopeful. I was tired of always being the logical one in the group. Myles has been disappearing more frequently, Hunter was locking himself in his room every night, and Collin was getting his ass beat on purpose just so he could feel something other than grief and regret.
“You guys can go,” Myles said, cutting through my thoughts. “I have some shit to do.”
I couldn’t fight the eye roll this time. He always had shit to do . It was as frequent as three times a week now.
As if reading my mind, Hunter turned his way with a raised eyebrow. “What’s got you so busy lately?” he asked, accusation leaking from his voice.
Myles shrugged nonchalantly as he plucked a strawberry off his tray. “Nothing you need to worry about. I just have some shit to take care of. If you need me, all you have to do is call.” He shot a cocky smirk in Hunter’s direction before sinking his teeth into the fresh piece of fruit and standing. Before either of us could object, he grabbed his tray and left us alone, staring after him.
Hunter shook his head in irritation. “What the fuck is his deal lately?”
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out soon,” I assured. “For now, let’s go see our boy.”
When we made it to Collin’s room, a nurse was present. She unhooked the IV tube from his arm, patched him up with a Band-Aid, and then left. Hunter took the seat closest to the bed, so I just decided to stand for now. If he was really urgent about us coming to see him, then either something was bothering him, or he just wanted us to get him out of here.
“How are you feeling?” Hunter asked, placing his elbows on his knees, and leaning forward.
“Like shit actually.”
“Well, no shit,” I retorted. “Serves you right, too. I mean…what the hell were you thinking?” Annoyance bubbled within my veins as I was reminded of his recent stupidity. He was lucky a few fractured ribs and a broken nose was all he got. Guys have left that ring in much worse condition, and they actually fought back. Plus, Rocky was one of the top fighters at the academy. It could have been a lot worse.
Collin rolled his eyes. “I didn’t ask you guys to come here to belittle me. What I did doesn’t even concern you.”
“Then why did you ask us to come?” Hunter inquired, concern gripping his features.
The boy in question released a heavy sigh, before looking off into the distance. I observed him closely, noting the worry lines surrounding his forehead and eyes. His hand tightened around an empty wrapper of some sort, causing it to make a crunching sound. Whatever it was, something was actually bothering him, and this wasn’t another escape attempt.
“I don’t even know how to begin,” he murmured. “Or how it’s even possible.”
“Spit it out,” I ordered.
The color started to drain from his face and his lips drew tight. He obviously wanted to tell us, or he wouldn’t have called. What was bothering him so damn much that he couldn’t form the words to make it happen?
Hunter and I exchanged looks—a silent conversation between us. We were both concerned with our friend’s sudden change in behavior.
“I don’t know how else to say it, so I’m just going to be direct,” he started. “Aspen is alive.”
Silence.
No one bothered to say anything as we processed the information that had just been presented to us. As it slowly started to sink in, my eyebrows drew together. I knew she wasn’t alive. Strong men who knew how to swim didn’t make it out of there. There’s no way in hell that she could have. It had to be some sick joke, or maybe he conjured up an imaginary version of the girl we murdered in order to help himself grieve.
“That’s not funny,” Hunter remarked, narrowing his eyes at him.
I nodded in agreement. That was some twisted shit. If Aspen was alive, how would he even know? He’s been in the damn hospital for the last several days.
“I’m serious. She just randomly showed up last night, and she looks surprisingly well considering what we did to her.”
Frustration gnawed at my insides. Either he was toying with us, or something was seriously wrong with his head. Pushing my tongue ring between my lips, I sucked on the metal ball. All this talk about the little rat was making me think about her way more than I had been.
When was the last time you saw a rat as sexy as her? My subconscious mocked. It wasn’t a secret that Aspen was gorgeous. She was petite, but still had more than enough meat on her chest and ass. Initially, her physical appearance threw me off, but over time, it grew on me.
Hunter scoffed. “Why the hell would she come here of all places, how would she get here, and how would she even know you were here?”
“I don’t know. But I swear I’m not making it up.”
My gaze slid over to Collin, searching for any sign that this was all some big joke. Weirdly, all I saw on his face was sincerity. He truly believed that Aspen came to visit him.
Sighing, I threaded my hands through my dirty blonde hair, disheveling it. “I’ll be back,” I said.
I didn’t wait for a response before striding out of the room and closing the door behind me. Something had to be wrong with him. Maybe he had a brain bleed, or something.
Taking a few deep breaths, I leaned against the wall. My head was a goddamn mess. Now there was an even bigger divide between us than there was when the little bitch was still in the picture. Clearly, killing her was a bad choice in more ways than one.
After I managed to compose myself, I pushed off the wall and made my way toward the nurse’s station. Three women sat behind the desk, talking amongst each other. One of them, I recognized instantly from earlier when we first arrived at Collin’s room.
When I approached, their conversation came to a screeching halt, and they all turned to look at me. The youngest looking one of the three looked me up and down in a judgmental manner, probably trying to determine if I was worth her unwanted advances. Her medium-length brown hair fell smoothly against her shoulders and complimented her olive skin tone.
“Can we help you?” The brunette in question piped up.
Ignoring her, I turned to the older nurse—the one I’d recognized from before. “I think something is wrong with my friend. He’s in room 305,” I explained. “Some of the things he’s saying don’t make sense. I’m worried he might have a bad concussion or brain injury.”
The woman furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “He had an X-ray the day he came in, and he’s already been checked for a concussion. Most of his injuries are around his abdomen. I was his nurse when he arrived. Dr. Elliot is very thorough in his work.” Pursing her lips, her gaze traveled toward where his room was located. “What has he been saying that would make you think that?”
None of this made any sense. If nothing was wrong with his head, then he had to have truly believed that he’d seen her. That just wasn’t possible unless he dreamt about her and assumed it was real.
Drawing my lips into a straight line, I nodded dismissively. “It’s not important.” The last thing we needed was for the nurse and potentially the police to get involved.
Turning on my heels, I made my way back to the room and slipped inside. The door closed behind me, drawing the attention of both boys within it.
“Hey,” Hunter greeted. “Where’d you run off to?”
“I went to talk to Collin’s nurse,” I admitted, slinging my gaze toward the boy in question. “Thought his head was fucked up or some shit.”
Collin huffed in annoyance. “I’m telling the fucking truth you sack of shit.” If this wasn’t such a serious matter, I would have laughed at his immature choice of words.
“What did she say?” Hunter probed with interest.
“That nothing appeared to be wrong with him.” Which I still wasn’t buying. There was obviously something wrong if he genuinely believed that the girl we saw die was alive and well. Nobody made it out of there unscathed and he knew that.
A groan erupted from Collin’s mouth, followed by shuffling. Glancing over, a pained expression overtook his features as he repositioned himself on the flimsy hospital bed. “That’s because,” pant. “I’m telling you,” pant. “The truth.”
“Maybe you thought you saw her,” Hunter offered sympathetically.
That was even a stretch. Aspen was one of a kind, even with her appearance. It would be extremely hard to mistake her for someone else. Then again, Collin has been in the hospital for a little while now. Maybe it was messing with his head.
“No,” he growled. “I know it was her.”
“Could it have been a dream?” I chimed in, arching an eyebrow.
“No. She came in here. At first, I didn’t recognize her, because like I said, she looks different now. When I did, I made a grab for my call light, but she beat me to it and hid it behind the bed, out of reach.” The words came out in a rush as they rolled off his tongue, his hands shaking in his lap.
A humorless laugh escaped me, and I shook my head. “And then what?” I spat. “She hopped on your dick and rode you like nothing ever happened?” Hunter shot me a pointed look, but I was past giving a fuck. This shit wasn’t funny. “ If Aspen was alive, and that’s a huge if, she wouldn’t have come here.”
“But Collin wouldn’t just make something like this up,” Hunter defended. “He might not have seen Aspen herself, but maybe he thought he did. It could be worth looking into.”
I scoffed. “And how do you suppose we do that? Go scuba diving in the deadly lake and hope we find the bones that belong to her specifically?” There were probably several bodies down there by now, especially from Myles. There was no way in hell we would find her.
“Just fuck it,” Collin bit out. “Foster is too hard-headed; you both are.”
Annoyance rolled through me like a tidal wave. Nothing I said was going to deter him from the truth he conjured up in his own mind. He wanted to believe she was alive so badly that he wasn’t willing to hear anything different. Hell, even I wanted her to be alive, though I’d never admit that out loud.
We killed her because we had to. At least, that’s what I was going to keep telling myself. Aspen was frustrating as fuck when she was alive, and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed putting her in her place until she was gone.
‘Missing’ posters adorned the walls of the hallway as I traveled down it. Aspen and Raven peered back at me with matching sneers as I moved along. Forcing my gaze to the floor, I hurried to my room and shut the door behind me. Blowing out a breath of relief, I drifted over to my bed and sat on the edge.
“Please,” she begged, right before I ruthlessly and heartlessly pushed her off the edge. A piercing scream stung the air prior to hitting the water.
Clenching my eyes shut, I sucked in a few shallow breaths as I worked to regulate my breathing. There was a part of me that hoped there was some truth to what Collin had said earlier. But the logical part of me knew it wasn’t possible. Aspen was gone, and she wasn’t coming back.