Chapter 17
Ifought for as long as I could, but I had to give in. The migraine was almost splitting a crater between my eyes, so I took two tablets, and they were indeed the correct ones.
It’s been an hour since then, and I feel lighter, almost like if I stood, I could levitate.
An hour, and he’s still not back. I wonder what he could possibly be doing, but I decide against trying to find out. Accessory to murder is a twenty-five-year sentence, and I quite like my freedom.
My phone pings on the coffee table beside me. It’s not abnormal to receive texts, even phone calls, late at night from clients like Ezra, but it’s not his name I see.
Astrid
I know we haven’t spoken in a while, but is there any chance we could meet?
I stare at the screen as my thumbs hover over the keypad.
What could she possibly want to say to me?
I’m about to type out a message when another one comes through.
Astrid
I know I fucked up, okay? I’m so sorry. I should have listened to you. I should have been there for you.
Astrid
There is nothing I could say to excuse what I did. It was shitty. I’m ready to own up to it all. I miss you.
Me
Who’s this?
Astrid
Isla, I know you know my number by heart. Don’t do this.
Me
Sorry, I think you have the wrong number.
Three dots appear and disappear as she types and deletes, but I don’t watch it anymore. I throw my phone to the end of the couch, roll over and shut my eyes, begging for sleep to take me. Unfortunately, my mind won’t shut off.
I can feel the vibrations of my phone on my foot as a call comes through, and I curse myself for responding. She might have given up if I didn’t fire back, but if I know my best friend well, she’ll be at it all night until I speak to her.
Snatching the phone, I answer.
“What?”
“Isla…” Her sobs on the other end of the phone have my next words stuck in my throat. “I’m begging you, please.”
The ball in my throat grows when I try to swallow it down. “I’m at the Veridis. I can’t leave, but you can come to me.”
“I can be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Astrid, are you okay?” I ask, not knowing what could have possibly brought her to this state.
“I’ll feel better after we talk.”
“Okay. I can meet you at the café in Veridis.”
“No.” Her voice shakes. “Can we please meet somewhere in a crowd?”
“What? Why?”
“Please, Isla, I’ll explain everything when I see you.”
I know Malik doesn’t want me in crowds. Hell, he barely wants me to step out of this door, but I can’t ignore her.
Even after everything, she’s still my best friend.
She’s known me since high school, and she’s been there with me through it all.
If I left her to fend for herself, I’d never forgive myself for it.
Luckily, the migraine has subsided enough for me to grab my coat.
“Okay, I’ll meet you at The False Start. Take the elevator to lower ground one. I’ll be waiting for you by the bar.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”
She hangs up, and I place my phone down onto the hall table as I slip on my heels when a chime from my open laptop on the kitchen counter grabs my attention. I walk over to check the email, which happens to be from an unknown email address.
I open it, but it has no subject or any written words, only a video attachment.
My finger hovers over the trackpad, and when I open it, my stomach plummets. It’s of me and Beatrice being dragged by masked men into a dark vehicle. I watch as we both struggle, and when one of the men reaches for his mask, the footage ends, fading to a black screen.
I can’t move.
I’m frozen, the cloud of uncertainty now bleeding into fear.
I remember this night.
But why do I only remember parts of it?
Why won’t my mind let me access these memories?
Another chime comes through, and I hastily click the pop-up on my screen.
‘Are you sure you want to know?’
My fingers shake as I type a reply.
‘What do I have to do to get the full video?’
I feel sick to my stomach when I hit send and wait. I stare at the screen and refresh it three times, but nothing happens.
Remembering I need to meet Astrid, I look at the time and curse. It’s been fifteen minutes. She might already be waiting for me. But it’s not until I step outside and hear the click of the door that I realise I forgot my phone inside, and I, of course, don’t have a keycard for the door.
Fuck!
I guess this is a problem for future Isla.
The video plays in my head on repeat as I ride the elevator down to reception.
I barely even see the people around me as I head to the separate elevator that takes me to the club entrance.
It’s packed with freshly turned eighteen partygoers and singles waiting to gain entry.
Music thumps through my body as I follow the top mezzanine level around and stand at the end of the line.
Peering over the edge of the railing, I look down to the dancefloor three levels below, strobe lights flickering through the countless writhing bodies.
It’s no use trying to search for Astrid from up here.
I can barely see anything in the dark, and the bar extends from wall to wall on one side of the club, swarming with people clambering over one another to order their drinks.
The line moves slowly, and when it’s finally my turn, the bouncer narrows his eyes.
“Miss, I’m going to need some ID.”
“What? I haven’t been asked for ID since I was in high school buying a pack of Cruisers.”
He crosses his arms. I can’t believe I’m about to be denied entry.
“I’m staying in the penthouse.”
His face changes immediately, his posture straightening and arms unfolding. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You can call your boss and ask him, then he’ll fire you for denying me, or you can let me through and keep your job.”
He looks at the bouncer to my right, and it’s like they exchange words without speaking before he unclips the rope, finally letting me in.
Weaving my way through the crowd and down to the lower level is easy. What’s not going to be easy, however, is locating Astrid. I start at the top near the DJ and work my way down to the middle, smiling politely as I squeeze between groups.
I spot her sitting by the bar in her cardigan, swirling the pad of her index finger over the rim of her tall glass of water.
She looks different since I last saw her, and when her blue eyes meet mine, I see the sleepless nights in the puffy dark circles beneath them.
Her once luscious blonde hair looks like it hasn’t been washed in days, neatly plaited behind her like she’s attempting to conceal it all.
She stands and wraps her arms around me. “Thank you so much for meeting with me,” she says in a low voice, and if she weren’t beside me, I wouldn’t have heard her.
“I don’t know how much we can talk here, it’s quite loud.”
She grabs my hand and leads me to the stairs I came from, to the upper level, before the entry. I’ve only ever been here a handful of times, and all of them were spent on the dance floor or in the bathroom trying drugs from strangers.
Not the brightest ideas I’ve ever had, but they helped with the stress of being in law school.
As we head into one of the archways and down a long hall, she opens one of the doors and closes it behind me. The music is considerably softer, with only the thumps of the bass reverberating off the walls.
There’s not much in the room. Two leather couches facing one another and a cage that looks large enough to fit a human, with a round top and steel bars. The leather is smooth to the touch when I take a seat.
“So, explain.”
I keep my mouth shut, not wanting to hurl any profanities at her just yet, but my once loyal heart has been played with enough.
I don’t know if I can believe what she says until the loose cardigan falls off one shoulder and down to her elbow.
Her exposed skin is marred with purple bruises.
When our gazes clash, she speaks before I can ask her about them.
“Isla,” she begins, but I don’t hear the rest as her sobs swallow every word she speaks.
“Where is Paxon now?”
“I swear, I didn’t know he was going to do anything like this.” She brings her arms across her waist, hugging herself. “I didn’t know he was capable of this.”
I sigh and move next to her, pulling her into my side.
“I’m so sorry for getting so lost in him that I forgot to see you.”
“Astrid, stop.”
“No, really, I am. I wish I could go back to that night. I wish I could have been there, maybe I—”
“Let’s just focus on getting you out, okay?”
She sobs, the tears falling one after the other, and if I were anyone else, I might just leave her to sleep in the bed she’s made. But right now, it doesn’t matter what she’s done to me. What matters is getting her away from Paxon.
“I know I had just met him…things were just so good at the start…I—How could I have known?”
There were signs, my friend. There were clear-cut signs.
“Where are you staying tonight?” I ask.
Her blue eyes shift to mine, and somewhere inside them, I see Beatrice. Maybe that’s why I can’t sever my tie with Astrid, at least not completely, because she was my sister’s best friend too. When she passed, Astrid and I bonded over our shared grief, and we just stuck together like glue.
“I was hoping I could stay with you, which is why I went to your place, but you weren’t there.”
“You went to my house?”
“I thought you wouldn’t want to speak to me over the phone.”
Well, she was right about that.
“But when I looked through the front window, the place was a mess.”
My heart stops. “A mess?”
“It looked like someone trashed the place looking for something.”
Or someone.
My hand instinctively reaches for my phone in my pocket, then I remember I left it in the penthouse.
“Did anyone follow you?”
“What? Why would anyone want to follow me?” She furrows her brows in confusion. “Is there something going on?”
“No. Nothing. Don’t worry, I’ll find you a place to stay.”