Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
FINN
I think this guy escaped from the psych ward.
And while I don’t judge people with mental issues—I bet I’ll make a psychologist plenty of money someday—I don’t relish being trapped in an elevator with someone who needs professional help.
He’s talking to himself. Begging someone for mercy.
This is far outside of what I’m capable of handling.
To make matters worse, the guy slams me straight into the elevator when I try to help him and all the breath knocks out of me. My ribs protest, and I remember the nurse in the emergency room warning me not to leave my bed.
Guess I should have listened.
My head is swimming. I used every drop of adrenaline in my body to get to the hospital in the first place. I’m exhausted.
Black spots dance before my eyes.
The elevator starts moving again with no explanation. A second later, the doors open, and the guy I was trapped with dashes out. He’s moving so quickly that he trips on his own two feet and goes sprawling into a fake plant that’s positioned right next to the elevator doors.
He and the plant go rolling.
There’s dangling feet and foliage. Dangling feet and foliage.
Then the guy pushes up, scrambles on all fours until he gets back on his feet, and beats a path around the bend.
I shuffle out more slowly, wheezing with pain. My ribs are demanding I stop and sit for a moment, but I don’t want to be in this elevator for another second.
“Are you okay, young man?” An elderly lady dressed in a hospital gown stops and stares at me.
I want to answer her. Somehow, I get my lips to move, but no sound comes out.
The world turns hazy.
“Oh. Oh my!” Her startled gasp is how I know I’m not just imagining that the hallway is tilting. A second later, I crash to the floor.
Startled cries rip from the elderly patient and a few others who are gathering around me, staring with concerned expressions.
As I straddle the line between consciousness and unconsciousness, I see a slim figure running toward me. She’s wearing a hospital gown like all the others. Her golden hair, backlit by the light pouring through the windows, swishes back and forth as she sprints over.
She skids to a stop and hangs a little away from the crowd, but I see blue-green eyes staring at me strangely. It’s the image that lingers in my mind before the entire world goes black.
The nightmare is back. The one where I’m sprinting through darkness and shadows. Something’s coming. Something evil.
I don’t know who or what.
I only know that if I’m caught, it’ll be the end of everything.
So, I run.
Chest pumping.
Arms flailing.
But the monster overtakes me. The beast is bigger, faster, stronger. I increase my pace, desperate to escape, but I’m not fast enough.
It grabs my feet and yanks.
I slam to the ground.
The darkness around me extends its arms like claws, pinning me so I can’t squirm free. I look up into the monster’s face, but it’s covered in shadows.
“Sh.” A voice from somewhere beyond the darkness whispers. “It’s okay. Hey, it’s okay.”
I feel someone patting my chest, and I grip the hand connected to me, pulling it and the person closer. As my eyes burst open, I come nose to nose with a stranger.
Disoriented, I stare at her.
Golden hair. Full cheeks. Long, slender neck. I notice a slight bump under the skin to the left of her collar bone.
She gasps and my eyes return to her face.
Everything about her looks like a fairy.
Except for her mouth.
It’s pink and full and glossy.
That mouth is a different kind of magical.
She stares back, blue-green eyes widening with every breath. Her thick, golden lashes flap up and down in absolute shock.
I hear a beeping sound. The blonde reacts as if a gunshot went off, and she scrambles off me. I let her, puzzled as she checks her watch and then fans her reddening face.
“This stupid watch,” she mumbles, beating it with the heel of her hand.
I blink a few times and try to sit up when I realize that I’m wearing an unbuttoned hospital shirt and have bandages wrapped around my ribs.
What’s going on?
This doesn’t look like the recovery ward.
There are giant floor-to-ceiling windows to my left.
Beside the hospital bed are bookshelves filled with books.
The wall where a television would normally go is crowded with three giant computer monitors and a large desk.
Embedded in the desk is an impressive CPU, its powerful fan whirring loudly.
I speak with a voice that sounds like it’s been wrestling with shards of glass. “Where am I?”
The girl either doesn’t hear me or pretends not to. To be fair, it’s kind of hard to hear when her watch is making that loud beeping sound.
Which reminds me. I don’t have my phone. I pat around the soft hospital pants someone changed me into. What time is it? If Dutch, Zane, or Sol tried to call me and I didn’t answer, they’ll drive straight to the warehouse and get themselves killed.
“Where’s my phone?” I demand.
“It’s over there.” She points.
I reach for the phone, but the IV jerks me back, and I end up knocking my phone off the stand. She lunges for it, saves it from shattering to the ground, and hands it over.
“Thanks,” I say, accepting the phone from her while looking into her eyes. They’re a really intense shade of blue. Geez.
Our fingers brush when the phone passes from her hand to mine and her watch screams bloody murder.
She whirls around, spanking the watch like a misbehaving child. I’m not sure, but I think I hear her mumbling, “Shut up. Shut up.”
Just then, the door opens and a tall, thin man wearing a white coat walks in.
“Dr. Kenji!” The girl with sunshine hair brightens and skips to the man. “I heard it was your day off. What are you doing here?”
He answers in an affectionate voice. “I came to pick up some files, but I got a strange notification from your watch, so I thought I’d check in. What had your heart rate so…”
Dr. Kenji’s voice drifts into nothing as he walks deeper into the room and sees me.
My pulse jolts when I recognize his face.
It’s the doctor from the warehouse.
Dr. Kenji spins around quickly, as if he’s been caught doing something illegal. Which, I guess, if he’s involved with Kurosaki, he can’t exactly be squeaky clean.
“Dr. Kenji?” The blonde girl bends around the doctor to see his face. “Are you okay?”
He nods curtly. “Do you have discomfort at all? Any chest pain or shortness of breath?”
“Everything’s fine. I think my watch just malfunctioned.”
While they talk, my eyes skate over the computer desk. The monitors are from luxurious but little-known tech brands. I’m assuming that CPU is custom-built too. It’s a really cool set-up.
“Make sure to get that checked,” Dr. Kenji says, still not looking in my direction. “You know how important it is to—”
“Avoid stress, over-exertion, and adrenaline rushes. Yeah, yeah. Go home, Dr. Kenji. You barely get any days off, and if Dr. Pat sees you here, he’s going to trap you in the ward until morning.”
Dr. Kenji wastes no time taking her advice. He hurries off, letting the door slam shut behind him.
I have questions. Lots of questions. Like what was Dr. Kenji doing at the warehouse? How is he tied to Kurosaki? Is he a willing member of the yakuza or a victim of it?
I’m in no position to chase after the doctor and demand answers now, but I know where he works. There’s nowhere he can hide.
The girl faces me again, and this time, she seems less flustered.
“Is this your room?” I ask.
She nods, staring at me. Something about the way she watches me makes my heart beat faster. I can’t put my finger on why.
Attraction? Fear? Deja vu?
Once again, I curse the fact that my feelings are such a mystery to me.
“What’s your name?” I demand.
“J,” she answers evenly. Her stare is steady and sure. Would Jinx be that calm on the edge of discovery?
I lean back. “J? Like… just the letter?”
She nods. Shrugs.
J is tiny, even smaller than Cadence. Her big eyes, long blonde hair, and that shapeless hospital gown make her seem especially fragile.
Could this be Jinx?
I want to discount it. The anonymous poster who lorded over Redwood Prep from the shadows and extorted me and my brothers for money couldn’t possibly be so… girly. But the computer, the monitor, her name—I can’t discount the truth based on first impressions.
“What do you know about Dr. Kenji?”
“Why did you crawl into the hospital with a concussion and bruised ribs?”
“I asked first.”
“And what? You want a trophy?”
I blink rapidly, at a loss for words. There’s something strange about this girl.
Just then, my phone pings.
It’s Zane.
Finn, I swear if you don’t answer me in the next five minutes, I’m driving over there.
I type a reply and sense J hovering over my cot. She glances at me and then at her watch with a furrowed brow.
“Is that Dutch?” J asks.
My heart lodges in my throat and my eyes narrow on her. “How do you know my brother?”
“He was blowing up your phone while you were unconscious.”
That answer logically makes sense. So, why do I not buy it?
My heart is still beating fast. I feel like I’m at the start of the biggest, craziest roller coaster ride of my life.
I give J another head-to-toe scan. My brothers kept teasing me about having a crush on Jinx, and while I don’t know what it’s like to have feelings for someone, I will say that I did think about her.
A lot.
Enough that I believed I could recognize her even though I’d never seen her before.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” J asks, tilting her head to the side.
More than anything, I want to get my hands on the anonymous poster who turned my world upside down.
And I think I found her.