Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
FINN
Zane’s motorcycle is already parked outside of Redwood when the driver pulls to a stop. He’s leaning against it, eyes glued to his phone.
Dutch is nowhere in sight which means he’s probably not here yet. I doubt he rode on the back of Zane’s bike. Neither of us are fans of the way Zane tears up the highway.
I open the door and pop out.
J remains in the car, her eyes glued to Redwood Prep’s stony architecture. Impatiently, I rip her door open and jerk my chin at the sidewalk in an unspoken command to join me.
She moves gingerly, her eyes so focused on the school that she misses the raised sidewalk and nearly does a face-plant. I see her falling and grab her arm to keep her upright.
“Watch it,” I bark.
She glares at me like I stuck my leg out to trip her and then goes back to gawking at the school. Once again, I get the impression that J couldn’t care less about me, despite being a “fan.”
I’ve decided that I won’t let her multiple personalities unnerve me. Jinx is certifiably insane. The particular brand of insanity isn’t as important as what that insanity can do to help me and my brothers.
“Wow,” she breathes. “It’s even bigger than the pictures.”
I leave her as she mutters to herself about Redwood Prep’s rising steeples and stained glass windows.
Zane moves out of the shadows to meet me halfway. He’s wearing a motorcycle jacket, black pants, and his dark hair is messier than I’ve ever seen it.
“Hey, man.” Zane jerks back once he gets close. “What happened to your face?”
I remember the bruises Kurosaki put on me. Was it only a few hours ago? Meeting J in the hospital room made me feel like I’d entered a completely different dimension.
“You don’t look so good yourself,” I say, noting his blood-shot eyes.
Before he settled down with Grey, Zane had a drinking problem. There would be nights my brother would stumble home, smelling like perfume, Jack Daniels, and body fluids.
I haven’t seen my Zane look this busted in a long time.
“Yeah, but yours is worse.” My brother eyes me intently. Unspoken questions bubble in the air. He and Dutch know that I’ve submitted myself to the yakuza. But they haven’t asked me what the price of entry was, and I haven’t informed them either.
Some things are better left unsaid.
Zane’s lips curl up in a strained smile as he does what he always does in an awkward situation.
He makes a joke. “Don’t tell me she did that to you?” His attention whips to Jinx before landing back on me with a question mark in his eyes.
“If I said she did, would that make you feel better?”
He shakes his head, the smile puttering out. “Nothing will make me feel better. Not until I have Grey next to me.”
“We’ll find her,” I promise.
“I know.” Zane exhales shakily. He’s doing better than I thought. I expected him to be bouncing off the walls, cursing at the skies, and trying to run his motorcycle off the nearest cliff.
He notices the way I’m watching him, and his lips curl up. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Worry about me.”
“Who said I’m worried?”
“Aren’t you?” He arches a brow.
I glance away rather than admit it.
“Did I break down a few times today? Maybe,” Zane admits.
“And did I think about drinking until I passed out and saw Grey in my dreams…” He pauses as his Adam’s apple bobs.
“But I’m not going to do it, Finn. I promised Grey I’d be a better man.
I’m not going to back out on that promise.
She needs me now more than ever. I won’t disappear into booze, no matter how hard it is. ”
It’s a surprisingly mature take and I didn’t know Zane had it in him.
“How’s Vi?” I ask, thinking of Cadence’s little sister. The two were close. “Did she settle in okay?”
“Sol personally escorted her and Ryan to our country house. Even if we weren’t paying him, he’d watch her like a hawk. They’re family.”
I nod. Ryan, Cadence’s half-brother, used to be a security guard, so I know he and his girlfriend will watch over Vi well.
“Nothing can happen to Viola,” I mumble. “Or Cadence will never forgive us when she comes back.”
“Grey won’t either. She loves that kid.”
That much is true. Viola is chatty, but she has a habit of wearing people down with her sunniness.
Zane’s attention shifts to the girl behind me again. “So… are you going to explain that?”
“That” is a good description of Jinx because half the time, I’m not even sure if she’s human.
“Since when did you get close enough to bring a girl around?”
“We’re not close.”
“Okay… how’d you meet her?”
I don’t want to tell him I got beat up bad enough that I went to the hospital, so I say, “She shared her bed with me.”
“Her what?”
I shrug.
Zane shakes his head as if to say “I don’t want to know.” “By the way, I read your texts. What did you mean when you said Mom has the girls?”
“I’ll explain more when Dutch comes.”
Just then, I hear tires rolling over pavement. Two piercing headlights slice through the darkness, and I recognize my brother’s car.
Dutch throws the driver’s side door open and stalks out.
Sol hops out of the passenger side.
“Finn.” Dutch jogs to me, his eyes lingering on the bruises on my face. “The hell happened to you?”
“Were you initiated into the… you know?” Sol’s eyebrows climb to the top of his forehead.
Out of all three of us, Sol lived in the worst neighborhood and has far more knowledge about gang life.
I shoot a quick glance over my shoulder. J is now taking pictures of Redwood Prep like a tourist fresh off the plane, but I can’t trust that she’s not listening to our every word.
Jinx doesn’t know that I’m yakuza by blood. I can’t imagine the kind of havoc she would wreak if she held that information over my head.
I need to protect my secret at all costs.
Dutch sees my attention wavering to J, and he straightens. “Who’s that?”
Sol laughs in astonishment. “Finn, you have a chick?”
I shake my head. “I’ll explain in the practice room.”
Zane, Dutch, and Sol move inside without further conversation.
Bringing J threw them for a loop, but it’s not enough to loosen the tension from their shoulders or the worry from their brows.
Their wives still haven’t been found. Me introducing a girl to them for the first time isn’t enough to distract from that.
“J!” I call her.
She whips her head around, her eyes bright with excitement. Standing there, with the moonlight falling on her blonde hair and her gaze bursting with happiness, she looks almost cute.
Almost.
I frown at that particular revelation. “You got a phone?”
“Yeah.”
I offer my hand to her.
She looks at my palm and then up at me.
“Hand it over.”
“Why?” She pulls her phone behind her back, her eyebrows tightening into a hard V.
I sigh heavily. I don’t have time for this.
In three rushed steps, I’m in front of her. Then I grab the phone from behind her back. She’s much smaller than me, so I have to bend almost halfway to reach her height.
The scent of her perfume fills my nose. It’s a soft lilac fragrance and there’s something oddly familiar about it.
As I’m pulling her phone away, J grabs it and holds on tight. My eyes widen in surprise. The chick has a hell of a grip.
“That’s mine,” she insists.
I could rip the phone away from her without breaking a sweat, but somehow I feel the urge to mess with her instead.
So I do.
Keeping my hold on the phone, I wrap my hand around her front so my arm is draping her shoulders and she’s pulled against my chest. J makes a startled sound and the watch chirps.
I smirk because I now understand why that device keeps making noises when I touch her.
“This is my phone number,” I whisper in her ear as I open her phone and tap the buttons. Then I call my phone and hear it chirping in my pocket. “When I’m ready for you, I’ll call. Don’t make me wait.”
J pushes me off so violently that her blonde hair flies into her face. “Who do you think you’re—?”
Her watch chirps, and she huffs, sucking the words back in.
Staring at her defiant eyes and strong stance, I have the most insatiable urge to kiss her. A proper kiss. Not one of those close-mouthed, dutiful pecks she gave me. One where I snatch the soul out of her body with my tongue, one where maybe we both feel something.
But then she switches up, bites down on her lip, and bats her eyes at me. “Of course, Finn. I’ll do anything you want. Call me anytime. Would you like me to bring you a coffee or a latte on my way back?”
I stare at her as she bats her pale, blonde eyelashes and gives me a syrupy sweet smile. The sarcasm is thick in her voice, and I’m not stupid enough to think she means a word she’s saying.
When I keep staring wordlessly at her, the smile starts to fracture, but she makes a valiant effort to keep it in place.
“Well, you’re busy and so am I. Off you go to your secret little spy room.” She makes a shooing motion with her hand.
As she flounces away, I’m surprised by the desire I have to stick around. To grab her close again. Maybe smack her round, little peach.
Would she squeal?
Or snarl at me?
I can’t tell which face she’ll don at any given moment, but I will say that—while I might not trust J—she is far more interesting than any girl I’ve ever met.
My phone buzzes.
It’s the group chat.
Dutch: @Finn, where are you?
I hurry inside Redwood Prep, ignoring the shadows that roll over the walls and the haunting thud of my shoes on the marble floors and the hint of disinfectant.
The kids say Redwood Prep is haunted, and I’ve heard Cadence refer to the school as “creepy” after hours.
But it’s just some walls and a roof.
I’ve seen real monsters. This building cannot compare.
When I get to the practice room, the air is stifling and tense. On a normal day, Dutch would be in the corner, perched on a stool with his guitar in his lap. Zane would be twirling his drumstick behind the drumset.
Tonight, they all scramble to their feet when they see me.
“What was that text about, Finn?” Dutch demands.
I tell them everything, starting with J finding the encrypted channel and ending with Mom’s patchy warning, which I started recording around halfway through the conversation. By the time they’ve finished listening to the recording, Zane and Dutch look extremely relieved.
“If it’s Mom, it means they’re okay,” Dutch says, sagging into a chair.
“Are you sure about that?” Sol frowns. “All this seems suspicious.”
“I trust Finn,” Zane declares.
“So do I,” Sol snaps back. “I’m just saying that this doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s the only lead we have, and at least they’re with someone we know and trust. Finn, can you contact Mom again?” Dutch asks. “We need to know why she did this.”
“I’ll keep trying,” I promise.
“What exactly does Mom know that she can’t tell us?” Dutch rakes his fingers through his hair. “What ‘danger’ is she talking about?”
The room falls into silence as we all think deeply. Outside, I hear a faint sound almost like fireworks.
“What was that?” Dutch growls, his eyes darting to the window.
“I have no idea.” Zane glances around as if the answer is written on the walls.
The pop-pop-pop sound erupts again.
Sol ducks. “Everyone get down!”
Dutch and Zane fly under a desk as we all collectively realize those “fireworks” are actually gunshots.
I whip my gaze to the door, remaining upright.
“Finn, what are you doing?” Sol yells.
“Get down!” Dutch barks.
Zane’s eyes bulge. “Finn, come on!”
I ignore my family, wrench the door open, and dart out into the darkness of Redwood Prep.