Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
FINN
This morning, the Redwood Prep office called, saying my wallet had been found in the chem lab. It struck me as odd because I didn’t remember taking out my wallet after entering the practice room last night.
The mystery bothered me all the way to school.
How did I lose my wallet?
And then I recalled—in startling detail—J kissing me.
Her kisses are usually close-mouthed and unfeeling, but last night’s kiss was different. She was all over me. Her fingers played in the loop of my belt and teased me over my jeans.
I didn’t think anything of the change because I was focused on her watch. I wanted confirmation that I could get her excited again.
It was my own pride that blinded me.
J was too busy concentrating on stealing my wallet to actually feel anything when she kissed me. My obsession with her watch played right into her hands.
Honestly, I’m impressed.
Sunlight gleams in her golden hair as she looks down, hiding her expression from me. Her voice is carefully light when she says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Of course she’s going to deny it.
“Why did you want my wallet, J?” I ask. “If you needed money, you could do what you normally do.” Trade a secret for a secret.
Her hand goes still. She digs her teeth into her bottom lip.
“Or were you after something other than money?” I whisper.
Jinx has no access to the practice room. I invested heavily in equipment to keep listening devices and hackers out of our sacred space.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Finn.” She snorts. “I didn’t take your wallet.”
I stare at her.
She sputters, “Even if I wanted to, do you think I’m smooth enough to pull off something like that? I can’t even steal candy from the hospital vending machine.”
J ties the gauze with a pin. Her work is much messier than Dr. Kenji’s. The gauze is sagging in some places, and the pin will worm its way out if I move my arm a couple times.
“There you go. All done.” She waves to my arm with a flourish, retaining her cheerful facade.
But her smile does not reach her eyes.
I continue staring at her.
Her watch beeps in warning.
“Don’t look at me like that, Finn. It breaks my heart.”
I nod to her protesting watch. “Feeling guilty?”
“No, I’m just…”
I wait to see what she’ll come up with.
As the watch continues beeping, J declares dramatically, “I’m hurt. I thought you knew me better than that, but I was wrong. I can’t be with someone who doesn’t treat me like a partner.”
I blink slowly.
J turns up the antics. Her voice trembles, and she blinks hard, as if to manufacture more tears. “I like you a lot, Finn, but not at the expense of my self-respect so…” She exhales dramatically. “If you don’t trust me, then you can find someone else to run the encryption.”
I lean back, my legs spread and my eyes firm on her. This is how she wants to play it? Drop this wallet issue or I won’t help you find the girls?
No wonder she had Redwood Prep wrapped around her finger. She knows exactly what cards to play to keep control.
Silence creeps into the room, underlining the finality of her threat.
J looks up at me. She hasn’t been able to generate any tears, but there’s a red flush creeping over her cheeks as she cocks her head to the side. What will it be?
It feels like a million bees are buzzing under my skin.
I really, really like this game.
“The janitor found my wallet early this morning.” And J was in the hospital all night, which means that she didn’t get what she wanted. I may have made a fool of myself, but she still lost. “Everything was there. No damage was done.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m so glad it worked out.” J clasps her hands together. “Stay right there. I’ll put some medicine on your lip.”
She prances to the other side of the room, rummages around the medicine cabinet, and comes back with an antibacterial cream and a cotton swab.
“So glad we cleared that up.” Her fingers dig into my chin, and she tilts my face up to the light to inspect the cut on my mouth.
Her face is incredibly close. When I look at her, her blue-green eyes seem to shift with the light, blurring in and out of turquoise and sky-blue, impossible to pin down.
“I trust you even if you don’t trust me, Finn,” J says, pressing toward me.
I have a flashback to all the times she kissed me, but this time, it’s not her soft, pink lips that land on mine.
She spreads the cream on my cut and smoothly changes the subject. “Do you have any idea what you’re going to do with the phone you picked up?”
I look at her.
She’s closer than my next breath, but her thoughts are hidden from me. Is the game about to change again?
“I can find out who that attacker was. And why he was lurking around. It won’t take me long to break his phone and get all his passwords. I could be everywhere he was, see everything he’s seen.” Her eyes glitter. “I could be inside his virtual skin.”
“In exchange for what?”
She flashes me a coy look. “Nothing too hard. Just… a few minutes in your practice room.”
The words slam into my chest.
Checkmate.
J watches me, noting every flicker crossing my face. “Do you not want to?”
I want… her.
Heat boils in the pit of my stomach.
It’s carnal.
Dark.
This is Jinx in the flesh. A master manipulator. A ghost wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
I’ve never wanted to screw a ghost more in my life.
J flings her hair over her shoulder, and I notice that she’s smeared in my blood. It coats the underside of her delicate chin, the side of her torso, and her hip where I held her against me. Her fingertips are coated in my blood too.
She’s covered in it.
Covered in me.
The heat turns into a throb.
I battle visions of bending her over, pushing my jeans down and coating her in something other than blood.
She would die if I took her the way my body wants to.
I would kill her.
But that doesn’t seem to calm me down either.
Her sneakers tap silently on the ground. She picks up the bloody gauze and tosses it in the trash along with the used cotton swab.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” she says earnestly, as if she means every word.
But we both know she doesn’t.
Come here, and let me give that lying mouth something better to do.
The order stops just short of reaching my lips.
“If not—”
“Okay,” I growl.
Her feet root to the ground, and for a split second, her eyes take up her entire face. “O-kay?”
“Get me the information on this guy and find a way for us to get in contact with Cadence and Grey. I’ll take you into the practice room.”
Her eyes dance, and a wide smile spreads on her face. “Done and done.”
I hand her the phone, but when J reaches out to take it, I keep a hold on it and drag her forward. She stumbles into me, and her hand immediately comes up to my chest to push me away.
But I grab her wrist and pull her closer, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. “I should warn you. Cadence was the first girl to get inside that room. The next girl was Grey.”
Her nostrils flare.
“Every girl who’s ever walked into our practice room eventually becomes our wife.”
Her gasp of surprise does something to me.
A wild, dark sensation sweeps through my head like a flood.
The buzzing deep under my skin intensifies.
Her fingers dig into my shirt, fingernails scraping my pecs.
This isn’t an act.
The way her breath quickens is real.
The way her pupils are dilating, black overtaking blue-green, can’t be faked.
She’s pure evil.
Twisted lies.
And yet so very fragile.
I growl softly. Should I tear off her jeans and have just one little taste? She would survive that, wouldn’t she? The nurse is right outside. She can bring J back to life after I end her.
J’s watch starts screaming as if it can smell that I’m about to destroy its owner.
Easy, Finn. If she dies now, you lose your best chance at finding the rest of your family.
It takes a surprising amount of effort to back off.
As soon as I release her, J flies across the room to hide behind the nurse’s desk. She bends over, clutching her chest as she reddens. “Give me three days. I’ll-I’ll call you.”
In other words, don’t show up in front of her until then. I hear the silent part loud and clear.
But I don’t have any intention of staying away.
The damage Jinx can inflict on my life is immeasurable, but like an addict with a drug, I know I’ll go back.