Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
J
Ren’s eyes bulge, and he yanks his arm away. Pulling his sleeve down so it covers the tattoo, he says stiffly, “I’ll be outside.”
The door rolls shut.
Shock keeps me frozen for a few beats.
I’ve seen that tattoo before, but where?
Racing to my chair again, I power my monitor back on and tap the play button on the hospital footage. Cars roll in and out of the parking lot. Visitors hobble into the emergency room. An ambulance screams into the driveway, blue and red lights flashing.
But there’s no Finn or Ren.
I tap on the clock symbol and speed up the timeframe. The people on screen move faster, scrambling up and down the hallways like tiny ants on a supercharged treadmill.
“There.” I smack the spacebar.
Everything freezes.
It’s Finn. His chiseled features, broad shoulders, and height are unmistakable.
I tap the space bar again and the footage continues.
On the monitor, Finn stalks through the parking lot. Ren and his buddy follow him inside a few minutes later.
They were definitely tailing Finn last night. Maybe even longer than last night?
I slip my finger sleeves on and get to work researching Ren’s tattoo. Henry searches through Ace’s phone in the background.
A notification pops up in the corner of my screen.
I type: Expand the search to the internet.
“Ugh! Useless.” I close Henry down and spin in a slow circle, my eyes on the ceiling.
It’s not conclusive evidence, but my gut is telling me that Ren is not related to the Grave City Crew. After all, he was fighting them off that night, not working with them.
But why?
Why was he outside Redwood Prep fighting the Grave City Crew? Why did the Grave City Crew come back to Redwood Prep? What were they searching for?
And why is Ren now hanging around Finn, a senior at Redwood Prep?
Since all roads lead to the school, I open the database for the Redwood Prep app. No tip, no message, no hint of a scandal that’s sent to Jinx is ever discarded.
My fingers fly over the keyboard, and I scroll through reams of information.
Finn is the most secretive member of The Kings. How did he get on The Grave City Crew’s radar?
My search leads me back to the biggest scandal to ever rock the hallways of Redwood Prep.
“The Grateful Project?”
Earlier this year, Finn and Zane struck a deal to take down politicians and businessmen who were involved in “The Grateful Project,” a scandal where the powerful were allowed to “buy” scholarship students at Redwood Prep for their own twisted depravity.
A lot of influential figures were taken down in that expose. Did The Kings anger one of them?
“Who benefited from the blowout the most?” I chew on my pen’s cap.
Jarod Cross?
He’s gunning for the governor seat, and his biggest rival for governor was the incumbent Governor Micheals, but Micheals was ousted by the scandal. It was a sweeping win for Cross.
It can’t be him.
Jarod Cross has no reason to target all the other guys involved in the scandal. Why make enemies when he needs as much political capital as he can get?
I grab a pen and paper because sometimes, I need to write things down for them to make sense.
Ren was fighting the Grave City Crew.
I’m assuming the other guy with him last night was also there.
Finn didn’t know who Ren was at first.
Finn was on edge when he realized he was being spied on, but he walked out of the bathroom with them as friends, and he even sent Ren to sneak into my room this morning and change out my candy.
Finn wanted Jinx to expose everyone involved in The Grateful Project.
He had iron-tight evidence, and he chose to dispense the truth over an app instead of the news stations. He must have thought going the traditional media route would result in the truth being buried.
Did Finn expose everyone in The Grateful Project or is someone even more powerful involved?
I draw a circle around “The Grateful Project,” and then I draw it again and again until my pen pierces through the paper.
I’m missing something huge.
It’s driving me insane.
The door rolls open.
I shoot to my feet. “Ren, did you—” My eyes widen when I see a different man standing in front of me. “Dr. Kenji.” My eyes dart to the nurse beside him. “Bailey.”
Bailey waves at me and grins. The way she’s looking at me is so weird. What is her problem?
Dr. Kenji observes me with an eyebrow raised and slowly glances over his shoulder. “Were you expecting someone?”
“By chance, was a tall guy in a suit waiting outside?”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t see anyone.”
I move to the door, going as fast as I can at my grandma-walking speed. Stepping into the hallway, I look left and right.
Ren is nowhere to be found.
What did I expect?
I shouldn’t have let him know I noticed the tattoo. Why didn’t I just study it in secret? He wouldn’t have known that I was on to him.
“Is everything all right?” Dr. Kenji asks when I shuffle back into the room, shoulders slumped.
I nod.
“How are you feeling this morning? I adjusted your medication a bit since you seemed to be experiencing more rhythmic imbalances than normal.”
I nod again, only half listening.
“J.”
“Huh?” I look up distractedly.
His eyes fasten on me, and he opens his mouth, but then he looks at Bailey and says nothing.
Bailey approaches me, her eyes darting around my room. “Hi, J. You okay, girl? You look like you haven’t slept in a while.”
“I’m fine,” I answer. Since when was Bailey assigned up here? I thought she was in the general ward.
“A little birdie told me that you had visitors last night.”
I stiffen. “What birdie?”
Bailey winks.
Grandma used to say “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” Rather than engage with Bailey and her stupid conversation, I turn my face away and offer my arm for her to draw my blood. At this point, it’s so routine that I barely even feel the prick of the needle.
“I’m done, Dr. Kenji,” Bailey says, lingering around my bed. “Is there anything I can do for you, J?”
“No, Bailey.”
“You sure?”
I frown at the pretty nurse. I’m thinking it was a mistake to give her that job to push Shawn into the elevator.
Dr. Kenji lifts a brow and, in a polite but firm voice, he says, “Bailey, I’d like to speak with J for a moment.”
“No problem at all. I’ll take these to the lab. Bye, J.” Bailey waves at me.
As soon as the door closes, Dr. Kenji approaches my bed. “J, I’ve been meaning to ask if everything’s all right with you. Your charts have been very unsteady lately.”
“Everything is fine,” I mumble.
Except for the fact that two ninjas who fought off men with guns and won are now hanging around my hospital room and stealing my candy.
Dr. Kenji steps closer to the bed, his voice low and urgent.
“If something happens, you can talk to me about it. I’ve been your doctor for a long time now, and while it may be overstepping, I think of you as a dear patient.
If there’s anything I can do to help you, I will. To the best of my ability.”
That much I believe. Dr. Kenji is one of the few doctors who actually treat me like a human being. He even came back from a day off to celebrate my birthday with me so I didn’t have to be alone.
I sit up straighter. “Doctor…”
“Yes?” He leans forward.
“Imagine your friend—” Finn does not count as my friend, but I’ll refer to him as such for the sake of my example—“got involved with some really mysterious people. Possibly really bad people. But those people didn’t hurt him. They’re protecting him… I think.”
“I see.”
“Is my friend in danger?”
Dr. Kenji’s eyes shine with fear behind his glasses. “Do you have any idea what kind of people he’s gotten involved with? ‘Mysterious’ and ‘possibly bad’ could be referring to a lot of things.”
I shrug. “I honestly don’t know more than that.”
“Without more details, I can’t say for sure. It may be that your friend is voluntarily working with those people. Or they may have something over him, and he has no choice in the matter.”
If that’s the case, should I get more involved? What if I make it worse for Finn by poking my nose in?
But what if he needs the help?
“J.” Dr. Kenji’s hand covers mine.
I look up at him.
“My intuition is telling me that this is a very dangerous situation. I don’t think you should get involved. Remember, you’re not like other teenagers. Any excitement, any adrenaline rush, any stressful situation could overload your heart.”
“I’m not worried, Dr. Kenji.” My eyes dart to the little drawer where I keep my pills.
“You should be worried,” Dr. Kenji says forcefully.
My jaw slackens. Dr. Kenji has never spoken to me like that.
He averts his gaze to the chart in his hands. “I’ll let you know the results of your tests when they’re out.”
Goosebumps pop on my skin as I watch him leave.
A whisper of suspicion sprouts inside me. I need to take a short break from Finn and from finding The Kings’ wives and look into Dr. Kenji. He’s the closest to me in this entire hospital, and I’ve always respected his privacy.
But sometimes, keeping your friends close means keeping their secrets even closer.