Page 114 of Die for You
“I’m fine. Everyone’s home.” They’ll probably be asleep until noon. Between the booze, the break-in, and the fight, they’ve all had a long night. I’ve put all of them through so much. “Are you okay? And Finn and Knox?”
“We’re great. Nothing better than sharing a shitter in jail.” The sarcastic edge to his voice makes me wince.
“I need to tell you something. It wasn’t Jeremiah who broke in and trashed the house.”
The line goes quiet for so long, I nearly ask if he’s still there until Damien’s low, dangerous voice demands, “Who the hell else could it have been?”
I don’t know. That’s what I can’t wrap my head around. Who else would’ve done something like this? Who else would’ve left everyone else’s belongings and stolen only mine? As far as I know, Jeremiah is the only enemy I have, and breaking and entering isn’t his parents’ style.
“Jeremiah showed me video footage from his parents’ house. He was an hour away when the break-in happened. He couldn’t have done it.”
Damien needs to know the truth, even if the revelation is the last thing he wants to hear. Especially because it means he lured Jeremiah to campus, attacked him, and went to jail for no reason.
“He must’ve hired someone to do it then,” Damien snaps. “Don’t believe a word he says, Aurora.”
A sigh falls from my lips as my vision blurs. I clutch the phone like it might anchor me to him. To all three of them. “I shouldn’t have gotten you roped into this mess. I think...I think it’s for the best that I get my own place again.”
“No.” Finn’s ocean-deep voice fills my ear now.
My chest clenches.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Rory,” Knox insists, urgent. Like he’s talking me down off a ledge. “And you’re not getting your own place. You’re ours now, remember?”
“I can’t keep putting you in harm’s way.” I nearly choke on the words. Especially now that someone else is out there targeting me. I can’t let the Devils get caught in the shrapnel. “Trey is posting bail for you in the morning. But it’ll be a few hours before you can get out. And when you do...don’t come looking for me, okay?”
I hang up before their shouted objections make me change my mind. From Finn’s room, I grab the book Sienna let me borrow and leave it on the kitchen table. I had hoped I would meet Violet someday and tell her she wrote a great book, but it’s for the best for all of them that I leave now. Before things get worse.
Leaving now is the only option. If I wait, Sienna and Juliet will try to interfere. Then they’ll send Luke and Trey to barricade me in the house until the Devils return.
Behind me, I shut the front door as quietly as possible so I don’t wake anyone. My few remaining belongings are in my bag. I tug my jacket closer, a phantom breeze licking at my cheeks.
I’ve never felt lonelier in my life. Even when I hopped from foster home to foster home. At least back then, I didn’t know what I didn’t have.
Now I do.
While I head down the sidewalk, I unlock my phone to hire a ride-share. I’ll take a flight to New York, arrive at Juilliard early, and I’ll skip graduation. I don’t need to attend the ceremony to get my degree.
I’ll stay in New York and disappear in a sea of eight million people.
As I open up the ride-share app, a soft, wet cloth obscures my vision.
My jaw drops open, but before I can let out a scream, the cloth swallows my nose and a hand covers my mouth.
And the world goes dark.
Chapter 29
Finn
Hours after Trey posts bail,we’re released.
Good thing. That phone call with Aurora set all of us on edge.Don’t come looking for me.
She was upset. Wallowing in guilt and shame even though she has nothing to feel ashamed of.
Quinn did the same thing when we were kids. Beating herself up for getting me in trouble, for encouraging me to speak when my voice was the last thing my mother wanted to hear. But nothing Quinn did or didn’t do could’ve changed the monster that lived inside our mother.
That’s what Aurora still needs to learn. She didn’t put us in danger by entering our lives. She’s not the one to blame for what Jeremiah does. Only him.
