Page 66 of Mara
Inside, the fluorescent lights burned too bright, and the familiar, suffocating scent of antiseptic filled my nose. The night shift was already buzzing. Nurses and orderlies whispering, papers shuffling, the low hum of the security monitors flickering behind the front desk.
I forced myself to slow down, to breathe, to push the panic down.
When I stepped up to the nurse’s station, Kara barely spared me a glance. “You look like shit,” she muttered, flipping through patient files.
“Long night,” I shot back, my voice even.
She scoffed. “Well, not as long as my night is about to be. They brought in a real fucking psycho. He fucking terrifies me. I can’t decide if he wants to fuck me or eat me.”
I gripped the edge of the counter, stomach twisting. “Yeah?”
Kara didn’t look up. “Jinx. Is that his real name? Sounds fake as hell.”
I swallowed hard, forcing my expression to stay neutral. “What’s his deal?”
She tossed a file toward me, eyes gleaming with morbid curiosity.
“He killed some girl. There’s a ton of evidence with DNA, and the cops dragged him in laughing.Laughing, Mara. Like he thought it was funny.”
I opened the file, skimming through the official report. My eyes caught on one name.
Gianna.
Blood drained from my face.
Kara kept talking, oblivious to the way my hands were starting to shake. “They say he was found covered in her blood. And when they asked him why he did it?” She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “He wouldn’t say a word.”
A cold dread crawled down my spine.
Why was he not trying to claim innocence? Asking for a lawyer?
I shut the file. Tightened my grip. Fought to keep my expression smooth.
Jinx was here? Locked in my facility? And if I didn’t get to him soon, someone else was going to get to him first, if they hadn’t already.
The only problem was…I didn’t know what to say.
Oh, it couldn’t have been Jinx, because I was just getting fucking frisky with him in the woods? Oh, and that blood he had on him? It’s his own.
I’m sure that would go over well, and my job would offer me a fucking place next to his cell. I dropped my head into my hands and sighed.
How was I supposed to deal with this right now?
I needed to find Gianna before the masked man truly did kill her. Jinx had DNA on him because he was her fucking boyfriend. These cops were so stupid, and if I hadn’t found Gianna…
No, I couldn’t think like that. I had to find her. Find her and bring her back to her little baby, who was fighting for his life. There was too much going on. It was too overwhelming and I couldn’t handle it.
But because of his stupid ass landing here, I had no choice.
They fucking chained me up.
Again.
Cold-ass metal biting into my wrists, my ankles, like it made a damn difference. Like it would hold me. I flexed my fingers, feeling the pull, the ache, the raw skin beneath. They’d get tired of it eventually. They always did.
The walls smelled like antiseptic and bullshit, and the lights buzzed just enough to make my teeth itch. This place was Hell, dressed up in white coats and locked doors. I laughed under my breath, tongue running over my teeth.
Then the door creaked open. And there she was.
