Page 44 of The Coldest: Stay Dangerous Part 2

I told myself I wouldn’t leave the gym until I felt better, and that’s what I did.

It took five hours, but it worked.

My mind is mush. After a long shower, sleep awaits me. Maybe I’ll even let Snow sleep in–

A sound stops me in my tracks. Well, I stumble, but I catch my footing immediately.

Just as another sniffle filters out of Snow’s closed bedroom.

I pull out my phone as I continue to my room, accessing the cameras in her new bedroom.

A couple of clicks, and I have the perfect view of Snow curled up. The journal I gave her a few weeks back is open next to her, some words scrawled on the pages.

When I turn on the audio, her soft cries pull my brows together.

The shower forgotten, I sit on my bed and listen for any reasons why she could be crying right now.

But she doesn’t speak, not for any of the twenty minutes I watch the feed. She just cries softly, sniffling every once in a while, before her breathing levels out and the whimpers turn into snores.

I’ve resisted the urge to read her journal. I told myself I’d wait until it was full. But that was before now. What could she have written that has her crying herself to sleep?

Is she fiending? The whole reason I stuck her with ibogaine was so she wouldn’t have to keep going through withdrawals. One of the side effects was depression, but that was only with long term usage.

One dosage seems to have permanently curved Snow’s cravings for drugs.

She’s not a heavy sleeper, but before, I know I could have slipped into her room and stolen her journal.

Now, I’m not so sure.

Something shifted once she was placed in my care. Something pushing and pulling, the more she’s around. I thought I could handle it, but I was not ready when I told Haze I’d help her.

My fingertips brush my eye patch. My cousin’s colleague in San Pedro said I have weeks before we can really assess any damage, though the rest will give my eye time to heal, so it’s a waiting game either way.

It doesn’t stop the headache from forming on that side of my head.

A text from Miele comes through, and I exit out of the camera feeds to go to our thread. Most of it is her asking me for something, but usually, she’s asleep by now.

Miele

She seemed sad today. You should take her on the boat tomorrow. That always cheers me up.

My eyes narrow as I reread her text. Did Miele come into dinner after I left? Something about this nags at me, but when I switch back to the camera feed, Snow is back awake, back crying.

A day on the boat seems like a good idea.

I comb my bottle lip as I mentally run through everything I have to do tomorrow.

Admittedly, nothing that can’t wait until the next day.

I switch back to my inbox and tell Miele to get Snow ready in the morning, before I turn my phone on DND and sigh.

If anything, I can kill her out at sea and pretend she went overboard.

Wyn

I’m tempted to ask Miele how she has so much energy before the sun is up.

I doubt it’s what I’m used to. I mean, I know she’s nearly ten years younger than me, but damn. Is it caffeine? Pre-workout? How is she a big ball of energy?