We skirt past the employee and out the front door, pausing beneath the awning as rain pours down like a waterfall on three sides.
“I need you to give me my phone back,” I tell him, trying to maintain my calm. On the inside, I’m a hot mess. Maxx Wright knows. He knows. And what he does with that information will determine all our fates, one way or another.
“Here,” he says, ignoring my statement and slipping out of his Wright Family Racing windbreaker. He hands it over to me. “Cover your head, and let’s run.”
I bite my lip, torn about what I should do here and totally and utterly forgetting about Chasm in the chaos.
“Little Sister!” It’s Chas, running through the rain down the sidewalk. He skids a bit on the wet pavement, coming to rest beside me, panting and soaking wet. His yellow and black hair is stuck to his forehead, and when he reaches up to push it back, my heart skips a whole beat. He has that much of a pull over me, and I just didn’t realize it, the power to adjust my internal rhythm with a simple gesture. “Are you fucking with her again, X?”
“You know about this,” Maxx accuses, his voice thin and husky as he tosses the windbreaker at my chest and pulls my phone from his jeans pocket. He shakes it at Chas for emphasis, and then grabs my hand again. I try to yank out of his grip, but he’s like, stupid strong. Handling that bike has given him corded forearms of steel.
He presses my finger to the screen and unlocks it again before thrusting the phone into Chasm’s hands.
Chas looks around, but there’s nobody out here. Traffic streams by in a slow but steady wave, but nobody can hear or see us in the rain, under the awning.
“Are you okay with me watching this?” Chasm asks, and Maxx scowls at him.
“Seriously?!” he snaps, pointing at the screen with a finger. “Fucking watch it, McKenna!”
“Go ahead,” I agree, my voice this distant, floating thing, like a helium balloon that’s escaped the bunch. Up, up, up I go, twisting away with the breeze, joining the clouds … popping, falling, probably killing some sea life. Ugh. I definitely was not born with Tess’ gifts for words and metaphors. “The damage is already done.”
“What the hell?” Chas murmurs under his breath, but then he hits play, his face paling as Maxx moves up beside him to watch the video call play out. I can’t stand to look at it again, so I step back, leaning against the brick exterior of the coffee shop and closing my eyes.
I can’t hide from the sound though. The sound of my voice. Of Parrish’s. Mr. Volli.
“Oh god,” Chasm groans, and I open my eyes to see him biting his knuckles. “Parrish.” He lifts his amber eyes to look at me. “He doesn’t look good, Little Sister. He looks really, really fucking bad.”
“I know,” I whisper, using the wall to hold myself up. “I know he does.”
“So you did know about it? All of it.” This last part is a definitive statement, one threaded through with deep-seated anger and betrayal. Maxx is mad but … because we kept this from him? A small flicker of hope fires to life inside of me.
“We need to find Danyella,” Chasm says suddenly, looking up at me. “We have to find her now and tell her so Parrish can get out of that goddamn chair.” He thrusts the phone back at me and then starts to mutter in Korean. He’s talking so fast that I couldn’t understand him even if I did speak the language.
“Chasm.” Maxx grabs his friend’s arm and shakes him. “Kwang-seon.”
Chas looks up at him.
“What?!” he snaps, switching back to English. He asks that question two more times, once in Korean and once in Japanese. I recognize those words from my K-drama and anime obsessions. “I don’t think you quite understand what’s happening, so let me give you the recap: Parrish dies if you open your fat trap. He dies if Dakota doesn’t obey this psycho. And he dies if we don’t get him a bed to sleep in or a chance at a goddamn shower.”
Maxx pauses, withdrawing his hand slightly. He looks chagrined, but only a little.
“I got the gist, Chas.” His emerald eyes swing over to me. “I’m not going to say anything. I’d like a better explanation of things, but … what do you need me to do right now?” He exhales heavily as I cuddle his windbreaker against my chest. I just need something to hold onto.
“Danyella,” I say, dreading my next move. I’ve already made my sister hate me today, so what’s one more person added to the list? “Let’s just get that over with so Parrish can sleep.” I close my eyes again, gathering my emotions into a tangled ball of twine and then shoving that stupid fucking ball down my own throat.
