Page 51 of After All The Wreckage

My eyes went to the doors of the station. No Rory. I pulled my phone out and texted her.

ME: We need to go. I have Monte in the car. Where are you?

“I think that’s why they didn’t freak out,” Monte said, his voice drained and tired. “They must’ve heard Demi spout the same kind of bullshit before.”

“It’s not bullshit. Just because people don’t believe it, doesn’t make it not true,” I growled. Monte was never wrong. The events always went down the way he saw them.

The door of the station finally opened to reveal Rory with her face twisted in irritation. Someone had pissed her off.

“There’s Rory.”

She started toward the car, pausing to turn back toward the building, shielding her eyes and searching the sidewalks before twirling around and jogging toward the SUV.

Monte inhaled sharply, and I turned in my seat to look at him. His eyes were glued on Rory as he let out a shocked, “Holy shit!”

“What’s wrong?” I demanded, pulse ratcheting right back up.

But none of that, nothing that had happened over the last two days would have ever prepared me for the words that came out of my brother’s mouth.

“It’s been so long since I saw her… And in the vision, I just see her from the back, but Gage, Rory’s the one who shoots Dunn.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Rory

CHEMICALS REACT

Performed by Aly & AJ

I stormed from the station,pissed that Bradshaw had basically kicked me out of the tech lab. The video I’d given them was still processing, but he was annoyed that Gage and Monte had held back and now he was taking it out on me. He’d basically threatened to blackball me with the entire PD if I didn’t tell him what was going on.

When I’d told him I was just hired today and had nothing more to tell him than whatever Gage and Monte already had, he’d snipped back with, “That’s interesting since you don’t even know what they told me.”

And he’d been right. I could have kicked myself for giving him even that. My worry for Gage and Monte had me speaking before thinking. I wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or emotions or just a pile of mistakes, but I needed to pull myself togetherbefore I did something really stupid like tell a truth that wasn’t mine to share.

My heart skipped a beat… The truth. Somewhere along the way, I’d gone from disbelieving Gage to believing. Maybe it had been when Ivy had sent me her spooky look and said Monte was scared, or seeing Dunnnotfreaking out while Monte told him about a future where he got shot. Or maybe it was simply the connection I’d felt to Gage from the very first time I’d met him. Whatever the reason was, I knew they weren’t lying.

My dad would have a field day with this. Forget letting my emotions rule. If he ever found out I believed in visions and psychic connections, it would be all the proof he needed that I wasn’t cut out for this work.

As I stomped down the steps, the hair on the back of my neck rose as if I was being watched. I looked back, trying to get a glimpse of whoever it was, expecting Bradshaw or one of his minions. I saw nothing at first, but then from my peripheral I caught sight of a large man in a leather jacket and aviator glasses disappearing around the corner. My pulse sped up. Was it the man from the Argento Skies building?

My instinct was to chase him down, but I couldn’t now anymore than I’d been able to follow him into the elevator earlier. Gage’s text had practically been vibrating with the urgency to get Monte to the hospital. So, instead of running after the guy like I longed to do, I turned back to Gage’s SUV.

As I opened the door, two pairs of eyes met mine. It took me a heartbeat too long to realize the look Gage sent me was one of distrust.

As if I was suddenly the enemy.

My gaze swung from Gage’s stormy eyes to Monte. I hadn’t seen Monte in person since he was a little kid, but the shape he was in now still tore me up inside. His lids were swollen, a bruise bloomed on his cheek, and dirt covered most of his visibleskin. His short, cropped curls were a tangled mess pushed into his head in places and sticking up in others, and his hands were wrapped in gauze.

But none of that shocked me as much as the alarm on his face as he looked at me.

Monte was afraid.

Of me.

What the hell had happened?

I slid into the passenger’s seat.