Page 15 of Not Her Day to Die (Star-Crossed #2)
J ane sits primly on the O’Brien’s living room couch.
“I wasn’t followed,” she advises. “The reporters don’t seem to have your home address either, or maybe they don’t expect you to be here. In the O’Brien’s home.”
I am settled across from her in an overstuffed armchair, Axel is perched on the left, but Grayson stands off to the side between us, his arms crossed.
They are my support, my guards, my family.
Mine.
“Before we start this and go into the details, I want to ask you a question first.” I level her with a stare. It has the full weight of my anger.
She doesn’t expect it and her eyebrows draw up in surprise. “They told you.”
“That you used my brother and my boyfriend as your puppets? That you put them in more danger than they had any right to be? Yes they told me,” I confirm.
Now knowing what I do, I fully and completely understand Axel’s deep-seated loathing of the woman before us.
She sent two teenagers on a suicide mission with zero backup or safety.
She is why Tripp and Auggie were killed.
She may not have run them off the road, but she played an integral part. They never should have been involved .
“Did they tell you why Augustus and Tripp approached me? Why they were so desperate for my help?” Jane leans forward in her seat. “That you were going to be sold?”
My heart beats in my chest, pounds up my throat, thickens my tongue. It takes a few seconds before I can speak again. “Not the specifics.”
Jane reaches behind her, tugging out a sheet of paper. “They purchase the girls and boys before you even graduate.” She unfolds the paper on the coffee table between us.
Ice and heat fight their way across my nervous system. It looks like a page from our yearbook…except that isn’t quite right.
My face is on there, and the picture is from my junior year. My yearbook picture. Except my name isn’t present, instead above my image is the word munchkin and below is a dollar amount.
A very high one.
But I’m not the only face, there’s Julia, Tiffany, other classmates I recognize, but not all of them. As if we were all hand selected and compiled onto this sheet.
“Your brother found this, he gave it to me,” Jane continues. “He knew what it meant. That you were on their list, that you had landed on their radar. You might not be purchased, but you weren’t safe. It was only a matter of time.”
My finger traces all the faces, most I know, but some I don’t. They appear older, their pictures not uniform as ours taken from the high-school are. “Where are these from?” I ask.
Jane folds the piece of paper back up, tucking it into her pocket before answering. “The college. This town isn’t that large, but the college nearby increases their options. It is a funneling system. If I had known that…maybe if I had gone before my daughter started there… ”
Understanding snaps into place, how her daughter ended up in this mess. The Thornes throw all sorts of parties, for the high-school, for the college, for games, for events, for holidays. She ended up at one and it sealed her fate.
Before I chalked up all the parties to their rich and arrogant nature, a way to flaunt themselves, but now that the blinders have been taken off, I see them for what they are.
A place to create their next victims.
Gaining my bearings, I circle back. “My question to you is this. How far are you willing to go to save your daughter?”
Jane’s brown eyes darken until they are nearly black.
Her nostrils flare, her shoulders tense.
“Miss Sunday, if you help me with this, I will do whatever I can to bring down the Thornes.” She stares at me, as if she can see parts of my soul.
“Even if it means dying in the process. I will do anything to save my daughter from them. Anything for her to know I never gave up searching for her. Anything for her to know that she is going to be okay.”
The thread between Jane and me pulsates. It is red. Dark. Nearly the color of blood. And while I don’t know what that means, I imagine it isn’t good.
I ignore it. “Perfect.”
“While the FBI had officially opened a case, unfortunately, due to the most recent press conference the Thornes gave, it has almost entirely been shoved to the side.” Jane heaves a sigh. “I am here on unofficial business, but if we can garner any evidence, we can get their help.”
Last night up on the roof, Grayson and I brainstormed the best way to go about this. To draw more of the public’s attention, to get more eyes on the problem in this town .
Most issues go ignored and are forgotten unless they are shocking enough.
“Where can I go that will put me in danger?” I ask.
Jane cocks her head. “You?” Understanding flashes across her face, her lips tightening. “We can’t use you.”
“You just said that they wanted to sell me.”
Jane looks to Grayson as if he will intervene, but when he doesn’t, she turns back to me. “But your face is known now, they wouldn’t risk taking you.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think that’s true. They won’t kill me. But I imagine if I am alone and just a sitting duck, they’ll act. After all, they twisted the story to show Darius and I are together. They could easily come up with another lie.”
“Then why wouldn’t they just kill you?” Jane presses. “If they’re willing to take you, what keeps them from killing you once enough time passes? Once the public’s interest dies down.”
Axel tenses, I reach out squeezing his hand. “That’s where you come in.”
And for her part, Jane listens to my entire plan, nodding her head occasionally. When I am finished she lets out a whoosh of air. “That just…that might work. And for your part, Sunday? This is all you will need to do…”