Page 36

?

Fallon

U nknown: I need to speak with you regarding an important matter with your company.

I should have just looked at my phone before I fell asleep. The creepy texts needed to end and I had enough to fill up a scrapbook to commemorate my sophomore year as being the worst year yet. I wondered when the other shoe would drop.

Whatever. It could wait until after breakfast.

“Where’s Kelly?” I asked James.

“She left pretty early and returned only a little while ago.”

“Have you slept?”

“Not in my job description.”

Fair enough.

The fridge was fully restocked at some point last night and for that I was grateful. Whoever it was left my favorite foods and there were packages of sour gummy worms on the counter. Breakfast was to commence and I hoped I didn’t throw it all up.

I clicked on the TV to do some light watching while I cooked and a breaking news story was the first thing that came up.

“College student Shane Jones was found recently deceased of an alleged drug overdose late last night when a couple was out late night and discovered him in Willow Bay face down. Please be aware that these images may be disturbing to some audiences.”

Kelly’s boyfriend found dead from an overdose? That was something I wasn’t expecting to hear this morning. Part of me felt like it was related, but there was so much going on in this area that it could be an isolated event.

I didn’t think that it was.

Pictures flashed across the screen showing blurred out Shane face down in the bay. All I could think of was when that guy fell from the third story window and hit the ground. The sickening sound he made when he hit cement.

James was in the kitchen cleaning up the glass and juice that I dropped on the floor before I realized I even dropped it. “Don’t move. I’m going to clean up this glass before you step around with your bare feet.”

I didn’t even hear it shatter. “I’m so sorry!”

”No, no. Don’t move.”

People seemed to be dropping like flies. There was no way that Shane’s death was a coincidence when he was the topic of conversation not that long ago. Kelly started dating him and all seemed fine to me. If he was dealing or doing drugs, there should have been some sort of indication of that.

Right?

Outside of Kelly smoking occasional weed, bumping coke, and going to parties—where they obviously had more drugs—she never seemed the type to get into the world of hard drugs or dealing like that. She never showed signs–

”Miss Montgomery? You can move now.”

Everything was cleaned up and I missed that too. Jesus, I needed to see a therapist or something. My brain wasn’t being very nice to me and the dissociation was getting a little too much to handle after days of constant beating and trauma.

“Do you think that’s connected?” I pointed to the screen where they were still talking about Shane’s death and taking interviews from the two people who discovered him.

He seated me at the table and tended to the skillet, making me the breakfast I planned on making for myself. “You’ll find connections everywhere you look. What you need to do is focus on what’s within your control.”

What a level headed response. James looked older and his demeanor never changed. He was calm, cool, collected, and ready to do anything I needed from him. Within the company, he must have seen a lot of things over the course of his tenure and I had no want to know about it. Maybe later.

“Then we should continue tutoring?”

Kelly stretched and yawned as she made her way out of the hallway and into the kitchen. “James! You’re making breakfast? What an angel.”

“Long night?” I clicked the TV off so she didn’t see what was playing.

“Very.”

My heart rate shot up and I tried to keep cool. “What did you get into?”

“A few parties and some drinks. Nothing crazy.” She sat down at the table and crossed her legs in the chair. “Are you and Brent official yet?”

James coughed from the cooking station.

“Not talking about it. How’s Shane?”

She fidgeted, maintaining a somewhat calm composure. “I, uh, didn’t see him much last night. He went off with his buddies and I stayed to drink and party.”

Yeah. I was starting to become suspicious of my best friend.

“She was off quick after breakfast,” I mused into my notebook as James continued on with company paperwork.

He turned the TV back on knowing I wasn’t listening to him anyway. A lawyer was on there speaking to the public about the recent events and how there would be crackdowns on the college parties happening.

“I will be giving my full legal aid to the city so we can find the people drugging and poisoning our children. There will be change that happens!” He shook his fist in the air before leaving the podium.

The crowd was murmuring and asking for questions.

“Mr. Fitzgerald! Are you concerned with your own son’s safety given recent events?”

“My son, Alexander Fitzgerald, is a stand up young man and will be keeping his ears to the ground so we can punish the criminals who are responsible for the rise in crime in Willow Bay. No further questions.”

He left and my jaw was on the floor. No way Alexander’s father was just on TV lecturing good people about there being a slew of criminals in our wake. There was nothing common about the crimes going on at the school. We all knew the rules of the game.

Well, the one’s in the right tax brackets knew the rules of the game.

“I knew it! Everything in this stupid fucking town is connected and something is in the middle of all of it.”

“Yes. It’s your company.”

“Wait, what?”

My company was at the epicenter of everything? If that was the case then there would be hordes of people gunning for me. Anyone who wanted more power and more resources not just in our country but globally. It made sense. The luxury real estate company who did deals across the globe would have others foaming at the mouth to have that kind of reach. Augustus had deals with us that allowed his black market trade to operate seamlessly—our properties gave him the perfect cover and all business expenses looked legitimate.

If Shane died because of it, where did he fit in and why was Kelly acting so oddly about things?

Buzz!

Unknown: No good drug dealer takes the fall. Too bad his plans were already set in motion. Who will be the first to break?

If I was holding out hope that things were connected, it all shattered immediately. What exactly the fuck was going on and what could I do to figure it out before the timer ran out?