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Chapter Thirty-Five

Kinsley

A cool breeze causes me to stir, oh crap, by the looks of the daylight pouring through the windows it’s at least mid-morning. I must have drifted off to sleep whilst watching TV last night. Propping myself up on my elbows, I notice that I’m alone. “Soph?” I call out.

I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and into my Uggs; these tiles are pretty but they get so cold. The balcony is empty and all the pillows and blankets have been brought inside. How long have I been asleep for? I close the double doors and check under my pillow and the bedside table for my phone. It’s nowhere to be seen, neither is Sophie. With a final scan of the room, I notice all evidence of last night is gone. Even the pillow on my reading chair has been straightened.

Making my way down stairs I hear whispering voices in the kitchen. “Sophie, are you in here? I’ll need coffee before you jump out and scare me or anything like that.”

“In the kitchen,” she sings happily. “Get your cute little ass down here.”

As I step into the kitchen I see her stacking the dishwasher, gently arranging all the glassware we used last night. She turns, smiling brightly. Her smile is infectious and it instantly fills a little bit of the emptiness. One day at a time, Kinsley. You survived yesterday, let’s do it again. At least the voices are on my side today, that’s a positive.

Movement to my right catches my eye. Jesse is sitting at the dining table, fiddling with an empty coffee cup.

“You brought coffee?”

“Well, kind of … I did bring coffee, but Miss ‘Kinsley needs her rest, don’t you dare wake her’ wouldn’t let me bring it to you, so I drank it.” He shrugs, with that big cheesy grin spreading across his face. “Sorry, Meadow.”

“He’s not really sorry. If he was, he would take us out for breakfast,” Sophie speaks up, propping her hands on her hips.

“You guys do realise I’m doing my grad year … Teaching. This coffee wasn’t even in my budget!”

I throw my hands in the air. “My shout then, let me throw some clothes on.”

“Psst!” Jesse whisper-shouts to Sophie. “She’s willingly leaving the house!”

“I heard that!” I say, without even turning back to look at them.

These two might drive me a little bonkers, but when it comes to times like this … Times where I count on them to show up for me, they do so without fail.

Jesse

Kinsley is only gone momentarily before appearing again, her hair is up on the top of her head in a messy bun and she switched her pyjamas for leggings and a hoodie. Wait, that’s my freaking jumper!

“Hey!” Walking right up into her space I tug on the drawstrings around the hood. “This is mine!”

The smile on her face tells me she knows. “Mine now,” she says with an evil grin, stepping around me. I’ll have to steal it back off of her later on; it’s my favourite.

“Come on, kids,” Soph hollas from the front door. “I’m starving!”

* * *

We walked a few blocks down to one of Kinsley’s favourite little spots. The spring breeze would have been a nice addition to the morning if my hay fever wasn’t at its peak. I sneezed multiple times on the way, after the fourth time, Sophie finally offered me an antihistamine. Is there anything that girl doesn’t have in her purse?

Now, we are sitting around a table, whilst Mrs Campbell — who insists we call her Betty — fusses over Kinsley and brings us our coffees. The girls are telling me about the day they first met each other here and I can’t help but feel a sense of admiration for how far Kinsley has pushed herself out of her comfort zone with this new friendship. It was only a little over three months ago that the girls met in this very cafe, and now Sophie can hug her without Kinsley dying on the inside.

The rest of the day goes by quickly. After breakfast, which has turned into lunch by the time we leave, Sophie says her goodbyes, and yes, Kinsley willingly hugged her. She really is letting Soph in. Good. Kinsley needs other people in her life. Especially with Tanner temporarily MIA.

If I’m honest with myself, I’m shit scared that during our attempts to take Lance out, one of us won’t make it back to her.

Tanner wants to go all underbelly on Lance; I didn’t even ask how he knew people that had access to weapons, I just quickly shut the conversation down. That was a big Hell No from me; who does he think he is, The God damn Mafia?

Whether Kinsley likes it or not, Tanner needs to be there for her. He might think he’s the big tough guy and I’m … just Jesse . But, I can do this – I need to do this. I have always said when the time came, I would put myself on the line for her. Our top priority is attempting to find Warren. I don’t even know if he is alive but I have to follow through with what Kyle started. I need to see for myself.

The second thing we need to do is close in on Lance, catch him in the thick of whatever the fuck he is doing. To have the police on speed dial and bring them in; I can only hope that there will be enough evidence.

I don’t know Tanner’s life story but he doesn’t seem to have much faith in the law enforcement system. From my own experience, watching the way the police treated Kins and her family throughout the disappearance of her dad and the death of her brother, the process is corrupt. Kinsley would have opted for Tanner’s plan every day of the week, not that I told him that.

I won’t let either of them in the line of fire, not with the chance of them being locked up behind bars — or worse. I run a hand down my face. Do Kinsley and Tanner expect me to take that risk, all because we didn’t think this through properly? I don’t think so. Right now, all I know is that I’m not going in there to kill him. My end goal is to get him back behind bars; death would be too kind.