Page 124 of Shattered Veil

We all simultaneously replied, “No.”

“Then where the hell is this Randy?” he sneered.

I locked eyes with Zoey. “Address.”

“Uh huh, yup, figuring that out.” She typed quickly, paused for a moment, and then stated, “Neighborhood about fifteen minutes from here.”

Colton muttered, “Is this guy in the goddamn suburbs?”

“Wait,” Claire interjected, “what are we planning on doing here?”

Before any of us could answer her—before we could even speak a plan into existence—the front door began to open. The hinges creaked, and we all looked to the noise as my brother’s voice chastised:

“Zo’! I told you to keep the door lock—”

Liam saw me first, and his sentence cut off as he thoroughly evaluated my expression. There was no hiding it—the tenseness of my shoulders, the tear stains on my face, the burning in my eyes, the pounding of my bleeding heart—I was sure that it was all apparent to him. And the way that his body froze in the entryway was all the confirmation I needed…but naturally, there was more. The color was sucked from his face. His breathing looked like it increased in speed. His jaw was slack.

And then, he looked to Zoey.

“Hi,” she whispered sympathetically.

“What—” It seemed that he finally registered Colton sitting next to her. “Oh, God, why are you here?” His dark eyes scanned the room, taking in everyone’s presence, and they landed on me once more. “What—Jesus, Cas, what happened?!”

Chapter 23

Cassie

Days ago, when James had arrived at my home during a blizzard and dramatically spoke of his care for me among the chaos that surrounded us, I had wondered if I would always be partial to the snow. The dawn that had extended behind him then was muted to a stormy grey, the snow clouds above blocking out the vibrancy of a new day’s sun, but it was anything but dull, for the ferocity of the storm was reflected in his similarly colored eyes. The cold was near painful while the frigid gusts of wind and icy flakes in the air had bitten through our clothing as he stood on my porch and I in the threshold. I still saw it as a thing of beauty, though, for the winter storm was James’ parallel.

The snow on the ground had almost melted since that day, but the flakes were falling again. It looked like they had been doing so for the entirety of the time we were all conversing in the apartment, and their soft fluttering through the air, along with the inch-deep covering on the ground, evoked a pensive melancholy within me. It layered much like the snow did in a blanket over my panic, and I truthfully wasn’t sure which emotion was worse.

I pulled my car door shut, settling into my seat and fastening my seat belt as rapidly as I could. The sound of a closing door repeated twice—once from the passenger seat and once from behind me.

Zoey said, “Got the address on my phone. Hop onto main, get on the highway, and I’ll tell you where to go from there.”

I murmured, “Thank you.”

“Cassie?” Liam tentatively spoke to me as I shifted my car into drive.

There was little inquiry from Liam as we had all taken turns rattling off our explanations of the morning some five minutes ago. He occasionally looked at me, perplexed, as Zoey or I would state something regarding text messages or GPS location, and his anger was far too apparent when he learned that we had left the apartment, but it was rapidly side-stepped as the reasoning for our collective frantic anxiety became ever-clear.

We left quickly to follow whatever trail of clues that would be bestowed upon us—Liam, Zoey, and I in my Jeep, and Claire, Luke, and Colton in Luke’s car—and driving to Randy Dowler’s current address was the only thing on our current agenda.

It wasn’t confusion in my brother’s questioning call of my name, for I knew that he was well aware of the scenario and the gravity that pulled us all down with it—it was concern.

Concern for me.

Something about his tone immediately made my voice crack on my replied, “What?” and I pointedly avoided his inquisitive stare.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he told me gently, “but ya look like you’ve been crying, and you normally…don’t.”

I exhaled, “I’m aware.”

He huffed out a loud breath. “Are you okay?”

Zoey murmured from the back seat, “None of us are okay, Lee.”

Liam twisted his body to look back at her, saying, “I know,” but his questioning eyes still landed back on me.

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