Page 51 of Shattered Veil

Claire stated rapidly, “The alarm probably already called the police—”

Each subsequent response was nearly spoken over the last until we heard the door to 2D shutting through the speaker.

Colton’s words flew out in a rush. “If it sends out an alert, it goes to whoever put it up, and then they’re asked if they think it’s a threat, and then they call the cops. Or the alert to whoever put it up goes unanswered, and the cops fucking show up anyway.” He exhaled heavily. “Small ass town like this, I’ve got five minutes—tops.”

Liam blurted out, “Okay, fuck the cameras—closet, Colton! Get to the closet.”

No doubt tearing his way throughout the apartment as rapidly as his legs could move him, he returned quickly, “Yeah, yeah. Looks like two bedrooms. Which one?”

“The one with the locked closet in it!” Zoey yelled. “It’ll be pretty obvious once you see—”

“What in the ever-loving FUCK is this room?!” Colton’s exclamation was kept to a hushed level, but the shock was still evident in his voice.

“Ya found it,” Zoey murmured grimly.

“Uh…handcuffs?” Colton questioned hesitantly, mentioning what we had heard Mister Milkovich speak of. He audibly grimaced, “Ugh—ball gag? Am I grabbing kinky shit?”

Liam snapped, “No!”

Colton quipped, “Thank fuck, I’m only comfortable with my own shit like that—”

Luke hissed, “I’m gonna kill him,” while Claire spat out:

“Colton—closet!”

“I’m already on it,” he spoke quickly. “I—ah, you’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.”

He said it with a level of defeat, and I groaned, “God, what?”

“It’s a keypad lock on the closet. Nothing to pick, just a knob with numbers, and…maybe a fingerprint scanner?”

Claire let out an exasperated, breathy, “Fuck,” just as Colton told us:

“Okay—one sec.”

It was literally one sec later that we all heard a loud, speaker-grinding crash! Our collective flinch at the noise shook the car on its shocks, and Cassie shouted:

“The fuck did he just do?!”

I glanced at her with eyes so wide that I felt the cold air stinging them, and she returned the same expression back to me as the rest of the group waited with bated breath for any further sound.

Colton whined, “I hope y’all are fuckin’ happy. My shoulder’s gonna be bruised to hell after that.”

“Colt, did you just bust the door down?!” Claire exclaimed. “The neighbors are gonna hear!”

“Y’know the phrase in for a penny, in for a pound?” Colton rhetorically asked with grit. “That. I’m bookin’ it in less than two minutes at this rate, anyway.” The last word faltered, twisting into a tone that turned…nervous. The insinuation made my stomach coil, the sound of Colton’s breath straining as he whispered, “Oh, God,” made nausea rise to the base of my throat, and he asked, “Who lives here?”

If we weren’t all sitting at attention before, we most certainly were now. I turned in my seat to look directly at Zoey, who was sandwiched between Claire and Liam, and she looked as though her mouth had gone dry. Jaw agape and a thousand-yard stare, she shook her head vigorously as I caught her eye. Her gaze shifted to Cassie, who had also turned to silently peek just as I did, then around the seating to Luke and Claire. Liam had placed his left hand on the back of her neck in a sympathetic gesture, and when she finally looked to him, I saw the muscles work in his jaw.

“Why?” he asked for us all, though his eyes stayed on her.

“Feelin’ like I shouldn’t be here,” Colton muttered. “What—what did you guys do?”

Zoey’s head whipped to Claire’s lap as she snapped, “What’s in the fucking closet, Colt?!”

Colton’s swallow was audible. “Vials of meds, syringes, and a laptop.” I tried not to picture it or assume whatever purpose they all served, but I failed. I failed miserably, and the thought made my head swim. “No clothes,” Colton clarified. “Nothing else. It’s…very neat.”

A light caught my eye—not bright because it was from afar, but still present enough to draw my attention—and the red and blue hues made me gasp with a dramatic wheeze. Several others in the vehicle replicated the noise, though I couldn’t have been sure of who.

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