Page 76 of Shattered Veil

Chapter 15

Our voices all clashed together in a horrified cacophony, most of us in a state of denial, speaking our disagreements aloud with noncontextual stammering. Believing that the hell that brought Colton to Salem was linked to what we had all gone through months ago was a jagged pill—uncoated, bitter, and large. And the way that it was presented to us were as if it were angrily forced down our esophagi. There was no softening of the blow. No metaphorical water to drink and ease the scraping along the inside of our throats. It just…hit us…and the ramifications of the possibility being true were causing us to descend into bedlam.

Absolute, utter bedlam.

“Okay, okay—guys—guys!” Colton’s exclamation rose above the noise just enough for our near panicked discussion to halt in its tracks. “Calm down. Ya gotta loop me in, here—”

Luke, now sitting next to Claire with his hair standing on all ends, interjected, “Jesus Christ—no, we don’t.”

“We don’t have to loop him in on shit,” Liam agreed with purpose, his freckled face pale and his dark eyes wide as he pointed at Luke across the table, “because none of this is related.”

“Liam,” Claire spoke to him gently, “now isn’t the time to be purposefully ignorant.”

Looking at her hands that were knit before her atop the table, Zoey grumbled, “He’s not being ignorant.”

“Zoey…connect the dots.” I leaned slightly to my right, telling her in as vague of terms as possible, “2D did…all the shit that he did. The shit in his apartment—in that room—looked like it was prepped to keep someone captive.”

“2D,” Colton stated with disgust, “had needles and injectable meds in that closet.”

He shifted to reach into the front pocket of his hoodie, pulled out a small, brown bottle that he gently held between his thumb and forefinger, and placed it on the bartop with a purposeful clunk.

My jaw hung open as I absorbed its appearance. Cassie dropped my hand beneath the table to spin in her seat and stared at it with wide eyes, and the remainder of the group groaned as Claire waved a hand before us all and asked:

“What the fuck is that?”

“Acepromazine,” Colton replied as if it were the most obvious answer on Earth.

“What,” Liam shook his head as if his eyes were deceiving him, “what is that?”

“Snagged it from the room. After a quick Google search, it turns out it’s a sedative.” Colton pointed to the bottom of the bottle, tracing the text on the white label with his index finger. “This here says that it’s only intended for veterinary use. Regardless—the effects are the same. Sedation. Easy to find for someone who’s—”

“A veterinarian,” Luke choked out. “Mister Milkovich is a vet. Was a vet—thought he was retired by now, I don’t—I dunno, maybe he isn’t?”

“Who’s Mister Milkovich?” Colton asked with narrowed eyes.

Claire rapidly asked, “Why, does the last name ring a bell to you?”

Colton shook his head. “Not even a little.”

“It doesn’t fucking matter!” Zoey shrieked, seemingly coming to a breaking point and honing in on Colton. “This shit is over and done with—”

Claire interrupted, “Zoey, if it has anything to do with what Colt’s talking about, it might not be.”

Zoey hissed, “They aren’t related, Claire!”

“Tox reports on women who went missing showed sedatives in their systems,” Colton pressed. “If it’s—”

“Tox as in toxicology?” Cassie asked with an alarmed gaze, “As in they were dead?”

He replied in an exhale, “Yeah, as in they were found dead.”

A lead weight dropped in my gut, and I voiced, “How do you even know all this?”

Luke murmured an anxious, “Thank you, Jay.”

Colton pulled his focus from Cassie to me. “It’s public record. I’m not saying it’s plastered all over the news—it’s not—but a quick search for articles with the keywords Virginia, young woman, and death pulls up enough.”

Claire murmured, “No, no, no,” and rapidly began to dig in her jeans pocket for her phone. Luke watched her over her shoulder as she tapped away at the glass face, his nostrils flaring with every seemingly shaking breath. She whispered, “How have we not seen this?”

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