Page 62 of All Your Hate

“I do it all because I have to! You know better than anyone what it’s like needing to keep your shit secret. I’m sure daddy doesn’t know what his son does as a hobby now does he?”

Bones storms around the desk and grabs Jackson off the floor, pinning him against the wall.

“This isn’t about me! Give me a fucking name! There’s no way you didn’t get to know them enough to not know that. I know what you’re like. You’re always up in everyone’s business.”

“D-Dmitri Volkov was the one I spoke to the most.”

Volkov.I don’t recognize the name, but it sounds Russian, which lines up with the accent of the man that took me. That can’t be a coincidence.

Jackson looks past Bones, towards me and smiles. “You should be blaming him as well.”

“What are you talking about?” Bones snaps and Jackson slowly looks at him.

“Bones here could have saved you himself. You were here that night, with Carver if I remember correctly. The pair of you were kicked out because your friend pulled a knife on one of my girls.”

I stumble backward until I hit the wall.

“That’s the corpse fucker and his playboy friend,”Cassidy’s words play in my head.

“He had a drink thrown over him,” I say numbly as I recall that night. “You were both being assholes. You looked straight at me. You smiled at me like you wanted to…” My breath hitches as I see how truly dangerous Bones is.

“Wynter. I—I don’t remember that. I’m sorry.”

He was definitely high that night, but I can’t trust anything he says. All he does is manipulate me.

What if he actually had something to do with me being taken? He could have had me tortured for months before swooping in to pretend to save me just so he could hurt me some more.

Bones lets go of Jackson and starts walking toward me. “If I had known anything I do now, I would never have let you out of my sight. I was a different person then.”

Keeping my distance from him, I shift closer to the door. “I can’t trust you.”

He looks heartbroken and for some reason, my heart aches as well.

Jackson takes advantage of the moment and lunges at Bones. I’m not sure why exactly I do it, but I shout, “Look out!”

As Bones turns and narrowly avoids Jackson I make a break for it. Pulling the door open and running for my life.

“Wynter! Wait!” Bones roars.

Cassidy calls out to me as I sprint out of the club, but I don’t stop. I need to get away from this place.

Running without direction I find myself coming toward a familiar street sign. My feet have carried me home.

When I reach the steps to my apartment building I collapse against them and catch my breath. My lungs burn and my eyes sting from the brim of tears on my lower lashes. Wiping them away, I lean against the rough exposed brickwork. The familiarity of the building tugs at my chest. Happy memories tryto come to the surface, but they hurt more than the torture I’ve endured. I put them securely back into the safe little box in my mind. One that I’ll only open when this is over.

There’s no way into the building without my keys, so I reach up to try the buzzer to Charlie’s apartment.

There’s no answer. It’s just my luck that the one time I get away she’s not here.

I must be a real glutton for punishment because the next thing I do is press the buzzer to my apartment.

“Hello?” An elderly woman’s voice asks.

My chin quivers with disappointment. I suspected that the place would have been rented out to someone else since I couldn't pay for it, but the reality of the situation still hurts.

I have no idea where Summer is. She could be living in a foster home or trapped somewhere awful like I was.

Without answering the woman, I sink back down onto the steps and press the heels of my palms into my eyes so I don’t cry.

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