Page 179 of Zero Chance

“Oh my God,” I gasped, stumbling from my chair as I stared dumbfounded at my girlfriend’s wrist.Her voice was distorted, her face was blacked out, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt the girl on that screen, sitting in that chair, was Waverly.

My gaze shot to her mother to confirm it.And the hateful, hard look Ms.Breeker sent me made me moan in agony.

I shook my head, wanting to deny it.My skin went clammy and damp.My head immediately started to pound.And my stomach rebelled.

Unable to control the nausea, I slapped a hand over my mouth and spun toward the door, bolting from the room and ignoring my professor calling my name.

As soon as I pushed my way out of the nursing building, a face full of fresh air hit me, and I darted to the right, falling to my knees where I vomited into the grass.

And I just kept puking.Every time I pictured Gerald Sprout’s wrinkled, pock-marked face, I saw a young, innocent Waverly cloistered in his windowless, wood-paneled office, as he reached for her hair and called her a good girl.

Teeth clenching, I growled out my rage and pain and puked again until I was drained and sweaty with chills that alternated with moments of white-hot anger and cold, terrifying fear.

Dizzy and nauseous, I knew I needed to move.I needed to get out of here and have my episode somewhere more private so I could punch a wall to get myself back under control, but the shock still had such a grip on me I continued to freak out right there in the grass for everyone to see.

When a gentle hand touched my shoulder, matched with a concerned female voice saying, “Keene?”I jerked upright with a snarl, rearing back my arm as if I were going to swing.

Raina yelped and leaped away, her green eyes flaring and auburn curls bouncing.

“Shit,” I muttered and opened my fisted hand to look more apologetic.“Sorry.”

“Are you okay?”she managed to ask.

“No.”Beginning to shake uncontrollably, I looked at Foster’s girlfriend and wheezed, “I need—I need—I need someone.”

I had no idea if she knew that was a code phrase among the seven.When one of us hit a low, we’d cast out the bat signal with those three words, and another member of the group would always sweep in to check on the buddy in distress and help however he was needed.

Bobbing her head insistently, Raina seemed to understand just fine as she dropped to her knees next to me and swung her backpack off her shoulders to dig out her phone, all the while, saying, “Okay.We got you.Just hold tight.Foster will be here soon.”

I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut, bowing my head and trying to block out everything else as I repeated those words through my head over and over again.

Foster will be here soon.Foster will be here soon.Golden Boyalwaysshowed up right on time to save the day.He’d make this better.

Except I had no idea how he could make Waverly un-raped, or how he could take away her years—fuckingyears—of abuse at the hands of that monster.How the hell could anyone fix any of this?

“Dammit,” I roared, clenching my teeth along with every fucking muscle in my body as I fisted my hands again and vibrated with unspent fury.“Dammit, dammit, dammit.”

“Holy shit,” I heard Raina croak fearfully.“Pick up, pick up, pick—Foster.Oh my God.You—you need to get over here to the nursing building.Right now.Something’s wrong with Keene.He’s having some kind of breakdown.I think he threw up.No, he’s not okay.Something is very, very wrong.I have no idea!He’s either having a panic attack or—or something.I can’t tell if he’s going to cry, hit me, or just…explode.Honestly, it’s scary as hell and—Okay.Okay.Thanks.I love you too.Hurry.”

“Foster’s on his way,” she told me.

I nodded, not daring to open my eyes yet.“D-don’t call Waverly,” I managed to say.“Don’t—” I shook my head and finally opened my eyes to send her a hard, warning glance, still finding it nearly impossible to talk…or calm down.“Don’t let her see me like this.She—she’ll think—I don’t want her to know how much I freaked out.”

Raina nodded and whispered, “Okay.”She looked scared as hell, but she stayed there in the grass next to me and even gave me some water from her bottle to swish and spit and then drink from until a panting Foster raced up, looking worried as shit.

The cavalry was here.Thank fuck.

Wilting, I went back to closing my eyes, but something inside me had loosened at least.I didn’t have to carry this by myself anymore.

“What happened?”I heard him demand.

“I have no idea,” Raina shrieked.“He just—he’s not Keene.If I didn’t know better, I’d say he has rabies and is going to snap at anyone who tries to touch him even as he dies in pain right at our feet.”

“Dugger?”Union said softly, and I finally looked up at him, shuddering out my rage and grief and fear as I looked into his kind, blue, supportive eyes.

Needing one of my crew, I reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt with shaking hands, gripping it savagely before I gritted my teeth.

“I want to kill him,” I confessed.“I want to kill him.”Shaking my head, I gulped unsteadily as a new wave of emotions poured over me.“I have never wanted to kill anyone before.Not like this.But I want to end his fucking life.”

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