Page 6 of What's Left of Us

“He has a bad infection,” Vinny reminds me. “Real bad. He’s going to continue receiving treatment for a while.”

“That doesn’t help us now,” I groan, rubbing my face. My gaze drifts to the bathroom, towards the medicine cabinet above the sink, and not for the first time this week I really wish I knew where Vinny hid my sleep meds. As much as I don’t like them, I’ve been craving them the past five days. “How long will they keep him there before he’s sent back to CGP?”

Vinny shrugs, and I know he doesn’t have answers for me. As much as I need them, the only person who might be helpful is Sterling and he’s a hard man to get a hold of.

We’ve texted, but none of us will risk sending something incriminating through a message. Sleeping with a serial killer on the run looks bad on all three of us. I don’t care about the repercussions myself per say, but I don’t want it to end up damning Alastair further or even cause Sterling to lose his job. So far as Vinny and I are concerned, we wouldn’t have as much to fight if that did get out.

They could throw out my testimony from the original trials if it went that far, but is that really a bad thing? I don’t want to incriminate Alastair anymore. The only person ever threatening us was Sterling, and it was a thin threat about outing our club.

I’m positive that he’s not planning on that any longer. Why else did he sleep with all of us? Granted, that was never a plan, but I’m not mad about how it worked out.

And then Alastair went and ruined it. Who does he think he’s protecting now?

“Xeno is coming over,” Vinny continues, drawing my attention once more. “Just to check in on us.”

My eyes narrow ever so slightly. I don’t have a problem with Xeno by any means, but the past three days he’s appeared more and more, which is unusual considering how busy he seemed for the past few months. Now suddenly, after Alastair is caught for a second time, he has all this extra space to visit us?

“Is there a reason?” I ask slowly, glancing down at myself. I can’t see the scars, and knowing that Xeno is going to show up doesn’t necessarily prompt me to get dressed. He’s polite, but Xeno comes almost exclusively to speak to Vinny. It’s hard to tell if it’s friendly visits, family matters, or something to do with the case.

Vinny shrugs when I glance back at him. “He’s checking in.”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” I snap, meeting his gaze. “All of our problems are locked up now. Right?”

He hesitates, pursing his lips. “Right.”

“You would tell me if there was something else?” I ask slowly, studying him. “Wouldn’t you?”

“There’s nothing else to worry about,” Vinny tells me, moving forward to cup my face. “Until Alastair talks, they can’t move forward. And he has to know that. Porscha was always very unreliable. They can’t just take one’s word against the other’s.”

I shrug out of his grip, moving towards the bathroom. For the first time in years, I feel like Vinny isn’t telling me the whole truth. And I don’t know what to make of that when we are always united, especially about this. “Whatever you say.”

“Jo-”

“I’m just going to take a shower,” I tell him, glancing back at the bathroom door. Part of me still wants to dig the pills out and take another late-afternoon nap, but it won’t do me any good. I’m certain Vinny didn’t hide those in here. “Wash away the dream.”

I can hear his frustrated sigh as I close the door, but if Vinny won’t be truthful with me I can’t play this game with him. I know his brother has access to a lot of things, probably more than I want to know about, but it doesn’t change anything. We are supposed to tell each other everything so nothing comes between us. And at this point, I can’t imagine what Vinny is hiding.

Chapter 2

“And… you are?”

The guy, dressed in a snazzy black suit that makes me want to crawl out of my skin, hair slicked and styled back, carries a briefcase as he leans over, holding out a card. “Tobias McKinney. Attorney at large. I’m looking forward to representing you for your criminal case.”

I keep blinking, because this guy just rudely woke me up after being escorted back here by a nurse. I’ve barely been conscious the past few days, and although I’ve kind of listened to the doctors speaking about some big time infection I have and the muscle weakness from lying in a bed for weeks beforehand, I can’t say I really know what’s going on.

There’s one grumpy nurse who keeps reminding me that the second they can kick me out of this hospital they will. Going back to solitary might be more pleasant than this.

Each time I wake, it’s doctor after doctor. No agents yet, or maybe I’m just not conscious when these visits occur. I wouldn’t mind seeing a certain corrupted FBI agent again, even if I can’t say much to him in this place.

“My case…” my voice trails off, and I try and clear my throat but it’s too dry. I would kill for some water. “My case is settled. Sealed. I’m on Death Row. Did nobody tell you that?”

“Yes,” another voice answers, and this is the other man in the room. He’s standing too far back and I just can’t make my bleary eyes focus on him. He sounds familiar though, and when I first woke up I almost thought this was Vinny. His voice isn’t quite right though. “We’re aware of your place on Death Row. But there’s a new killer to try now, isn’t there? New evidence could change things for you?”

No…. no, that’s not going to work. I covered for Porscha so Jo would suffer less. I’m not guiltless, so I took everything on. They can’t just pop in and change what I said.

“No,” I say out loud, closing my eyes for a moment. “I don’t want to go to court again.”

“You may not have a choice,” Tobias says. “It depends on what is revealed from the interviews with Porscha. You can have a say and maybe change your sentencing. We could fend off execution, possibly get your charges dropped if you were coerced by Porscha. She’s the mastermind. We’re going to play that angle. You could have a nice cushy stay for the remainder of your sentence if you turn on her.”

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