Page 21 of Ravaged Souls

My mouth dropped open. “WHAT?”

He nodded and adjusted his sight back on the road. “Yep. That fiery little redhead stole my heart. She just doesn’t know it because I haven’t grown the balls to tell her. That and because I know what’ll happen to us if Damien were to ever find out.”

I wasn’t sure what startled me more, Finn admitting he knew about me and Jace or him confessing his love for my best friend.

But what if it's a lie?my subconscious voiced in warning.What if he's playing you, testing you upon Damien’s command?

I unbuckled my seatbelt then and climbed from the backseat to the front, not bothering to re-clip myself in place. I needed to see Finn’s face, watch his expressions, his body language. If this were a game, I’d snap his neck right here and now and flee, despite the consequences.

“So, like, are you two a thing?”

Finn shook his head. “I wish, but no. Like I said, Ginger doesn’t know how I feel.”

“Have you two…”

He nodded. “Yeah, we’ve slept together a few times, in secret of course. I want to say she feels the same, but I honestly don’t know. It’s just…”

“Complicated?” I queried.

“Yeah, kid, it’s complicated.” Finn sighed and sadly shook his head. “I love her, Samara. Ireallydo. I…” He paused, swallowing hard. That response alone had me skeptical, but there was something flashing in his eyes that had me nearly convinced this wasn’t a mind game. “I’m worried about her.”

“What do you mean? Has something happened? Is Ginger okay?” My relationship with her was still sour. A part of me still hated her for what she’d done, helping enslave me in Damien’s clutch. But the other part of me, the part that still cared and loved her, couldn’t help but be concerned.If Damien hurt her again…

“She’s been crying a lot since you left for the academy. She hugs the other girls every night and tells them how much she loves them. But it’s the way she says it, the pain in her voice… And-and the bruises…”

“Bruises?”I growled.

Finn’s throat bobbed as he nodded again. Tears were in his eyes. “Damien raped her again. I don’t know how recent, but the bruises have to be at least a week old. I don’t know what’s really going on, but I’m scared she’s gonna kill herself.”

Reactively my nails dug deep into my palms, hard enough to break through skin. “Damien needs to die.”

“No,” Finn detested, which made my head snap hard to the side at him in ire-filled disbelief. “As much as we’dalllike for that bastard to rot, killing him will only cause bigger problems. If he dies, the torch automatically gets passed to Jace. He’s young, barely just turned twenty-one. That makes him an easy target for anyone who wants Damien’s territory to gun Jace down and claim all of it for themselves.”

My heart painfully sputtered at his words. He had a point there, a damn good point.

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know, Samara, I really don’t. Between him and his alliances, I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”

“Alliances?” I crumpled my brows at him. “What alliances? And with who?”

Finn shook his head, slightly cursing to himself before he looked over to offer me some bullshit apologetic frown. “I’ve already said too much. It doesn’t matter anyway because we’re here and you need to go. Just forget I mentioned it.”

He pulled in around back and parked, eager to evade my protest by hopping out the car and rushing to fetch my two bags from the trunk. I got out and with a hasty, long sigh, snatched them out of his grip. I made my way over to the back entrance and slung open the door.

Forget he mentioned it my ass.I’d barely been gone a week and it sounded like the gates of Hell had broken loose. I had too much shit going on as it is andnowI had to worry about my best friend thanks to Damien and his abuse. It was unavoidable now. I had to talk to her. Maybe Ginger could help shinesome better lighting on what went down while I was gone.

I was in VIP again tonight and my third group of bachelors had finally run out of money and decided to fuck off, giving me some extra time to kill. Every inch of VIP was disgustingly disheveled and last I’d checked, a waitress had yet to make their way over there to clean the shit up. Ginger was busy working the main stage tonight, so I hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her one-on-one yet. Jace was my last resort.

Problem was, he was nowhere to be found. Not him, Finn, or even Damien Reyez himself. In fact, they’d been MIA since I’d walked in the building three hours ago.

My stomach soured as I finished another lap around the club with the same empty result. “Hey,” I said, approaching a security guard who was standing nearby, peering up at his large form through my mask. I’d already spoken to six other guards minutes prior and nobody had any information for me. My odds were already shit, but hell, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask a seventh time. “Have you seen Finn, Jace, or Damien?”

“They’re not here,” the guy replied, which made me blink up at him and swallow hard.

“Do you know where they went?”

He shrugged. “Sorry lad, I don’t. Boss said he had some business to handle. He took Finn and Jace with him. That’s all I know.”

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