A Five-Minute Life

My frantic gaze darted to the clock that showed a little after seven. A note sat beside it, folded in half, my name handwritten on it. I snatched it with shaking hands and devoured every line.

Jimmy,

Went for our morning coffee. (I think you’re going to need it ) Be back in fifteen.

xoxo

Thea

“Holy f-f-fucking shit.” I sank on the bed, relief washing through me like a tidal wave. I let out a long, shaking breath, then sucked it back in to curse at myself. I was lucky. A second chance. She asked me to trust her. I should have trusted her.

I shivered in the room’s air-conditioning. I’d broken out in a cold sweat that stunk of stale booze and fear. I stripped out of my clothes to take a fast shower, figuring Thea would be back by the time I got out.

She wasn’t.

I stood in the silence of the room, a towel around my waist. Now the clock read 7:22 a.m. Fear started to creep back under my skin, and I reminded myself Thea wasn’t the helpless person she’d been at Blue Ridge.

Call her. No big deal.

I dug in my jacket for my cell phone. Not there. Not in my jeans, either. A sliver of memory found me from last night. It’d gone missing at the bar.

Thea’s backpack was at the foot of the bed.

Leave it. She’ll be back soon. Trust her.

More memory flashes from last night. Thea’s eyes alit with a euphoria that bordered on fear. The strange phone call with Delia. Crying in the middle of the night.

I clutched the towel around my waist and kneeled to dig through her bag. I found my phone at the bottom, shut off completely. I sat on the bed and powered it back up. Dozens of text messages popped up along with notifications of another dozen missed calls. Most from Delia, but also Rita, Alonzo, and Dr. Chen.

“What the fuck…?”

My heart stopped beating and then took off at a gallop. With shaking hands, I opened the string of text messages from Delia and read them one after another.

“N-N-No…”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Delia was fucking with me. Trying to ruin everything…

You’re lying, Thea said during the call at the bar. Because she knew then. Delia told her and then Thea lied to me.

“No,” I barked. “This is b-b-bullshit.”

Rage fueled by terror burned hot and fast. Delia was lying. She was a fucking liar and a thief trying to steal Thea from me.

And she somehow wrangled the Blue Ridge staff to go along with it?

My hand trembled as I hit the button on the first voicemail out of twenty, holding the phone to my ear as if it were a poisonous snake.

I listened to all of Delia’s messages, which alternated between tearful begging and angry fear. Then the voicemails from Dr. Chen, cool and professional but laced with urgency. From Alonzo, his voice heavy with pain. And Rita. Fuck, Rita cried her message, and I nearly did too.

The phone fell slack in my hand. The blood drained from my face; the rage draining with it, leaving only the terror.

And a silent, empty room.

Chapter 33

Jim

The key slid into the door and Thea came in, balancing a tray of two coffees with cream and sugar packets piled between them.