Small fish swirled around me, but nothing scary swam by me. It was peaceful. No one could see me cry now. I wouldn’t get punished for tears. The ocean soaked up every drop that left my eyes.
No more chains.
No more abuse.
I should have done this years ago.
My last thought before I closed my eyes was of a dark-haired man with bright blue eyes. I let my mind turn back the clock and I was standing in the middle of the market again. Instead of being frozen in fear, I ran to him.
And I never looked back.
Chapter Nine
SEBASTIAN
I’m on my fifth cup of coffee, and my body is jittery, but I can’t stop. I have all my laptops set up on the counter, looking through every face through the camera lens from the farmer’s market. I didn’t realize how many people were there. I’ve been running faces through facial recognition software for hours with no luck.
While that was in the works, I did research on Kendrick. It seems there is one thing he is smart about, and that is covering his tracks. Like me, he has no records; just an old mug shot I found when he got arrested back when he was a teenager.
Other than that, he doesn’t exist, but I know better than that. He’s here. I’m running the software against his face too. It’s only a matter time before I catch him. No one is perfect when it comes to covering their tracks, besides me.
We aren’t talking about me, though. We are talking about my idiot brother.
“Any luck?” Owen asks as he takes a sparkling water out of the fridge. The bottle hisses as he twists the top of the green bottle and chugs half of it down.
“Not yet, but I have a good feeling about it. She was there. I’ve seen glimpses of the purple dress in the footage. It’s her. It has to be.” The way my body comes to fucking life when I talk about Gabriella is pathetic. My fingers fly over the keyboard as I focus in on another image.
I reach for my coffee cup without looking and grab air. I look to my right and see Owen holding my mug in the air. “What the fuck? Give it back.”
“Hell no,” Owen says, then he dumps the remainder of the life-saving liquid into the sink.
“Wh—” I reach for it at the last minute, listening to the sink gurgle as it drinks my caffeine. “I needed that!” I shout at Owen.
“You are typing so fast, you’re about to smoke your damn keyboard. You’ve had enough. I can see it in your eyes. You’re all feral and shit. No more coffee for you.” Owen snags another bottle of water from the fridge and sets it in the same place where my coffee was just a minute ago.
“I don’t want water.”
“Too fucking bad.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Fucking watch me.”
“Make me a cup of coffee!” I slam my fist on the counter and stand.
“You are being ridiculous. You have a serious problem.”
“The only problem I’m about to have is your death on my hands if you don’t give me my coffee. I’m working around the clock here. I can’t afford to crash!”
“Both of you are being ridiculous. Can you shut up?” Jaxon glowers at each of us, pointing his index finger. “Fucking children. And, Sebastian, cool it on the coffee. Owen is right. You get to be a pain in the ass when you’ve had too much. Owen, stay out of other’s people’s business. Whose turn is it to do a perimeter check? I know it bounces back and forth between the two of you, but I think I can do it today. It’s been long enough,” Jaxon says on an exhale as he sits on the barstool.
Owen smirks before hiding his mouth with the water as he drinks. “Right, you look up to it. One-hundred percent healed.”
“It’s my turn,” I say. “But I’m not leaving. Owen took my coffee; he can fucking do it. I’m busy trying to save Gabriella, remember?”
“I’ll go if it means getting away from him. He is a mad man right now.” Owen lifts his hands and walked away, slamming the door shut that leads to the garage. It’s the only way in or out. Jaxon is bound and determined to keep the Cliff House safe. Everything has a weakness, though. Like a few months ago when Quinn’s ex-fiancé was trapped in the house and somehow outwitted us.
Until Jaxon took his head off, literally.