People are dancing, making out, taking shots on the kitchen island. I can’t see Finn anywhere, but I’m pretty sure if I did see him, he wouldn’t get out alive.
I’m tearing through the crowd toward the staircase in no time, pushing drunk idiots out of my way. I reach the second floor and make an instant beeline for my room to see if she’s in there.
Two guys pass me in the hall as I close in on my bedroom.
They’re laughing, both holding trash bags in their hands. We make eye contact for a split second, and the taller one smirks, but I’m so focused on getting to Lexie that I only realize how sketch the whole thing is when the boys disappear down the stairs.
I stop dead in my tracks, replaying what just happened on a loop until it all becomes clear. My room is at the complete end of the hallway. The only way they would’ve been walking in the opposite direction from me was if…
That’s where they were coming from.
I can’t see my feet touching the ground as I bolt down the hall and swing the door to my bedroom open.
As I expected, everything is wrecked…
My clothes are scattered over the floor, my luggage emptied out all over my bed, but it’s the opened drawers to my bedside table that send me spiraling.
I’m on my knees in front of my nightstand in the blink of an eye, digging through the drawers with a painful throat and tears burning my eyelids.
“No.” My voice breaks in a thousand fragments. “No, no, no.”
I search and search, but the box I left my electronics in is gone. I figured I’d be stupid to leave my expensive Kindle e-reader and AirPods out in the open after Finn’s assault on my belongings my first week here. So, I threw everything in a locked box and hid it in my nightstand.
And in it…
Was my Radiohead T-shirt.
The one thing I truly value.
My birth mother’s shirt.
It’s… gone.
I want to scream, bulldoze through what is left of my room, burn the house to the ground, but all I can do is just sit there in silence with my mouth open and tears coursing down my face.
In that moment, I’m faced with a choice: scour the house in the hope that I can find the two dickheads that stole my shit before they’re never seen again or go find Lexie and get her the hell out of here.
The choice is easy.
My heart aching with every miserable beat, I focus all of my might into delaying my breakdown and dash out of my room. I swing open every door I see and call Lexie’s name, not even blinking when I catch Axel Fletcher, a guy I know from school, and some girl fucking doggy-style on Finn’s bed.
Good. Finn deserves it.
A sob escapes me when I finally find her.
Lexie’s huddled up in a corner of the library, alone in the dark. Her food and water bowls were dumped next to her, along with a toy she doesn’t even like.
“Lex?” I croak. “Lexie, baby, it’s me.”
She doesn’t come to me, her whole body trembling as she stares at me in utter terror.
“Oh my God, Lexie, I’m so sorry,” I whisper, running to her and dropping by her side.
I instantly feel the puddle beneath me.
The floor is wet.
Shit, did she…