: Chapter 27

I like to think that whatever happens, it does for a reason. Most of the time, at least.

And Raelynn’s sister running away from her own wedding, that sure as hell was something I didn’t expect to happen.

The night sky is dark, not a star in sight. Only airplane lights that I like to pretend are moving stars and the moon are visible at this time.

I keep my eyes on the road; Raelynn beside me bounces her leg as she looks out the window like her mind is running a thousand miles an hour.

Reaching over, I place my hand on her thigh, and she jumps a little, looking over at me.

‘You alright?’ I question.

She’s acting a bit strange, maybe it’s because of her sister’s situation. Then again, she’s always been but of a jumpy person.

She smiles her pretty smile at me. ‘Yeah, I’m great. How much longer?’

‘We’re almost there just a minute or two away.’

Logan and I were in this same bar not too long ago, drowning myself in alcohol because I couldn’t come clean to Raelynn about the Jenna ordeal. I’m just glad she wasn’t the same twat to Raelynn I met all those years ago.

Arrive to the bar, which is now packed to the brim, I sigh and park, shutting off the car.

Music pours out of the door and onto the silent street every time someone opens it. Even with the door close the sound of shouting and male voices blurred together still spill through the walls. It makes it hard to believe Raelynn’s sister is here.

‘Do you know how long she’s been here for?’

Raelynn jiggles her seatbelt, unlocking it eventually. She’s mastered that thing now.

‘My guess, a couple hours.’ Sighing as well, she reaches to open the door, but I pull her arm back to me.

‘Hey,’ I say.

‘What?’

I cup here chin between my fingers and lean into her. She does the same, meeting me halfway into our tender kiss.

‘Don’t stress yourself, you’re only helping her. Like a good little sister.’

Her eyes dart around to a few points on my fac before a small smile rises on her lips. She nods. ‘I know.’

‘Come here,’ I whisper, curling a finger towards me.

She leans into me across the console, and I take her chin in between my fingertips, kissing her slowly.

Breaking it, her eyes part open, and I can tell by the way she squeezes her legs in the seat that I’ve gotten the reaction I hoped for. The fact that I affect her in such ways makes me feel all sorts of things.

I smirk. Then unbuckle my seatbelt to leave the car.

Raelynn meets me out outside, where our priorities shift back to getting Gia back home.

‘You’re sure she’s in here?’ I question, walking up to the bar door where the volume of the noise inside gets increasingly higher.

‘This is the location she texted me,’ her shoulders come up into a shrug.

Let Raelynn enter the bar first in front of me so I can keep an eye on her with so many drunk twats surrounding the place. I wouldn’t trust a soul around my woman, let alone any drunk bastards.

I know this place well; people can do any and everything.

I put a firm hand on Rae’s waist when she started to walk a little too ahead of me, lowering my head to whisper in her ear, ‘Stay close to me, darling.’

She turns, and I point my ear at her to hear her clearer. ‘I can handle my own,’ She jokes.

‘Oh, I’m certain you can, but I’m a six-foot-five man that’s three times your body weight and muscle; you don’t need to handle a thing with me around.’

She barks out a cute laugh, her cheeks forming a circle with her smile as she shakes her head. ‘I almost forgot how cocky you can be.’

‘It’s true, though, yeah?’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ she brushes off. ‘We’re here to find my sister, not stroke your ego.’ She pokes me on the cheek and turns back around to search.

‘Ego?’ I whisper to myself. Do I have an ego?

This bar is one of the biggest bars in New York City. Walking in, you only met with the front, tables follow, pool tables, arcade games, being fucking in corners, and even a stripper pole somewhere, I believe.

It’s like walking into Chucky Cheese, except instead of children with children’s games, it’s old drunk bastards and their entertainment.

‘Milo?!’

I squeeze Raelynn’s waist, and she stops at my action.

Dammit, of course, he’s here, I should’ve assumed. I turn around to face Logan, his blond hair matted and wild like he was electrified.

He throws his hands in the hair. ‘Oh-fucking-shit! It is you.’ He throws an arm around my neck and laughs, stumbling.

He’s pissy fucking drunk.

‘You smell like pure shit,’ I mutter, pealing his arm off of my shoulder.

‘Hey, bud, you want a dr-ink? What happen with that girl and your crazy ex and—Oh shit! There goes bubblegum.’

I pull Raelynn flush against my side, my arm firmly around her. I can tell she’s a bit annoyed by it, but I ignore her annoyance.

‘We’ve met before, I’m Logan, Milo’s buddy—’

‘I know,’ Raelynn interrupts. ‘You spilled a drink on me a while ago.’

‘Yeahhhhhhh, about that. That’s my fault, bubblegum. Hey—I have a question: do you taste as good as you look—’

I shove him away from her and grab his collar with my free hand. ‘That’s enough.’

He puts his hands up and wheezes out laughs. ‘I’m kidding, man! Joking! Geez, I don’t want your hot girlfriend. Why are you guys here, anyway?’

I let go of him, and before I can scold him more, Raelynn speaks. ‘Gia Garcia. My sister was looking for her.’

The place is so crowded that we’re nudging shoulders with strangers and have to move out of the way of the intoxicated people every few seconds.

Logan’s eyes widen, ‘ohhhhhhhh.’ He bounces his pointer finger at Raelynn. ‘Yeah, you guys do look like siblings. Gia’s at our table down there.’

He walks off instantly, assuming that we follow, which we do.

‘I’m sorry about him,’ I whisper to her. She doesn’t hear me despite my lips touching her ear. ‘Rae?’

She jumps out of whatever state she is in and nods, ‘It’s okay, he’s drunk.’

‘Raelynn! Milo! Over here!’ I look towards Logan’s booth, where several people I don’t recognize sit in a deck of cards in the center and a space for Raelynn and me at the corner. No, Gia, though.

I try to walk forward, but Raelynn is rooted to the ground. This isn’t very good, considering there’s no pace you can stand still in here for more than a few seconds.

Her eyes are blank, it seems. But she looks a bit off. Perhaps this place is too crowded for her.

‘Are you alright?’

She looks up at me and smiles. ‘Yeah, let’s go.’

Now she’s fine again. I shake my head and take her hand, walking to Logan’s table.

I sit beside a guy with red hair, flicking a lighter into a cigar.

Who the hell smokes cigars still? His bloodshot eyes look up at me, and he silently offers me a puff. I decline. That’s clearly not the only thing he’s taken tonight.

Raelynn follows and sits beside me at the end of the table. Rigid. I look down at her, wrapping my arm behind and around her.

She must not see her sister.

‘Everybody!’ Logan shouts at the table. ‘This is my good British friend, Milo, and his girl, Raelynn. She’s Gia’s sister.’

A collective action of eyebrow raises are done simultaneously by strangers.

‘Milo, Raelynn, this is Curt,’ he points to the man beside me.

‘Sup,’ Curt grumbles. Too high to care what’s going on.

‘This is Jaden.’ I look at the guy string across from Raelynn on the table’s edge. He has a goat T, short hair, and a line of cocaine lined up in front of him. He nods at us both casually, then gets back to lining his drugs with a MetroCard.

I watch him clog one nose, snorting a line and groaning loudly. ‘Yeah, baby!’ Then, he throws his head back into the booth seat, laughing to himself.

A crackhead. Nice job picking your friends, Logan.

I shake my head, and Logan introduces the other addicts at the both.

There is an empty space where I assume Gia was previously.

‘Logan,’ I interrupt whatever he’s currently rambling about. ‘We’re not here to chat. We’re here for Gia.’

‘Righttt, Gia.’ She looks around the area and points away. ‘There she is.’

Raelynn and I both turn to see Gia walking barefoot to the circular stage where the stripper pole stands tall.

She has on different clothes than when she left the messing. A cropped top and shorts so small everything will show if she spins on that pole.

‘Oh my God,’ I hear Raelynn whisper as she watches her sister, who has a large grin on her face, wrap a leg around the pole. Dozens of men surround her, money being flung into the air.

I look away and down.

Raelynn gets up, and I grab her shaking hand. My brows furrow. She must be extremely angry with how much her hands are moving. Her unrest eyes continuously blink before she puts her palm to my face.

‘I’ll—I’ll handle it,’ she says. ‘It’s my sister.’

‘But—’

‘Stay here,’ her eyes sat away from me to the table, but I don’t get to see where before she’s off to grab Gia.

Ignoring her request, I move to get out of the booth, but Logan groans. ‘Come on, bud, she isn’t going to go anywhere. You can leave her side for a second.’

I go to speak, but Logan passes me a bottle of whisky and raises his eyebrows.

‘You said you were buying, and we both know you can.’

I look back at Raelynn, now at the front of the stripper pole, successfully getting Gia’s attention. Gia gasps and gets to her feet to crouch and talk. Stumbling and clearly drunk.

Raelynn’s fine, I can see her from here. I look back at the bottle of whiskey Logan probably put on his tab with no money.

I grab it.

The entire table cheers at my action, and I shake my head and laugh. Today’s been a long day. ‘One shot only.’

Logan slides a shot glass over my way and I take it in my fingers, filling it and down it down my throat. The burn is fast, but there.

Raelynn would disapprove.

I slouch lower into the booth, manspreading, thinking.

We’ll be gone in no time, yeah? She won’t mind me having a drink or two.

I’ll be sober before I even start driving back.

***

‘Milo.’ I hear my name being called from my side as I wheeze at a joke the guy beside me made seconds ago. What was his name? Curt.

I look over at Logan who called my name. He’s standing up with a bill in his hand, flinging it across the table at me.

My smile fades, and something in me clicks back to reality.

Nearly a thousand dollar worth of shit.

How long have we been drinking? My head spins, but I’m not lightweight. It takes a lot of alcohol to get me to go insane.

I take the bill in my hand and stand up when my mind goes to Raelynn instantly.

Looking around the table, she’s missing. So is Gia. And so is that guy who did cocaine earlier.

Raelynn wouldn’t leave without me, right? She must be around here somewhere. What if she’s hurt? Or endanger, and I’m here drinking?

‘What’s up, bud?’ Logan says, concerned.

‘Raelynn,’ I say. ‘Where is she?’

‘Oh, Gia said she wasn’t leaving, so she went upstairs with Jaden. Then Raelynn slipped away, too, like a few minutes ago. My guess…’

The rest of his words don’t process in my mind. The mind that’s racing nonstop.

How have I been so blind?

Jaden.

Her uncomfortable. Her strangeness tonight since she was on the phone at the house. She’s good with keeping things in, and this entire time, I thought it was because she was worried for her sister. Not because the Jaden that’s sitting in front of us was the same Jaden that haunted her dreams.

My heart beat races as I close my eyes and shake my head. Please, I need to be wrong.

‘Logan,’ I cut him off as he slips back into the booth. ‘What is Jaden’s last name?’

He makes a face like he is trying to remember and turns to Curt to ask him.

Curt mumbles the one answer I hope he wouldn’t have, ‘I don’t know. Caddel or sum’.’

I feel my skin begin to sweat in every crack and crevice.

I need to find Raelynn, and I need to find her now. I push my way out of the booth, my sight swaying and bouncing, but I couldn’t care less.

‘Milo, hey! You didn’t pay!’

I ignore Logan, pulling my phone out to call Raelynn as the room around me spins, and my breath shortens.

No answer.