callan
After my whole ordeal with Principal Vaughn, I drove to Sakura’s house. And when I didn’t spot her car in the driveway, I raced all around Redwood to find her. I really needed to talk to her. What she had heard … it wasn’t the truth. I didn’t want to fuck another girl.
I wanted her, and I needed to protect her from this sex ring.
She had heard it all wrong. But I didn’t blame her.
If I had heard her say what I had said, I would have thought the same exact fucking thing. I would have thought that she wanted to fuck somebody else, that I wasn’t good enough. And I needed to find a way to make it up to her.
But after driving for an hour and not spotting her car anywhere, I drove to the hospital to check on Gunther. I knew it was stupid, especially if I couldn’t make it up to Sakura and explain myself. But I needed to make sure that he was okay and kept his mouth quiet.
If he woke up and told the nurse what had happened, I’d be fucking screwed.
Once I slammed my car door, I walked to the hospital and smiled sweetly at the front desk ladies to get inside. I didn’t have time to sit and chat. I needed to get in and out of here as quickly as possible.
“Third floor,” she said, smiling at me.
As soon as I walked away, I dropped the fucking act and headed up the stairs to Gunther’s room. I stood outside his door and gazed in through the small window. He lay in the bed with tubes and needles sticking into his body.
“Mr. Avery,” a nurse called.
Fuck.
I plastered another fake smile on my face and peered over at her. “Yes?”
An older lady with deep crow’s-feet and white hair walked over. She looked familiar.
“Do you know any of Gunther Zurn’s relatives?” she asked, looking down at her clipboard. “We haven’t been able to get ahold of anyone. We’ve looked into him a bit more, and both his parents are dead. If you know any of his family members who might be of help to him …”
“He doesn’t have any family. Both his parents were only children,” I said.
I had done my research on him as soon as he started showing interest in Sakura. I hadn’t trusted him one fucking bit from the start. Sure, he might’ve had good intentions all this time, but he didn’t come from a good family.
“He doesn’t have insurance,” she said. “So, even if he survives and comes out of his coma, he will be drowning in hospital bills. We can try to offset the initial cost, but health care is terrible in America, especially right now.” Her lips pulled into a frown. “Even worse than it was when your mom—”
“I know,” I said, cutting her off. “I remember how bad it was then.”
“That was almost two decades ago,” she said.
When she glanced up at me nervously, I finally recognized her as the nurse who had taken care of my mother after her accident when I was still in high school. She had known me before all this shit happened with Georgina.
I stared at her for a couple of moments, eyes widening and guilt rushing through me. If she found out that I had done this to Gunther, I would feel even worse, as I should. The Callan she knew was still a boy, a sweet and innocent boy who’d bring her lemonade every Saturday night while visiting Mom.
“I’ll take care of it,” I whispered.
“But …” She gulped. “Mr. Avery, if he does come out of it, his bills will be upward of hundreds of thousands. All I was asking for is if you know anyone of his family members who I can talk to about this. A grandparent, maybe a guard—”
“I’ll take care of it,” I repeated clearly.
This was the least I could do.
After Sakura had overheard my conversation in the hallway with Principal Vaughn, I doubted she would want anything to do with me ever again. I thought that following her into her next classroom and asking her teacher if I could talk to her would get Sakura to finally talk to me. But instead, she talked back, she told me no, she scolded me in front of everybody. The good girl, the valedictorian, had surprised everyone today.
And I didn’t want to hurt her even more. She didn’t deserve that. I had been such a dick to her.
The nurse gently grasped my wrist. “You’re a good man, Callan.”
But I wasn’t.
I grimaced at her and walked away because I couldn’t stand here and lie to the woman who had taken care of my mother. I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t do any of this anymore—be in this fucking mob, take people’s lives, live without Sakura.
As I walked away from the nurse, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I whipped it out and hoped that it was her. I’d been texting and calling her for the past forty-five minutes after leaving the principal’s office. I needed to make sure that she was at least okay.
Vaughn had been talking so much about her lately, making comments about her body. I feared that she’d be next to be added to this catalog of girls who were being pimped out to all of Redwood Academy. I needed to fucking stop it before it happened.
When I read the screen, Jett’s name popped up. I cursed under my breath, realizing that I had to take care of him too. He was still sitting in his beach house, scared out of his fucking mind. I didn’t have time for all this shit.