AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We both start looking around the kitchen, waiting for something to happen. But even if Morris gets to me, I’m not sure I can help. It sounds like he took too much, and fuck if I know what’s in the formula.
“Look!” Luna points to the floor. Morris is lying there, panting, gripping something in his hands.
“Call 911,” I say and then crouch over him. “Morris, can you hear me? What do I do?”
His face is turning bluer by the second. I’m about to start CPR when he opens his hand. In it is a glass vial.
“Free…Keni,” he mutters, and then his eyes go empty.
I start chest compressions and breathing, but after five minutes, I know it’s not going to help. His heart probably exploded.
“The paramedics are here,” Luna says quietly. “You should go, Huff. They might not be alone, and Kyle’s probably looking for you.”
I stop CPR, saddened by the empty look in Morris’s quirky face. He really was a crazy bastard, but he was a genius at chemistry. Without him, there may never be a cure for River.
I slip the vial into my pocket.
“You really need to go,” Luna urges, heading for the front door.
“I’ll call you later.” I don’t even know where I’m going. Not to the lake house. Not safe. Neither is my parents’ place. Where I really want to be is with River, but I won’t know if my publicity stunt and the leaked phone call worked until later today. Possibly tomorrow.
I decide the best place to go is that island in Brazil. Hopefully, they’ll have internet so I can keep tabs on the situation.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
This place is beautiful.Powder-soft sand, warm blue ocean, and waterfalls all over the place. The cabin is one of ten on the private island, but this one’s perched on a small peninsula with a private cove. The cabin has two floors, with a loft bedroom upstairs and a kitchen, bath, and living space downstairs. It’s rustic but comfortable with more modern conveniences than I would’ve imagined. I’ve got it for the month.
I can’t wait to bring River here once she’s free.We can take a few weeks to decompress before jumping into what happens next. Whether or not that bill passes, I’ll always be hunted unless I decide to reveal that I’ve got Morris’s final work of art, which, by the way, I put in a very secure place, buried so it stays a constant temperature. Not hot. Not cool.
For the next day, I anxiously monitor the news bombs going off over Morris’s death and how Kyle, a sitting congressman, was plotting to kill me.
The spin and conspiracies start immediately. Was Morris killed by the US government? Was the tape of my conversation with Kyle even real? Where is Mr. Love?
But the story that’s grabbing the most attention is my love affair with Luna. #MrLovesLuna.
I hope River figures out none of it’s true, but that’s not my biggest concern right now. I just have to get her back.
The next day, I haven’t heard a thing about River, so I call Luna on my encrypted app to see if there’ve been some rumblings online that I missed. It goes to voicemail, so I call Mom next. Maybe she’s been talking to River’s parents.
“Oh, Huff. It’s just terrible!” Mom says the moment she answers.
“What?” I say, thinking it’s going to be about River.
“The FBI raided our house, looking for you. Kyle says we’ll both go to prison if we’re caught harboring you. He’s on the warpath after you released that conversation.”
He’s out of control.“Well, you don’t know where I am, and I’m not going to tell you, so there’s nothing they can accuse you of. Have you heard anything about River?”
“No, that poor, poor girl. I told Kyle he’s a monster and has no choice but to stop this nonsense and let her go, but he claims he’s innocent.”
“Innocent?”
“Yes. He said she’s still locked up at that place. What’s it called?”
“Clover? She’s at Clover?” I ask.
“That’s the one.”
“I gotta go.”
