The Minutes We Have

chapter twenty-seven

My spine locked.

I felt every single one of the muscles within my body pull taut and I didn't realize my lungs had stopped functioning until I started to feel lightheaded. I sucked in a hard breath and it hurt my chest. No, my heart was thundering against my ribs and that's why my chest hurt. A cataclysm of emotions tore through me. 

A storm had arrived and I was merely a tree bowing in the wind. 

I could get arrested. 

Mikeal should have never told us the truth. 

"Jordyn?" Bailey asked, probably for the millionth time, and I only just realized he had never left. My world had narrowed like tunnel vision and I physically turned my head to look at him because my eyes wouldn't move away from the figure that took a seat at a window booth. A hand gently landed on my shoulder, Bailey was obviously concerned. "Are you alright? You're pale." 

Had he not noticed me? Was this a power play? 

I flashed back to the time that Officer Cameron showed up on our doorstep in the city. My brow continued to furrow without conscious thought as I tried to work through what I needed to do at this moment. I couldn't make Bailey wait on my section, he would get suspicious and I didn't want him to get involved. Had Rylan known it was my section?

My head was going to explode. 

"Jordyn." 

I blinked. Bailey's eyes were trying to pry every secret from me when I finally looked at him. "I'm alright, just got lost in my head for a second." 

"That was more than a second," His tone was cautious. "You looked like you'd seen a ghost, then you died and joined it in revenge." 

"I'll be right back," I told him. My gaze drifted to the path I'd walk toward the window booth. Somehow I forced myself to take the first step. Then a second. It was the hardest walk of my life. I tried to straighten myself out and act like nothing was wrong but nobody could do that when they knew something was about to be terribly wrong. Luckily, Rylan didn't look up until I stopped beside his table. I promptly withdrew my notepad and clicked my pen. "What can I get for you today, sir?" 

"Sir?" He repeated. A crinkle appeared in his left brow. "It's just Rylan."

"Rylan, what can I get started for you?"

His lips pressed into a thin line. He didn't reply. Instead, it seemed he stared right through me with those incandescent eyes and he read all the secrets that hid behind unspoken words. Secrets I would never speak aloud to someone like him. 

Suddenly, I felt so angry. How dare he tell my oldest brother something that could get him arrested? Knowing the consequences were something he wouldn't have to pay? How dare he bait me while I was standing right here? Had he known I was working today so he specifically came to gloat? My fingers tightened around my pen until the plastic complained. I feared it would snap in my fist and the ink would bleed around my fingers. 

"Are you alright?" 

No. 

Nothing was alright. 

"I'm fine," I said, lying through my teeth. "Can you please order something?" 

"I'm the only customer at the moment, are you in a hurry for something?" 

My jaw clenched. Sweat trickled down my temple and I refused to wipe it away because my spine was still rigid. I thought of every lie I could sell to him. I could say I was sick. I could say Finley was sick. Or I could just refuse to be of service and walk out.