Unstable | E.D (Book 2)

four - are you okay?

Jasmine

"Why is there so many people working at night?" I ask, confused. My eyes scanned over the workers walking around the building, typing on computers or fixing medication for the patients.

"It's an asylum Jas, crazy people don't stop being crazy just because it's night time." Grayson says, analysing the screen intensely.

We both are watching the surveillance footage, studying the movements of everyone from the torturers to the security guards. We occasionally looked at surveillances from different levels of the facility.

Apart of me wants to see him suddenly appear on the screen as Grayson jumps from different camera angles. However; another part of me wouldn't like what I'd see.

"What do they want from him?" I ask Grayson. "Why are they hurting him?"

He sighs, pausing the footage. "He's a criminal. He's apart of gang that cops have been trying to dismantle for years. Our gang has partnered with others through different transactions. Ethan is the key to dismantling all of the biggest gangs in America—including ours."
This situation is more messy than I had thought.

"Wouldn't they make a deal with him? If he cooperates and tells them what he knows, wouldn't they set him free or lessen his sentencing?" i question.

"That's not an option." He says, while playing the surveillance footage again.

"So you rather him get killed in that place then cooperate with the cops for his life?" I arch an eyebrow, scoffing.

"You don't understand."

"Allow me to understand."

"The saying: Snitches get stitches isn't just a rhyme, Jas. It has true meaning behind it. You don't ever snitch—especially to feds. No matter the consequences. People have to be able to trust you, if they can't you're useless to them. If you're useless, you're dead." He explains.

Silence takes over once again. It gives me the opportunity to digest everything I've been told. I look over at Grayson, noticing a change in his features. I can't quite describe how he looks. "Are you okay? No one ever asks you." I say thoughtfully. Just one look at him and I knew that something was up. He wasn't okay.

He hesitates. "I'm fine." He proceeds, replaying back certain footage that he had missed.

"I refuse to believe that you've been fine throughout this whole ordeal. Your brother is locked away at an asylum." I say, watching him questionably.

He sighs rather loudly, rubbing his eyes stressfully. "This situation is fucked up. I can honestly say I've never been through worse."

"Are you afraid to see Ethan? Would you speak to him if he snitched? What if you died in the asylum? What would scare you the most, seeing Ethan if he snitched or death?"

Silence fills the room as I watch him swallow down nervously. Although it was cold in the room, small beads of sweat were visible against his face. His jaw was clenched and his eyes screamed for help.
He wanted to let it out, he wanted to voice and express his emotions that's been bottled up for a while now. He wants to express how he feels about his best friend and brother being locked away.

But he holds back. He swallows down that emotion and pushes back the tears that are ready to fall. "Death would be nothing compared to the feeling of betrayal and pain from your own brother." His shaky breath whispers.

My eyes open widely once the words left his mouth. I wasn't expecting him to prefer death. The fact that he actually feels this way is proof that he isn't okay.

"I've known Ethan before all the money, drugs, corruption, he's family. All of us worked hard to build our reputation and have a reputable business. We've built this empire together..."

"If he was to throw all of that away it would be mind blowing. I know he goes through a lot of things but nothing to cause something extreme. He turned himself in and let us go. I don't know why he did that. We all deserved to do the time. He obviously made a deal with that place to go there and give them what they want, and let us all go."

He continues, "I never thought I'd be sitting here, plotting to get him out of the hands of one of the most horrific organisations in America. I never thought It'd come down to this." He says frustratingly.

"But here we are, saving his ass."