The Minutes We Have

chapter seventeen

I couldn't ignore what I saw. 

It happened right in front of my eyes, and Ezra witnessed it as well, so I knew I wasn't imagining it. The only thing we hadn't seen was the actual body. If we had come to investigate a few moments earlier, would we have seen a body? Should we have taken pictures? 

"What do we do?" 

Ezra exhaled. "Play it cool, we don't know exactly what happened." 

After we had gotten into the car, and turned around to go home, it felt like an eternity had passed. I, for one, knew that I felt like hiding when I got home. It was a safe place, where I knew my brothers would protect me, and I didn't want to leave it. Not until I knew the sheriff was brought to justice because what he had been doing was completely unjustified. 

It was illegal. A twist of the law. Dirty work. 

"I don't want to keep secrets," I told Ezra honestly, "I did that for Roman in the city, and look what happened. I don't want it to come to that, I don't want to watch anyone get hurt again." 

"Neither do I," He replied quietly, surprisingly meeting me on my level of emotion, "But I can't imagine Mikeal will take the news well. And the twins? Roman needs to keep himself out of trouble."

"Roman kinda already knows," I admitted, "There was a summer party that I went to and I saw the sheriff's daughter. She had blood on her hands, someone was screaming, and the sheriff came eerily on time to break it all up before anyone knew what was going on." 

Ezra's head snapped towards me. "Not keeping secrets, huh?" His voice was edgy, and then he processed the rest of my words, a small frown forming, "When did you go to a party?" 

"Recently."

"You snuck out?" 

"Well, yes," I answered and then shook my head, "We're getting off track. My point of telling you this is that Roman knows something is amiss, and he's been keeping an eye out at school. He says Soren has always kinda been stand-off-ish, but she was at the party, which is what I don't understand." 

"Soren?" 

"The sheriff's daughter," I rolled my eyes, "Keep up, will you?" 

"Careful," He gave me a glare. 

"Then use your brain."

He turned the car into our driveway. "Okay, so what's your plan? Just burst through the front door and blurt everything out loud?" 

"No," I scoffed, crossing my arms, "I'll think of something over dinner. All of us will be there." 

"Whatever you say." 

ꕥ

I was on edge. 

Number one, my heart was pounding so hard I felt like my ribs were going to crack from the inside out. Number two, all five of us were seated around the dining table and I couldn't stand the silence as we ate. I felt like my skin was crawling, threatening to reveal all the secrets I didn't want to keep in the first place. I didn't really know how I would tell Mikeal, or the twins, about what Ezra and I witnessed. 

Finley rested at my feet underneath the table but not even his presence could calm me. 

"What's the matter with you?" Roman's irritated voice broke me from my fretting, and I turned my head towards him. "You're practically shaking and you haven't eaten."