Time Stands Still

Chapter 04

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the bad news. I already had a nasty feeling what the news was going to be. "What?"

"They are letting Joshua Castillo and Jordan Kaur out."

Another deep breathe followed in an attempt to quell the rising panic that I felt building up in my lungs and heart. I needed to keep breathing. "They were supposed to be in prison for another five years."

A sigh was heard on the other side of the phone. "Yeah, they were, but they were let out because they were pardoned."

There was nothing that could be done to stop the rising panic that followed. Some sounds came from the other line but all I saw was blurry surroundings. Everything was blurry. There was nothing that I could see properly. My breathing had started to go even faster and heavier.

It felt like all my senses were being flooded and I felt like I was going to pass out any second. I probably would have if Rhys hadn't chosen that moment to walk into the office with a loud slam of the door. I shot up in my chair and the phone fell out of the loose grip of my hands.

Rhys laughed. "I told you that I'm super scary."

I didn't react. I just stared at my phone where some vague mumbling could be heard that sounded like my name.

"Are you okay?" Suddenly Rhys was in front of me. That was fast. His dark brown eyes stared at me. He had grabbed my phone.

I took a deep breathe. My senses seemed to stop spiralling out of control and I could finally focus in on my surroundings. "Yes," I answered. "I'm fine," I added when I noticed his concerned expression.

I took the phone out of his head. "Hey," I stated.

On other side, I also heard a breathe being let out. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

A long silence followed. "Why were they..." I trailed off not completely sure if I really wanted to ask that.

"The governor said something about them being young and that they should have a life. But..." Scarlet hesitated. The pause was long. "But I also looked at the third credit card. He also paid a lot of money to the governor."

"You think..." I trailed off again.

"It's a little bit too big of a coincidence."

I let out a big breath. Another long silence followed between the two of us. We had known that something bigger had been behind this. After all, using a plane as a threat seemed to have been a little bit out of reach for two simple mechanics, especially since it had happened when they were in prison. Boris Flores would be the perfect candidate.

"Don't do anything stupid," Scarlet suddenly said.

I blinked. I noticed that Rhys was still standing in front of me looking at me curiously with a concerned expression. "I won't."

"You better promise me that. We need more evidence first."

"I understand."

"You better." It was a silent threat. Scarlet wasn't the person that you wanted angry at you. I preferred Rhys' anger over hers any day.

"I guess that I should leave you to it," I said.

Scarlet chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so."

It was my cue to hang up the phone. Rhys still stood before me. He crossed his arms and stared at me. "So..."

"We need to find information about Boris Flores."

Rhys frowned. "Why exactly?"

"I think that he did something to seriously hurt me."