Half truth

Chapter Nine

I tossed and turned all night before giving up, pushing my sheets off, and rushing downstairs. If nothing else, I needed to know who brought those boxes. There were cameras everywhere in this building and I knew my father saved footage. Well, at least according to the conversation I overheard him having with Lana’s parents that night. He could’ve been lying. Dad wasn’t beyond that. When I reached the lobby, Gary’s head snapped up from behind the desk.

“You’re up early.”

“Or late.”

“Miss Bastón, you need your rest,” he said, frowning. “Your father—”

“Yes, I know, wouldn’t approve. I need something important. Do you have footage of last week?”

“Um . . . “

“I just want to see something. Please, Gary. It’s important. I only need to see footage of my floor, nothing else.”

“I can do that.” He stood up and disappeared into the office behind him. I walked around the desk and sat down in one of the chairs. He set a USB drive on the table when he came back. “This is last week. I’ve been dividing them by week and saving them individually as per Mr. Bastón’s orders. After the whole thing happened with Ms. Ly, we figured it was best to have it all on file.”

“Lana didn’t live here,” I said, frowning up at him.

“She might as well have, with how often she was here.”

“Doing what?”

“Visiting someone would be my guess. A lot of students live here, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I’ve noticed.”

I thought of Logan down the hall from me. I hadn’t even seen him or known he lived here until last night. Maybe I should be paying closer attention to people. I inserted the USB into the drive and set it on speed. If I saw something I needed, I’d pause and rewind. I yawned on day two of footage. Rubbed my eyes on day three. Day four and five were nonconsequential. Then, I saw Logan walking out of the elevator. I stopped it there and played it on regular speed. He was with a girl. I rolled my eyes. What else was new? I hadn’t seen her before. She had short curly hair and fair skin and they looked like they were arguing. I waited on bated breath, fully expecting this to turn into yet another make-out session. Instead, she walked back into the elevator and he stomped toward his apartment. Odd.

I kept fast-forwarding. Shortly after, the door to the emergency exit by my apartment opened and two people wearing black cloaks walked out. I gasped, holding my hand over my rapidly beating heart. They were both carrying one box each. Boxes that clearly said Lincoln on them. Boxes that I was positive they were about to drop off by the door. One of them took a key out and unlocked my door. They both walked back out not even five seconds later, still cloaked, but with no boxes.

“Can I get footage for this same day and time in the lobby?” I asked Gary.

“Sure, let me check.”

He disappeared and reappeared again quickly, with another USB drive. He set that one beside me. I fast forwarded through the entire thing until I got to that date and time and waited. People were in and out, in and out, none wearing cloaks. What the hell? I searched for someone I would recognize, but that didn’t work either. I saw the girl with the short curly hair that had been arguing with Logan upstairs, but she was dressed normally, in jeans and a sweater. No cloak. I sighed, leaning back in the seat and rubbing my face.

“I need a locksmith to come and change the locks to my apartment,” I told Gary.

“Of course. I’m on it,” he said. “Anything else?”

“No.”

“Will you be up there? You need to get some rest, Miss. Bastón. You have bags under your eyes.”

“I know. I know.” I shut my eyes.

I was so incredibly tired. I thought of Logan, who had offered if I needed anything and said I could go to his apartment. Would it be weird if I went there and just slept? Maybe. I was doing it anyway. I stood, thanked Gary, and headed back up. When I got to my floor, I knocked on Logan’s door, softly at first, and then louder. He opened, shirtless, with a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. He frowned.

“Amelia?” he said around the toothbrush.

It was the first time he’d ever sounded ridiculous. He looked ridiculous, albeit hot as fuck, with his hair sticking up everywhere and those grey sweatpants that clung low on his hips.

“I’m tired. I need a bed. Or a couch. Or the floor. I don’t care,” I said. He jogged over to the kitchen sink and spit, turning on the water. I made a face as I walked in. “That is disgusting.”

“What’s wrong with your bed, or couch, or floor?”

“It’s been compromised. I’m having a locksmith change the locks but I can’t keep my eyes open. I feel like I’m going to—”

“My bed is empty,” he said, walking over to his bedroom.

We had a similar layout, but my view was better, and I had two bedrooms, where he only had one. Same kitchen and living room though. His walls were dark gray, where mine were white. He had posters on the walls of different movies. His bedroom walls were bare, except for a shelf that seemed to go across the entire room and was filled with trophies and medals. He must have brought every single momentum they’d given him since birth. I must have said that aloud, because he chuckled.

“It keeps me working harder.”

“Oh. Wow.” I blinked hard, yawning. “It would make me want to quit.”

He chuckled again. “There’s the bed. Obviously. Don’t worry, I don’t do dirty things on it, so you’re safe.”

“What?” I frowned, then blinked fast. “Oh. Oh. I hadn’t even considered that.”

“It’s a germ-free zone. Well, my germs are on it, but you’ll have to live with that.”

“Sure.” I waved him off as I kicked off my slides and climbed into bed. “Holy crap this is comfortable.”

“Thanks.”

“Really comfortable.” I snuggled into the pillow, pulling the sheets tighter to my chin. “It smells like you.”

“I’m going to the gym,” he said. “I’ll be back in an hour and a half. You’ll be fine?”

“I’ll be sleeping.” I yawned again. “Thanks, Logan.”

“Any time, Amelia.”

With that, I shut my eyes and fell asleep.