"We will find Alexander. He is our first problem right now," Irène says and we all look at her, not entirely convinced.

She takes out her phone and calls someone.

"Don't," she says through gritted teeth as soon as I hear a man say something inaudible on the other end.

I suddenly remember that she told me she killed her sister... I forgot with all that happened since then, but she never brought it up again.

"I need you to find someone and bring them to 4479 Melville Street, rental garage 107."

"What are you doing?" I whisper and she whispers for me to shut the fuck up.

After she hangs up, Dominic turns around.

"Are we going back there? Is it safe this soon?"

"They don't know where we are anymore. They won't expect us to go back." She puts down the phone. "We start with Alex. We thought we needed a confession that he framed Derek... but it's even better." She smirks.

"He will dig his own grave and Felix's entire business. I will force him to say absolutely every detail about them and when my dad builds a case against them, not even one man will stand up to us."

I chuckle in admiration. Wow.

"We will be under witness protection and we will have to lay low and never be alone, but in a month every single one of them will be in prison," she continues.

"What if Alex doesn't know much?"

This plan could only work if Alex actually works with them.

"Doesn't Felix have anyone he cares about, Derek?" she asks with confidence.

Everyone has a person that they love so much it ends up fucking them up.

"He does actually..." he realizes as he turns the car to go back to Atlanta.

Approximately two hours away.

"Plan B, Plan C, and I can keep going." She smiles.

"You are fucking insane and it's so good," Dom says and she laughs.

"What's plan C?" I ask with surprise.

"You don't want to know."

~

Two hours later we finally arrived back in Atlanta, specifically, the garage Derek rented. Do I trust Iréne that we made the right choice to come back? No. My legs are literally shaking and I'm nervously sweating.

I rub my wet palms on my dress.

Right, I'm still wearing this damn dress. And to think it's only been a day but it feels like ages.

We are supposed to wait outside the garage and they take Alexander to us... but it's weird. Irene's family is incredibly strange. And unlawful, but I guess you cannot deal with kidnapping, torturing, and forced confession the legal way.

"If I piss off this blondie, will she get me kidnapped?" Dominic asks in amusement and Irène shoots him a scary look. She is amused by it, slightly. I know her too well at this point.

Twenty minutes later a minivan stops near the garage doors. They take out Alexander blindfolded and unconscious.

How the fuck did they find him?

"He really was at his parents' home vacation, and this idiot was alone. So easy," she explains as if she read my mind.

"Is your dad the Italian mafia?" Dom asks as we take poor Alex inside the garage and Irène greets the man driving the minivan.

"God no, we are french," Irène answers.

I look at Alexander and I can't believe I considered him a friend. I truly cared about him and he was fucking up my life all this time, and for what?

A sick obsession, he didn't really like me. He hated that he couldn't have me, that I wasn't falling for him like every other girl despite being so close to him. A huge kick to his ego.

I wonder how many lies he told me besides the "my first love died" sob story I bought. Even Shanice told me that wasn't true.

I stare at Derek as he ties Alex's wrists together, he is supposed to look normal. We should probably film it in selfie mode so it looks natural. But his bruised face is a dead giveaway.

I can't believe how badly Derek punched him, he told me he was going to be careful with his wound and he wasn't.

Well, even if it looks forced, Irene's family has enough power to make the confession get to court and once we have accurate details of everything Felix did and the other warehouses filled with drugs, we will be safe. Even if Alex doesn't go to prison, threatening him will be enough. He is such a coward.

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Derek asks me after he finishes tying Alex's legs to the chair.

I nod coldly. I don't feel comfortable talking to him right now and he can tell. He looks away.

"How long before he wakes up?" Dom asks Irène.

"Probably ten minutes."

Exactly as she said, ten minutes later he wakes up.

"God! You look horrible," she mocks him as we all look at his wounded face. He deserves it. "See? So easy to get you back here."

Alexander only looks at me, ignoring everyone else. My heart starts beating fast and slamming against my ribcage, even if he is tied with thick ropes—just like I was. I can't stop thinking about the real but crude look on his face when he followed me outside. He knew that I knew. There was no pretending anymore. I can only imagine what he would do to me if we were alone.

The air is tense, almost choking and everyone here knows he is only looking at me like I'm the prey, like I'm the one getting tortured.

Derek walks to him and grabs his face, forcing him to look at him. He leans in and whispers something we can't hear.

Alex looks at the wall as soon as Derek steps away. What the fuck did he tell him?

"Let's not waste time," Derek says as he instructs Dominic to grab the phone.

"Let him hold the phone so it looks genuine."

Irene takes out her gun and she shows it to Alex as Derek unties his hands. Hopefully, he won't attack him.

I spoke too soon, the moment his hands are free, he tries to hit Derek in the shoulder, near where he was shot. He knows it still hurts him.

Dominic runs to him and grabs Alex by his collar and he spits on his face. "Relax, dude," Dom says in his usual calm tone but the violence of his grab is anything but chill.

Alex wipes Dom's spit off his face and calms down.

"You know where those fingers have been," Alex says to me and my skin crawls remembering that I let him finger me two years ago.

I regret everything, I regret doing cocaine with him that night, and my dad died a little after it happened. I should have gone with my parents to grandma's house.

Derek is about to punch him again but I grab his arm. "Stop defending me," I say annoyed. He is going to ruin the plan, Alex will be filled with blood once again and the confession won't look genuine.

Derek laughs bitterly, he puts his hands in the air defenseless. "Whatever you want."

Why are we acting like this... why am I angry at him.

Dominic hands him the phone in camera mode.

"Don't do anything stupid," Irène mutters as she points the gun to his thigh.

The phone has no wifi and signal so he won't be able to call for help. And if he screams, no one will hear him here.

"We know you work for Felix," I say and Alexander suddenly throws the phone in my direction aiming for the face. I move away and it falls to the ground.

Derek walks to him and he doesn't care that I want him to stop defending me, he straight up wraps his hands around Alex's neck and despite his wound hurting, he chokes Alexander for thirty seconds, leaving him struggling for his mercy.

He lets go of him and he looks at me. I hold the gaze and don't say anything else.

"O- kay, okay, I'll do it," Alex says in defeat while panting, and touching his neck.

"You are going to tell everything, understood?"

Alexander nods and he presses start. We don't make any noise and I realize the garage gray walls might look a bit suspicious in the video but Irene said to not worry about it.

"I am Alexander Williams, I live in Atlanta and go to Clark Atlanta University. One year and a half ago I framed Derek Forster with twenty-eight grams of high purity cocaine. I repeatedly bought Rohypnol to drug Ver-"

"SHUT UP," I yell without any way of stopping myself. It's impulsive but I don't want to make a report against that, I don't want to go to court for something I should have done to my rapist. I'm not ready.

They all look at me confused and I try to speak and explain myself but I fail. Derek takes the phone out of his hands and deletes the video.

"Let's try again, okay?" Derek says to me in a soft voice and he gives the phone back to Alex. "Don't mention Veronica."

"I am A- Alexander Williams, I-I live-," Alex stutters as he looks around frantically and Derek grabs the phone again, deleting the video.

"Do it right, piece of shit."

I knew we would have to do several takes before getting it right.

"I am Alexander Williams, I live in Atlanta and go to Clark Atlanta University. The guilt is consuming me and I'm ready to come clean-"

"Do we really want him to get less time based on how remorseful he feels?" Irene interrupts and we agree. He doesn't feel guilty at all, and he is going to say everything he did with pride.

"I am Alexander Williams, I live in Atlanta and go to Clark Atlanta University. One year and a half ago I framed Derek Forster with twenty-eight grams of high purity cocaine. I repeatedly bought Rohypnol to drug random girls and I work for Fernando Hendrix. He repeatedly used me for information and finding sellers for drugs, even underage teenagers. I-" Suddenly he stops and looks at us scared.

"They are going to kill me, please," Alexander begs.

"Keep filming," Irene says through gritted teeth in a monotone but cold voice as she points the gun at his head.

He repeats everything he said till now with pride in his voice—we forced him. "They operate in several warehouses in Georgia and near states, their most used one is on street 2715 Rivendell Drive, It's filled with cocaine and several other drugs and I know several people who work with him; Jonathan Levi, Paul Dempsey, and Nathaniel Conley.

Well, with this information he won't go back to college, and I think his days of freedom are over, unless he gets a miracle lawyer, considering he is fairly rich.

Irène sends the video confession to all of us so we are sure no one loses it.

"I'll give this to my dad."

"Are you sure he is going to do anything about it?" I ask.

"Well, he sent his trusted men to kidnap this idiot, didn't he?"

Fair.

We blindfold Alex again and we throw him in the car. We will drop him off at a random street. He will be fine, we gave him back our phone.

Suddenly Derek groans in pain as he gets in the driving seat, I stop to check on him. I open the car door.

"You should rest. I'll drive," I say.

"I'm fine."

"Rest."

"I'm fine," he replies coldly again and I roll my eyes as I slam the door harder than I should.

When I'm about to get in the backseat I realize I don't want to be near Alexander so I sit in the front, forcing Dominic to go behind.

Derek sighs when I sit next to him. He turns the music on.

"Why are you acting like this?" I mutter annoyed and as low as I can so Irène and Dom don't listen to us.

"Why am I acting the way you're acting? Good question," he says sarcastically and I roll my eyes again. My legs now face the window as I try to put as much distance from him as I can.

"Fuck you," I mouth as I stare out the window. He didn't hear me.

"Where are we going now?" Dom asks as he yawns. It's late but at least we solved our problem today. I can just go back to sleep.

"I'm going back to my dorm," I say annoyed.

"Until we give the police the confession, Alex will still be on campus-" Derek tries to say.

"And you care... why?" I ask annoyed. He is cold to me and then he worries for me?

"You two are acting like children today," Dominic says annoyed. "And that's a lot coming from me." Irène laughs but Derek and I don't find it as amusing.

I didn't listen to him, that night I went back to my dorm with Irène.