Yasmine and Christian's conversation was nearly impossible for me to hear. Strict official police business—his words, not mine. So, I'd been condemned to the outside of his office. He knew better than to think I wouldn't try to eavesdrop at some point though.

"Thank you for your time—" Christian's voice, alongside the chairs scraping from inside the room, sent me into panic mode. I hissed and moved away from the door. The knob jiggled just as I stood straight against the wall. Yasmine, followed by Mark at her side, and my brother lagging behind the two, exited the room.

The trio halted beside me. Christian held out a small white card. His business card, I assumed.

"If you see or hear anything else, don't hesitate to let me know, okay?" he said.

"Sure." Yasmine shrugged. But Mark was the one to take the card from Christian's hands. The two siblings nodded at each other in silence, then turned their backs to us.

Well, some goodbye that was.

I turned to Christian as soon as they were out of earshot. "So?"

"So what?" He folded his arms.

"What was that about?" I frowned.

"She's claiming there was a stalker now." I followed Christian's eyes as they stalked the pair to the lobby doors leading outside. "I'm pretty sure the brother told her to come clean." I followed along with a nod. Not very shocking, if that was the case.

"Don't you think that's weird? Or suspicious?"

He massaged his shoulders and sighed. "I don't know yet."

As I opened my mouth to respond, a bright glistening object caught my attention from behind Christian's head. I looked over his shoulder, my face scrunched at what I could now see was a plain gold bracelet. The deja vu creeping up on me was a reminder of Emerald Lynn's bracelet—back when I found hers in the lake a few months ago. And nothing good came of that.

"Who's bracelet is that?" I rushed inside Christian's office.

"Bracelet? Where are you going!?" I could feel Christian's presence behind me. He rushed to my side as if there was something to panic about. I was moving pretty fast, so I couldn't blame him for possibly acting on high alert. Regardless, I crouched beside the chair with Christian hovering over me.

"Someone left this here?" When I lifted back up, I raised the bracelet to Christian's eye level.

His eyes widened. "Shit. One of them probably dropped that."

"No, not shit," I repeated, shaking my head.

"Language," Christian hissed.

I ignored him and said, "This just might be what I needed."

"Elaborate," he said, crossing his arms again.

"Close the door."

Unease settled in the pits of Christian's eyes, nonetheless, he followed my instructions. When he returned to his spot, his arms were crossed again. His back was to the door.

I nodded in approval, then continued, "I don't know if I've been able to control my visions better or if they've been able to control me better but I think I'm learning to navigate them more. And they're getting stronger. . . A lot stronger."

"Meaning?" Christian asked. Very slowly, might I add.

"This gift or whatever . . . it's becoming more than what it used to be." I fidgeted with my fingers before staring at the palms of my hands. "And so, I want to test something out."

"Right now?" Christian's eyebrows furrowed.

"Mhm-hmm." I hummed and sat in the chair.

Yasmine's ties to Nathan intrigued me more than I'd like to admit. So, I wanted to see if I could dig into her past for anything else. If I could get my visions to cooperate, that could be a huge game changer for me. And maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to learn more about the woman in my dreams, and the faces that haunt me alongside hers nearly every night. After what I witnessed earlier from Yasmine's memories, I'd take anything I could get.

I let out a quiet breath. I then closed my hand around the bracelet. Who knows? Maybe this bracelet was useless. It could've been brand new and had nothing to do with the situation at hand. Still, my gut told me otherwise. And so far, my gut hardly steered me wrong.

"Anything?" Christian's voice was distracting.

"Shh," I whispered. "I need to focus." I shut my eyes as Mr. Jefferson always instructed when I lounged around in his cafe. It was time I put his teachings into practice.

The silence was overwhelming. Not a feeling, not a sound.

I sighed and opened my eyes.

"Nothing?" Christian quipped again.

I shook my head. "Nope, nada."

Christian frowned but said nothing. I was about to hand the bracelet over to him. After all, it belonged back to its rightful owner. However, an idea struck me.

"What are you doing?" Christian watched me slip the bracelet onto my wrist. I flexed my hand and twisted the bracelet until it snugly fit. As I went to answer Christian's confusion, my heart racing told me I had more important matters to attend to.

"Holy shit, I can't believe Nathan did that." Whispers ensued around me. I looked around to find three other faces clouding my head. Robert, Sterling, and Courtney? Well, that was an interesting bunch hanging together—if not the most interesting. Robert looked more annoyed than anything. That much told me he wasn't voluntarily hanging around Sterling and Courtney.

Courtney whispered in response to Sterling's comment. "Hey, do you guys think he'll get kicked out?" It'd seem all of the group home tenants were outside. This had to be after they were all vacated to their rooms. The three of them were huddled by the lake. Courtney and Sterling were seated on the grass while Robert stood with his arms folded.

"Probably not." Robert shrugged.

"Why not?" Courtney asked, baffled.

"Because he'll just get a slap on the wrist and some useless counseling like he always does."

Sterling nodded. "Yeah, Robert's probably right."

"No Sterling, I know I'm right. That guy has some serious anger issues and none of the counselors give a shit. They give him a strike, then he's right back at it again with no repercussions. Fucking useless pricks. All of them."

As much as I tried to focus on their conversation, I couldn't help but notice the other five faces sitting together by a nearby tree. Well, more like hiding and eavesdropping. Nina, Yasmine, Fiona, Reggie, and Kane. At least, I could only assume the last three were our first three victims.

"Those three have nothing better to do." Fiona made a stank face.

"Robert's got some nerve talking. He has just as many anger issues as Nathan does," Nina rolled her eyes, adding. Yasmine looked between the two, quiet as a mouse. The bracelet around her wrist was the same as the one around mine. She twisted it around slowly, biting her lip.

"Ignore them," Reggie said.

"Why'd you anger him, Yasmine? You know he has a short temper," Fiona mumbled.

"Are you guys serious right now?" Yasmine's eyes widened.

"She's kind of right, Yasmine. You know how Nathan is," Kane intervened.

"So, this is my fault now? Nobody told Nathan to lose his shit and break Joel's nose!" No one said anything. Not even Nina. Yasmine scoffed and nodded her head. "Wow, so him getting in trouble is somehow on me. Great, thanks a lot guys." Yasmine stomped to her feet.

Reggied sighed, then frowned. "Yasmine, don't be like that. Where are you going?"

"To find my brother and some new friends with some better fucking support!" she retorted.

"Wait up!" Nina stumbled to her feet, following after Yasmine. But Yasmine was fuming. She marched into the group home and up to her room. Nina slipped into the room behind her.

"Come on, Yas. Let's not. They're jerks," Nina huffed.

"You—!" Yasmine turned and pointed. "I always have your back, Nina. You didn't even have mine back there. What, do you think I shouldn't have broken up with him too?"

"What? No! Of course, not. He deserved it." Nina held her hands up in surrender. "But. . ."

"But what?" Yasmine hissed.

"Listen, I'm just saying! I don't know, next time, I think you should be more careful, you know? Nathan's unpredictable. . ." Nina shrugged. Yasmine side-eyed Nina for several awkward seconds. The negative energy sunk the room in its pits.

"Right." Yasmine frowned. "Sure."

"Are you mad at me now?" Nina frowned.

"I just need to clear my head." Yasmine sighed. She snatched a thin sweater off her bed before storming out of the room again. The conversation ended there, and so did my vision. It wasn't hard to feel the guilt bleeding from Yasmine's pores. She felt bad that Joel got hurt. And guilt makes people do strange things.

"You saw something?" Christian asked the first thing on his mind when I settled down again.

"Christian," I started, realization dawning over me, "what's the word on Joel?"

"Joel. . ." He thought long and hard. Then, he snapped his fingers. "Oh! Joel. We . . . haven't learned much about him, come to think of it."

"Is it possible he's dead?"

Christian shrugged. "We're not even sure if he's here."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're not sure if he's in Lake Bellinor at all."

"As in . . . he lives elsewhere?"

Christian yet again shrugged. "Don't know. There's been no trace of him for years. When Logan and I searched for him, he was practically a ghost."

"A ghost?" What the hell? That was a first.

"Was he in your vision again?"

"He was. . . Nathan broke his nose and Yasmine saw everything. I think you need to question the group home members about Joel, and find out where the hell he is." Because if Joel couldn't be found, that meant he was really good at hiding or he'd been found a long time ago.