More Than Meets The Eye

More Than Meets The Eye -24-

The answers she had received were grim but they were exactly what she wanted.

Now that Jenna was dead, Autumn had expected for herself to be left alone as she never really did get that far with her snooping and detective research – but she had been wrong. She knew about the Lucas family, the Viper Cult, the whole assassination thing involved with Jenna.

Yet the most crucial thing she couldn’t find out – nor did Tristan know – was why. Why had Jenna been killed? More importantly who had killed her?

Hadn’t Sage said it was from the Lucas family? Did Tristan, Gill or their father have a grudge against Jenna, enough to kill her? They were assassins and had the crafts to do what they wanted.

Such mystery still surrounded the whole case . . .

Now all she needed to do was somehow turn herself in without Tristan, Will, Opal or Noelle intervening; and her parents – especially her mother – would never have to find out.

But she couldn’t do it so soon. It was too suspicious and Tristan told her – basically gave her – a heads-up about the timing and planning of her kidnapping; it wouldn’t be done until two weeks from then on when things had seriously settled down both for Autumn and the other celebrities still hectic over Jenna.

It gave Autumn just enough time to attend the funeral, come up with a solid, foolproof plan to save her family, friends and herself from any further danger.

She sighed. She couldn’t believe she was about to take this on all by herself but she needed to; it was necessary in order for her friends and family to stay safe from all the underground criminal activity.

And from that wretched Viper Cult.

The very thought of such a despicable society made her blood boil. How dare they plan to kidnap her friends and her parents in exchange for Autumn? How dare they even threaten her!

Shaking her head, Autumn got to planning.

Everybody was allowed to cry, Autumn being no exception. Opal cried freely, Noelle was willing to cry and Will . . . he was definitely holding back tears but failing miserably.

Autumn? What about her? Why wasn’t she crying? She was the one who valued Jenna so much she wanted to dig deeper into the mystery of her death! She was the one who fought for Jenna . . . so why wasn’t she crying?

“Because there’s no need to cry over someone who is in a better place,” Autumn murmured to herself, feeling her chest tighten at the thought of Jenna. She huddled underneath the umbrella with Will’s arm wrapped around her waist securely. She leaned her head into the crook of his neck and mumbled to herself, grateful that she couldn’t be heard over the loud shower of rain pelting down at them.

It was true though. Jenna was obviously in danger when she was alive, breathing, walking and acting. She’s dead now . . .

Those three words made Autumn’s chest tighten painfully. She wheezed out a breath and waited for the pain to pass as the sleek coffin pelted with water was lowered into the deep grave. It saddened her that she wouldn’t be able to see Jenna’s smiling face in life; only in photos.

Autumn squeezed her eyes shut, mumbling to herself about how Jenna is safer dead than alive and was glad that Jenna wasn’t at least wanted by other more dangerous crooks. Or was she?

Don’t think like that, Autumn thought firmly.

The image of Jenna’s pale, waxy corpse atop of the velvet cushioning remained imprinted on the back of her eyelids as though she had just seen the body seconds before.