Give Me Courage (Give Me Series #4)

20 - Tick Tock

I sharply breathed in through my nose, finding a harder time to remain calm in this situation. As if Isaac understood how I was feeling, he placed his left hand on my shoulder, almost like he was prepared to hold me back if I suddenly exploded in anger. Stiles slyly shook his head when he saw my clenched jaw, begging me with his eyes not to do anything.

"But they do help when you need a favor," Parrish quickly piped up. His eyes locked onto Brunski. "Like, how a month ago, Canaan P.D. helped you get home after blowing 0.1 on a breathalyzer."

My mouth fell slack along with the attitude I was growing.

"No..." Stiles breathed, matching my shocked expression.

A small, defeated look passed on Brunski's face. He grabbed his keys and shoved them into Stiles' chest. "All right. I'm not against a little quid pro quo. Not at all, not at all." A lingering look was shot in our directions before he stormed off down the hallway.

Amazed, Stiles gawked at the back of Brunski's head until he rounded a corner and disappeared. He laid one hand on Parrish's shoulder and used the other to pat his chest. "You. You, I like you." He handed the ring of keys to Parrish to unlock Meredith's door. "I'm gonna keep you."

Parrish unlocked the door with the correct key after a few seconds, carefully pushing it open. He stepped off to the side, allowing all of us to shuffle inside first. Meredith's room was smaller than I expected with only two twin sized beds on either wall and a desk in between them with a single lamp on top of it. My strides slowed once I saw Meredith sitting on the left bed over Lydia's shoulder. Nothing surrounded her on the bed, almost making me wonder if she was waiting for us this whole time.

I stood with my back close to the door, a feeling of uneasiness sinking into my skin, one that I assumed belonged to being in a room with Meredith. Isaac and Aiden stood on either side of me, choosing to let Lydia be the one to step closer to the fellow banshee, considering this was more her area of expertise.

"Hey, Meredith," Lydia cautiously spoke to the redhead on the bed. She walked further into the small room until she was able to sit down on the opposite bed.

Meredith remained motionless on the bed, eyes never wavering from her intent gaze on the white wall. I glanced at Aiden from the corner of my eye, slightly raising a brow at her odd behavior. He matched my look with a small shrug of his left shoulder before his gaze flickered back to Meredith and Lydia. Stiles moved around the room until he was standing near me, occasionally shifting on the balls of his feet.

"We, um," Lydia glanced back at the rest of us. "We need your help with something. Do you think you could help us with this?" She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out the second part of the dead pool, holding it out in front of her for Meredith to look at it.

Slowly, Meredith tore her gaze away from the wall to meet Lydia's curious eyes. "I can't tell you," she whispered.

All of us glanced at each other in the room, bewildered by her response.

Lydia frowned. "Meredith, what do you mean you can't tell us?"

"We just need the third key, Meredith." I tentatively said to her, bringing her attention onto me. I waited until she looked in my direction. "You can give it to us in numbers, letters--"

"-- hieroglyphs--" Stiles added.

"-- whatever way you want," I finished with a stolen look at Stiles.

Meredith shook her head, mumbling, "I can't."

I briefly closed my eyes, sighing.

"Then why did you give us the second key?" Lydia demanded.