The Last Time I Cried Your Name novel Chapter 263

Jay came in from outside. His face, always unreadable, was suddenly tense. He moved fast, carrying the kind of energy that meant something had gone wrong.

Jackson quietly left the dining room and slipped into the living room, snapping a picture of the recipe he’d just written down to send to Petty.

Jay hurried straight to Franco and lowered his voice.

"Franco, things aren’t looking good with Hans."

***

Petty messaged Jackson for recipes first thing that morning. She was already planning, hoping to whip up some soup for Hans once he made it past the critical twenty-four hours after surgery. The idea was to quietly wow him, win him over in a way she’d never managed before.

She knew she was a disaster in the kitchen. If she was being brutally honest, she didn’t have any cooking skills at all.

Back when Franco needed taking care of, she’d been overflowing with confidence. She’d made meals and soups for him, believing in herself just because Franco always finished his food. He never said if it was tasty or terrible, and with each meal she got a little more enthusiastic. One day, feeling particularly ambitious, she’d even announced she wanted to cook for Franco’s grandma next.

Franco, blind and gentle, had stopped her hand. His voice was low and smooth, almost teasing. “Isn’t poisoning me enough?”

It wasn’t until she’d tasted her own food that she realized just how horrible it was.

Petty got lost in those memories, only for reality to crash back as an alarm blared at Hans’s bedside.

She rushed from the room just as the medical team poured in, crowding the bed.

A sharp, monotonous beeping cut through everything.

“Blood pressure’s plummeting… The patient’s in shock. Internal bleeding!”

Petty went cold all over. Her hands shook so much she nearly dropped her phone. The screen lit up, showing Jackson’s soup recipe, a tiny thread of normal in a world gone sideways.

Through her haze, she watched the staff gather around Hans and then wheel him out. She had no idea where they were taking him.

Where were they taking Hans?

In the wide, quiet hallway, Parrish answered, his voice steady.

“Parrish, we just re-interrogated the woman from the holding cell. Turns out someone hired her. A contract hit.”

Petty’s eyes went wide and she shot to her feet.

That uneasy feeling she’d had finally made sense. Parrish must have noticed it too, which was why he’d sent people to dig deeper.

“Who?” Parrish’s voice got cold, sharp.

Petty’s left ear had been damaged before. Most days, her hearing was patchy. Sometimes she could only catch about seventy percent of normal conversation.

But right now, whether it was the adrenaline or pure desperation, she heard the name from the phone as clear as a bell.

“Laura.”