Page 2 of Scars Run Deep

“But you could still do it? Still locate them?”

“Yes, but the risks are too high. You achieved what you set out to with this mission. We leave this location right now and all of that could become compromised. Don’t let emotion overrule you. Maintaining rational thought is key.”

“We’re not like the Head Infidels. Jonah, Asher, and I are brothers. We’re close. We look out for each other, we’re a unit. And Aurora is… she’s a part of that now. We’re not what you’re used to dealing with—those stone-cold motherfuckers.”

“I’ve already picked up on that.” She smiled kindly, then gestured at the armchair adjacent to the couch she was sitting on. “Come sit and talk to me. Distraction is key when things like this are in play, when we’re playing the waiting game. It helps, trust me.”

I came to a halt, then strode over to the armchair and slumped down.

“Talk about what?” I asked, with an edge, unable to check it in my current worried state.

She looked out at me from cleaning our guns. “When you entered that house, you didn’t go upstairs.”

I frowned. “Why would I? It didn’t need to be cleared. We knew it was empty—aside from you.”

“You didn’t even do that with the first floor either. You just followed a straight path to the living room, using that battery-powered lamp like a guiding light through the rest.”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“You were afraid of what you might see.” She eyed me steadily. “Evidence of that dollhouse from back in the day when it was in operation. What those women and men were subjected to, evidence of the squalor they lived in. And, most of all, any similarities it might have had to your mother’s current situation.”

I jolted at her analysis.

Before I could formulate a response, or even attempt a denial, or tell her to shut the fuck up and shut this conversational path down, she told me, “I spent time with her. Your father brought her over to the Monroe Estate several times when I was there with him. I got to know her well. We were friends.”

“Friends?”

“That’s right.”

“So, she knew who you really were, that you were really there undercover?”

“No. That couldn’t be disclosed to anyone.”

“Then how were you friends if you were keeping that massive secret from her?”

“Keeping things quiet doesn’t negate a friendship. Complete and utter honesty is rarely disclosed even between the closest of friends.”

“That’s a toxic way of looking at things.”

“Well, you should already be well familiar with that from your experiences with Asher.”

“What?”

“It’s doubtful he’ll ever share all that he knows, that there will ever come a time when the barrier he has in play will come down.”

“Is that your roundabout way of saying you believe he’s like his father?”

“There are similarities, yes. And to do this, to hit at the Head Infidels, and then take it as far as destroying them, he’ll have to draw on those more than ever. Unfortunately, that’s the price to pay for what you want to do. It takes a monster to destroy a monster.”

Her words brought the memory of my warning to Aurora not long ago to the forefront of my mind.

“I told you I believe you can survive this. But you won’t come out of it unscathed. It’ll drag you into the dark.”

“We’re already monsters. That die was cast long ago.”

She shook her head. “You have the makings of monsters. You operate on the fringes of the dark. You’re not yet fully immersed. This mission will test that. It will push it to its limits.”

I shoved my hand through my hair. “This ominous warning of yours is pointless, because it already is what it is. There’s no going back now.”

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