Page 58 of The Sinner's Bargain

There was no answer.

I yanked harder on the door. What the fuck kind of lock was this? I was thinking when Cyrus hurried in. He started to pull his gun to blow the latch.

“You’ll hit her.” I snapped, stalking to where a wooden chair was propped against the wall just inside the door. I dragged it over and climbed up to peer over the top.

I saw the chair in one corner and Blue bundled up against the other. All I saw was the top of her head pulled between her raised knees and the arms looped over top as if protecting it from some invisible blow.

“Blue? Get up, sweetheart. Give me your hand. I’ll pull you up.”

She doesn’t move, but I could hear the jagged heaves of her lungs. The sound of panic and terror. It was the sound of someone holding on to their sanity by a thread.

I didn’t pause to think. I heaved out of my coat and tossed the leather to the ground. Bracing my hands along the upper edges, I hauled myself up and over, aiming my descent on the chair just beneath me, praying it held my weight when I landed on it with my right foot. I hopped off before the thing could splinter beneath me and landed in the cramped space with Blue.

“Hey, easy.” I bent the best I could within the confines and touched her arm lightly.

Blue flinched but didn’t resist when I pulled her into my lap. Her legs instinctively locked around my waist. Her arms around my neck. Both stiff and trembling.

“It’s all right now, love. I got you.”

“I can’t breathe,” she groaned into my neck. Each word shredded around a heaving wheeze.

I rubbed the shuddering curve of her spine over the heat coming off the blazer in waves. She seemed to radiate at a temperature that almost burned my palm.

“I’ll get you out,” I promised. “Just hang on.” I pushed to my feet with her still clasped in my arms. “Can you stand?”

At her slight nod, I gingerly set her down on her feet, but kept her securely against my chest when I turned to face the door.

“It won’t open,” she rasped against the material of my top. “I tried...”

Without thinking, I pressed my lips to the satin strands at the top of her head before turning to face the barricade.

Out of respect for Mariposa, I checked the latch. I worked the slide, trying to unhook it. I even gave the door a shake to loosen the hold. When my attempts failed and Blue hiccupped in my arms, my patience took a backseat.

“Hold on, love.” I told her. “Back!” was all the warning I gave when I pulled back a leg and kicked the metal.

The snap and crunch of the bolt coming off the frame filled the room seconds before the door burst open and slammed back. No one had moved the chair I’d used to climb over and it went sailing sideways across the carpet with a muffled thud.

Amari gaped from me to the broken door and the shattered lock lying on the floor. Her lips twisted with indignation before her dark eyes found mine.

“Are you serious—?”

“Be quiet if you know what’s good for you,” I growled when her mouth opened with no doubt her usual bullshit. Her vendetta against me could fuck right off with her. Any other day, I’d let her cheek slide because of what happened to Elena, but this was too far. “If you deliberately put her in there to get back at me, even the respect I have for your mother won’t save you from what I’ll do to you. Now, get the fuck out. Now!”

Her visible recoil to my roar did not go unnoticed, but I didn’t give a fuck. She was three seconds away from getting a bullet between the eyes and ruining eight years of peace between her mother and I.

Being smart, Amari snapped on her heels and stomped with blunt defiance from the changing area. Cyrus followed after a jerk of my head for him to leave, too.

Once alone, I pulled the chair I’d knocked over upright and sat with the tiny, vibrating woman straddling my lap like a baby Kuala.

“Who was it?” I murmured into her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” was her raspy response.

“Not what I asked, love. Who was it? Who hurt you?” I pressed a kiss into the hammering little pulse at her neck. Her jawline. Her damp cheek. “I swear, sweetheart, I will make them suffer. I’ll make them beg at your feet for mercy. Just give me a name.”

Her arms only tightened around my shoulders. Her face wedged firmly against the side of my throat. I didn’t push but I wanted to.

“It wasn’t Amari’s fault,” she whispered after what felt like a million shuddering breaths getting torn from the very depths of her soul. “She tried to help. It was me. I ... I don’t like dark, small places. I can’t breathe and the walls...” she sucked in a shaky, serrated balloon of air. “I should have known I couldn’t do it, but I thought it would be different.”

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