Page 169 of I Will Mend You

Amethyst’s breath catches. “We need to do something.”

I nod, my mind racing. “We will. Get dressed.”

EIGHTY

AMETHYST

The next several seconds are a scramble to put on my clothes. My hands shake so badly I can barely fasten my leather skirt. Even my corset crushes my lungs, forcing my breaths to shallow. I’d completely forgotten about Relaney’s existence until now, assuming the strange woman who lived next door on Parissi Drive was still in prison for the cannabis farm she’d created in her basement.

Xero slips on his suit pants and boots, but his shirt is a lost cause since I ripped it open. He exits the summer house bare-chested and helps me into his car.

Silence stretches out for the tense seconds it takes to exit the vineyard. Each bump in the cobblestones sends jolts through my gut and rattles my nerves. I ball my fists so tightly that it hurts.

Worry gnaws at my insides. I clutch at my chest, not believing those bastards targeted my neighbor just to use her as a pawn in Dolly’s misguided vendetta. Hasn’t Relaney suffered enough?

Xero’s car tears out of the vineyard onto a narrow, winding country lane. He’s struggling to stay composed, but his white knuckles and the veins on his temples telegraph his fury.

The fear that gnaws at my insides fights a losing battle against the anger boiling in my veins. My gaze drops to the phone he left on the center console.

“What’s in the video?” I ask, my voice tight.

“Take a look. Maybe you’ll spot something useful.”

I pick up the phone and click the URL, which directs to a private social media page. My nostrils flare. There’s a reason why Dolly didn’t post publicly. This bullshit would probably get her arrested.

The screen lights up with a POV shot of a man walking into a police precinct and signing over some papers. A door at the back opens, and Relaney steps out, clad in a jumpsuit that hangs off her skinny frame.

My breath catches. She’s barely recognizable without her round glasses, and her blonde afro is now a backcombed mess. Dark circles ring her eyes, and she’s lost so much weight that her facial bones have become even more prominent.

“Who are you?” Relaney asks, her voice wavering.

“A friend of Amethyst Crowley,” replies Locke’s snide voice. “She felt really terrible about your arrest and raised money to get you out of jail.”

My heart plummets into my stomach. I fight back a slew of memories from the asylum to focus on Relaney.

Locke’s hand comes into the frame as he guides her through the precinct and towards its exit. The video cuts to her approaching a black SUV. Its back door opens, revealing a grinning Dolly.

Nausea churns in my gut. I glance away at the sight of her psychotic features, only for the scene to shift to Relaney in her living room, clad only in her underwear and hogtied across thethree mattresses on her floor. Tears stream down her pale face, and her lips move but make no sound. The dim lighting casts sinister shadows, accentuating her terror.

The camera pans to Dolly, posing with a knife between two masked men. “Show yourself,” Dolly says. “Or Relaney becomes our next star.”

Guilt presses down on my chest, crushing tighter than any corset. I suck in a trembling breath, but it barely reaches the tops of my lungs. Dolly has completely lost her mind. She’s putting every woman connected to me in danger.

“I’m going to be sick,” I mutter. “Relaney got dragged into this nightmare because of me.”

“No, it’s because my father and Dolly are vicious psychopaths,” Xero replies, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel.

We merge onto the highway, and he picks up speed. Streetlights flash by in a blur of white and yellow. I barely register the passing scenery, my mind flooding with intrusive thoughts.

If I’d continued ignoring Relaney, she would never have become a target. I only stayed over at her house because I thought mine was haunted. Now, her life hangs in the balance.

Tears sting my eyes and blur my vision. “You’re wrong. She got arrested because of me.”

“She was growing cannabis in her basement,” Xero says, his tone gruff, but barely penetrates my fog of guilt.

They only discovered the weed farm because Xero murdered Chappy. If he hadn’t been so psychotically overprotective, then the police wouldn’t have searched her house and arrested Relaney. She would still be surrounded by her strange men.

I shake off that thought. This isn’t Xero’s fault. Not completely. The blame lies with Delta and his cohorts.

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