Page 59 of Prohibited

Stanley’s hand darted out and caught her face between his fingers, turning it back toward him. “I don’t know about ‘men’, darlin’, but I do know about me. And as far as you’re concerned, I do run the world.” Stanley let that sink in and stared down into the girl’s defiant, tawny eyes with his cold blue ones. “Now, you’re going to tell me everything you know about that fucking idiotic family of yours. And understand this: you’ll tell me the easy way, or you’ll tell me because I had to ask the hard way. But either way, you are going to tell me everything I want to know.”

She laughed in his face, a slightly hysterical sound, but the bravado nearly floored Roberts. Oh, to be young and stupid again. “I’ll never tell you anything. Kill me, go ahead. I would never betray my brother or my cousin.”

“You know,” Stanley said, straightening up slowly. He drained the glass and held it over her head to Andrews, who took it with his free hand. “I admit I was torn–the easy way would have meant a faster conclusion to this business. The hard way, though… I admit I have a weakness for the hard way.”

A dark, simmering heat entered Stanley’s unnaturally blue eyes as he looked down at the woman in the chair. He slowly leaned forward, placing both of his hands on the arms of the chair on either side of her, until he was almost nose to nose with her. Though she leaned away from him, she never looked away from him. The pale column of her throat worked as she swallowed hard, but the glare of defiance never left her face.

“Get the fuck away from me,” she said, in a low voice that was full of her effort to stay calm.

Roberts took a step forward and then stopped himself.

“Roberts,” Stanley said. “Andrews. Get the fuck out.”

“Wh–” Roberts started to say. “I don’t think–”

Stanley looked at him, anger leaching some of the heat out of his face. “Get the fuck out. The lady and I are going to spend some time alone together.”

“What do you mean–” the girl said, looking up at Stanley with real fear.

Andrews’ huge and merciless hand was suddenly biting into Roberts’ shoulder, steering him out of the room. Roberts ripped his eyes away from hers, trying to unsee the look of terror in her eyes. Telling himself there was nothing he could do. If he tried, he would get them both killed.

“No! No!” the young woman screamed behind him suddenly. “Please! Please don’t leave! You fucking– don’t– Please don’t leave me! You’re a fucking police man! Don’t you fucking touch me, youbastard, don’t– NO!”

The door closed behind him, muffling the screams on the other side, though he was sure they would live at maximum volume in his memory for the rest of his life.

He closed his eyes and breathed in and out through his nose, pinching the bridge of it and wishing he had a drink.

Something had to be done about Walter Stanley.

Chapter twenty-one

Ryan

Helplessness milked panic from Ryan’s bones as he leaned against the wall, chewing on his thumb nail. He would chew all of his fingers to bloody stumps by the time the night was through, that much was sure. He’d been pacing around the bedroom while Evelyn worked over Lindsay’s paler than usual body, but she’d snapped at him to cut it out because he was breaking her concentration.

Without question, Ryan obeyed. Perhaps in another state of mind, the sudden turn in who was giving the orders might have amused him. But all he could think about right now was the sheen of sweat on Lindsay’s face, the wrinkle of worry between Evelyn’s sleek brows, and the blood that stained everything crimson, so bright against the cool white of the room that Lindsay lay in.

Alex was perched by Lindsay’s side, eyes narrowed, watching every movement of Evelyn’s hands.

“Whisky,” she said to Alex softly as she’d done several times.

With a tenderness that Ryan didn’t believe was possible from Alex, he slipped one of his pale hands under Lindsay's red gold head and lifted it enough to wet his lips with whisky until he was able to open them enough to get some of the alcohol down.

“This is going to be a little uncomfortable,” she said. The calm command put Ryan at ease and made him have total confidence in what she was doing.

A Red Cross volunteer.

He wouldn’t have believed it of her, not for a second. With all of the panic concerning Lindsay’s injury, he hadn’t had time to process what this meant for her character. For what he thought about her.

He watched the shape of her, the way her dark short hair fell across her forehead while she very carefully stitched Lindsay’s wound closed, the very tip of her tongue between her teeth.

She had come back.

This fact echoed through him again and again. Now that they’d made it safely to Alex’s house and he had more time to process the whole event, he was stunned. Stunned. She could have run and he would have let her. He’d already relinquished her as lost, though he’d wanted to run after her.

Lindsay had needed him, though, and the terror that he could lose him just like he’d lost Tommy was more than he could handle.

But she’d come back.

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