Page 225 of Pretty Little Lies

“Are you thatcreative, Sherriff?” I mock, happy that I havesomeoneto direct some of my anger toward.

His face reddens as he erases a bit of space between us. “I don’t need much to lock these motherfuckers up for good.”

Yes, you do.

Especially when I’m a woman grieving, scorned, betrayed and fuckin’ foaming at the mouth at this point.

First Mae and Ellie, now Dad…and Levi is sitting in a cell where he’s not going to rot if I don’t do something.

I think it’s time to rip some power out of Torin’s clutches and move my piece to checkmate this bitch.

He took away my family, ripped my protection in Levi away so that I would have nothing.

Game on, bitch.

SIXTY-ONE

bay

“You don’t needto sign anything right now,” Emilio assures me, sitting at my side and patiently waiting to see if I want the expensive black pen he’s holding in his palm. “Feel free to read it, and?—”

“How long will it take for you to get Mae and Ellie back?”

It’s the reason I’m here.

It’s also the purpose of getting Levi out of jail, too.

I have no other option than this. Selling my DNA and using the relationship Emilio wishes for so badly to gain myrealfamily back. Without him and his resources, they’re lost.

I don’t have the power or money right now to yank Levi out of jail.

I’d have to go through the court system to try to fight back on Torin’s allegations with how Mae and Ellie are being handled and, fuck knows, how long that would take.

So, I’m selling my soul to the devil to get back what is important.

Thing is, I’m not sure what dirty little games he’s playing and what he has in mind as soon as my name dries up on this contract.

“Depends on my son,” Emilio replies. “I’d need to get more information?—”

“So, you don’t know.” I crane my neck to Emilio, who’s watching me with ease.

I don’t understand how this happens. How someone like him still gets to live and someone like Dad strokes out, has a massive heart attack, and then dies.

All that fighting and therapy, the careful diet I gave him, I did everything I was told to do. He pushed on to come back to his normal self and it still did nothing.

And, I’m sure, he’d be bitching at me right now not to do this.

Not to agree to anything Emilio Wildes-related. Thathewas who Dad was trying to protect me from all along.

And we still ended up here.

Dad fought for nothing. Because fate decided to put me down the path of heartbreak, despair, and a whole lot of bad decision-making that I feel as though I have no other choice but to do.

“How about you worry about Roger,” Emilio recites flatly. “While I worry about Mae and Ellie.”

I can’t help but lift a brow because, honestly, the stupidest thing he’s ever asked me to do. “There’s a problem with that when I don’t trust you with my sisters.”

Emilio doesn’t flinch or cower back because, simply, he doesn’t care. “I think I can show an ounce of empathy to two girls who just lost their father.”

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