Page 51 of Now You're Mine

I lift my chin and look down at my brother, the gun trained on him. “You’re never touching Lux again, James. I won’t let you.”

Then I pull the trigger.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Roman

Luxand I are sitting outside, on the porch, as the police interview the guys individually about what just happened. They’ve allowed Lux and me to stay together, but there’s a police officer five feet away, listening to everything we say, and watching to make sure we don’t run.

I feel numb, completely devoid of emotion, except for one—the profound relief that Lux is safe. She’s sitting next to me, and I pull her close, burying my face in her neck, and her hair. I just soak her in. Even her tears comfort me, the sound of her sobbing, the feel of her body trembling, because it means she’salive.

I can’t hear anything else. I can’t feel anything else. I don’t dare. The idea of facing what I just did is—fuck, I can’t go there yet.

But if I hadn’t done it—a shiver rolls down my spine—I know my brother never would have stopped. He never would have let her go.

I swallow the lump of emotion in my throat. I can’t even fucking believe this is real, that I had to shoot my own fucking brother. My own flesh and blood. The horror of that moment will haunt me forever.

The sun is just peeking over the horizon when Lux and I are separated, put into different police cars, and taken down to the Sheriff’s Station. Jackson’s uncle, the attorney, meets me there. Jackson or one of the other guys must have called him.

“I’m Lewis McKnight, Mr. Rush’s attorney. I will be accompanying him during questioning.”

I haven’t hired him, but he’s a member of the Burning Crown’s senior counsel and it’s his duty to look out for my interests as well as the society’s interests. Fortunately, he’s a shark. Not that it’s going to matter. Murder is murder. My brother was unarmed when I shot him, so there’s no way I could claim self-defense. I’m going to jail, and I knew that before I even pulled the trigger. I’d accepted that if it meant Lux would be safe.

My life for hers seems like a small price to pay.

McCoy is the detective assigned to me, I guess, and he asks me every fucking question under the sun—and I’m honest with him, because, at this point, I don’t have anything to lose. I’m telling the truth, regardless of the consequences.

Lux is safe. The baby is safe. That’s all I feel entitled to. Whatever happens to me happens. It doesn’t even fucking matter.

A couple hours into questioning, McCoy gets a text on his phone and then excuses himself from the room. When he returns, he says, “Your mother is here.”

I lean back in the hard plastic chair and cover my face with my hands. I’m not ready to see the pain in my mom’s face. I’m not ready to explain what happened. I lean forward and push out a breath. “Is Lux okay?”

It’s been hours since I’ve seen her, and when we were separated, she was sobbing.

“She was released about an hour ago, but, yeah, she’s okay.”

McKnight sighs and leans back in his chair. “Are we done here? I’d like to get my client home. It’s been a long night.”

McCoy lifts his hands. “It appears to be a pretty straightforward case. We have audio from the 911 call. We heard the threats your brother made. It’s pretty clear he had the gun, you lunged for it, the gun went off, and a bullet hit him in the chest, killing him.” He places his pen on the yellow legal pad in front of him, signaling a finality to the conversation. “That’s what the evidence says, and fortunately for you, it’s what everyone in that room corroborated.”

I swallow and shake my head. “No, no. I shot him, and he wasunarmed.” Mr. McKnight grabs my arm and tries talking over me, but I shake his hand off and shove my finger into the table to punctuate my words. “I killed my own damn brother.”

Maybe Iwantto be punished for it. Maybe that’s easier than facing the fact that killing my brother was justified. That I’d been driven to it.

McCoy leans back and sighs, straightening his gray tie. “If we didn’t have the 911 recording, then yeah, we might be looking at charges for you, but it’s pretty clear what happened. You have smart friends.”

McKnight stands up and offers his hand to the detective, eager to end this interview and get me the fuck out of here before I say anything else incriminating.

“Thank you for your time.” McKnight pulls a business card out from his leather notebook and hands it to the detective. “Please reach out if you have any further questions.”

There’s a deep ache burning in my chest as we walk out of the interrogation room. My mom is waiting in the hallway, sitting ina hard plastic chair. When the door opened, my mom looked up, startled, like she wasn’t expecting the door to open right then.

My heart is in my throat. I’ve been dreading this moment. Does she hate me? Does she think I’m a monster? I hate myself, so I can’t imagine what she’s feeling, and that not knowing destroys me. And yet, I’d do it all over again for Lux. I’d live in that horrific moment a thousand times over if it kept her safe.

Mom stands up, and suddenly, I can’t breathe. I can’t move. For the first time in a long time, I’m actually afraid.

I can see she’s been crying. Her eyes are puffy, and her face is red, but she rushes over and pulls me into her arms. “Roman,” she sobs, rising onto her tippy-toes to grab my face. “Thank God you’re okay.”

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