Page 69 of Shattered Dreams

Sweat slides down my back.

Zane’s cool as you please, leaning against the table, holding his head in his hand, thrumming his fingers against the metal.

He’s pretty relaxed for a guy about to confront the fucker who kidnapped his wife and kept her prisoner for five years and then tried to sell her into the sex-trafficking trade. He’s pretty chill for a guy who’s going to sit face-to-face with the man who drugged up his sister like a rat in a lab, and Christ, I could keep going but what’s the point. Zane’s composure impresses me. Maybe it’s the suit.

I want to do more than break Black’s nose for what he did to Zarah.

On the other side of the room, a door creaks open, and two guards wearing the same uniform as the others pushes Ashton Black into the visitation area. His hands are secured behind his back, the legcuffs chain clinking as he walks, and he’s wearing an orange jumpsuit all prisons utilize. The harsh color doesn’t do much for his complexion, but his hair looks good. He pulled a favor somehow and wasn’t subjected to a buzz cut.

Black looks at Zane, and just for a second there’s something in his eyes. Remorse, guilt, joy, maybe, at seeing an old friend. His eyes harden when he looks at me. I haven’t sat down, and one of the guards nods at me to park it. I do what he says. I can’t risk doing something that will cut our visiting session short. We have a lot to ask and not a whole lot of time.

Black stops at our table, pauses to, I don’t know, think about what he wants to say, maybe apologize for the shit he did to Zane’s family? But all he does is throw the guard closest to him a look. “Come on, Lenny. You know I’m good for it.”

I don’t know what he’s talking about until the guard unlocks Black’s cuffs. “Don’t make me regret it.”

Shaking out his hands, Black says, “Thanks, man.”

“Ah-huh. No fucking around. An asshole higher than God says you get time alone, but fuck if we’re not right outside that goddamned door.”

Cuffs jingling, Lenny and his partner let themselves out the same doors our guys used, and the three of us sit, staring at each other, not quite knowing where to start. I let Zane lead.

Well, I try to let him lead. He sits there, his cool slipping, his hands trembling on the table’s metal surface.

“It’s good to see you,” Black says, and Zane’s head snaps up in a wave of fury so strong I’m almost knocked off the stool.

He reins it in quickly and steadies his hands, but his leg starts to bounce under the table, his aggravated energy needing to go somewhere. “You look all right,” Zane says.

“It’s not bad. They give me all the books I want.” He pauses. “I follow the news. You married Stella. Congratulations. Do you two have a baby yet?”

Zane opens his mouth, and I have no idea what he’s going to say. He presses his lips together and starts over. “No, not yet. We’ve been taking care of Zarah.”

At the mention of her name, Black wilts and sags against the table. “How is she?”

“How do you think she is?” Zane snaps. “She’s confused, scared. Her memories still haven’t come back. We’ve been getting her off that shit you hooked her on, and now we found out she was part of a fucked-up drug experiment and that she may never recover.What did you do to her?”

Every word Zane says, Black’s complexion worsens. He rubs his hands over his face. “Zane. You know I love her—”

His words stab at my heart. To hear this lunatic say he loves the woman I’ve given my life to.

“Do you? How can you say that after what you did? Yousoldher, and that still wasn’t enough. You offered her up like a sacrificial lamb.”

“You don’t know what you’re up against!” Black bursts out, and his gaze fly to the door where the guards stand watch on the other side. He lowers his voice. “You have no idea what they made me do!”

“They?”Zane asks, skepticism so thick in his voice you could cut it with a knife.“They?Who the fuck is that?Yousold herto your friends.Youwere head of the drug trials according to Dr. Stephen Mallory.” Black’s eyes grow wide. “Oh, yeah,” Zane continues, “what the fuck do you think I’ve been doing this past year? Sitting on my ass? I made you believe that’s all I did. That and fuck whores. I’m not the same kid you pushed around while you hid Stella and drugged my sister. Those days are gone.”

“I admit, I had a hand in it, but this is bigger than you, and it’s bigger than me. Bigger than my father. We’re a part of something huge.”

“That sounds like a load of bullshit. Where’s Zarah, Ash? Jerricka Solis kidnapped her. I need to know where her lake house is.”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s starting, and soon everything will come to light. Everything we worked so hard for will come to pass. Listen, Zane, let it happen. I love your sister, you know that. Everything I said that night at your dinner was true. The minute your mother laid her in my arms, I’ve loved her with everything I have.” He sucks in a breath and meets my eyes. “You’ll never be good enough, Davenport. She’s mine, and she always will be. I had her first, against the wall at Temptations. You remember, Zane. The night you introduced me to Stella. Zarah gave herself to me and she promised we would always be together. When I get out—”

“What do you mean, when you get out?” Zane interrupts, and it’s just as well. If Black would have continued, I would have thrown up all over the table.

“After this is done, my father and I will be free. When we are, Mallory will give me the antidote and Zarah and I will marry. The four of us will live as we were meant to, our children will grow up together, like we did.”

“Where’s Zarah, Ash?” Zane asks, his patience almost gone.

“I can’t tell you, but I’m not the only one who knows.” Black looks at me, and the composure he had when he first sat down is slipping. “You know who to ask. He’ll know, but she’s mine. I had her against the wall at Temptations. She’s mine.”

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