Page 85 of Pushed

I wasn't sure how I would handle it if it came to that. If the police couldn't see the good in what he did, if they chose to only see him as a murderer; what purpose would his life have?

He would lose everything if this world couldn't turn a blind eye to the nature of his actions.

Laying my head on the table, I closed my eyes and wished that I could just talk to Machi myself. I wanted to thank him for everything he had done, for keeping his promise and setting me free.

The door swung open slowly, poking his head inside, the detective pointed at me. “You have twenty minutes, after that, we want answers.”

Sitting tall, I braided my fingers together and nodded.

Bentley stepped past the man, taking the door and closing it behind him. “How you holding up?” he asked, taking the seat in front of me.

“I'm okay, I guess, considering everything.” Rocking my head back and forth, I looked around the room. “Are we being taped or recorded?”

“Nah, you're not the one under arrest, they want Machi.”

“Are you sure?”

Shaking his head yes, he placed his hands in his lap. “They said you wanted to talk to me, why?”

“Machi came to you for a reason, that makes me feel like I can trust you too. I need to know what's going on. Is he okay? Was he hurt?”

Thinning his lips, his eyes drifted around my face. “He was shot, but he's all right.”

“Shot? Shot where, by who?”

“We don't know yet how it all happened, he's still in surgery. Did he tell you anything?”

“No,” I said, exhaling hard. “He hinted at things, but he didn't tell me anything about what he was doing. He didn't belong there, Bentley, he wasn't one of them. Machi was good to me, he kept me safe.”

Swirling his finger over the ledge of the metal, Bentley nodded. “Yeah, he's a good guy, always has been. But these past few years he changed, he's different.”

“Why? I don't understand, I can't understand. Please, tell me something—anything.”

Resting his head in his hands, he gripped his cheeks. “Imperial, you really have no clue about what he was doing there?”

“No, and if someone doesn't tell me something soon, I'm going to go fucking insane.”

Breathing in slowly through his nose, his lips frowned. “Did Machi ever mention anything about a girl he used to know?”

I sat stone still, eyes reaching for more. I knew nothing. My head twisted stiffly on my shoulders as my brows arched curiously, pleading for him to keep talking.

“Alright,” he said, leaning closer to me. “Machi and I go back, like way back, I've known him since we were kids. I grew up a few houses over from him and his family. Good family too, his mom was super nice, she used to make these little cookies out of almond butter and chopped pecans, they were delicious—anyway,”he said, shaking his head and dismissing the small details. “Machi had a sister.”

Had a sister?His voice had fallen off, his mind racing with a memory of a girl. A girl that wasn't just any girl, she was Machi's family.

Blinking, I opened my ears wider, allowing him to fill my head with a side of Machi that he refused to share. He had never spoken about himself or where he had come from. There was no mention of family or friends.

I saw one man, the man he had become, the man he needed to be. But who he was, who he used to be in a past life, was foreign. I was ready to drink Bentley's words, allowing them to quench my thirst to learn about the man who had risked his life for mine.

“The two of them were close, you know the big brother, little sister relationship you'd see in a Lifetime movie. Well, long story short, his sister got herself into some trouble. She started using drugs, heavy shit too, I think she was using meth at the time. But Machi, he never gave up on her, he refused to. That guy would go to the end of the earth to help his sister. And that's what he did. The Lancaster Hills, where you had been kept, he was positive it had something to do with what happened to her. We found her about four years ago, beaten pretty bad, her body just left like trash in a dumpster downtown. Machi, he kinda took a turn after that.”

“What happened to her? Who killed her?”

“We did everything we could to try and solve the case, but there was nothing. Every lead was a dead end. So Machi went out on his own, he left us, dropping his badge and walking out without a second glance. He needed to find out who hurt his sister, and he wasn't giving up until he did.”

“Wait, wait, wait—” Fanning my hands over each other, my shoulders wriggled as a shiver ran up my spine. “Machi used to be a cop?”

“At one time, but it's been years.”

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