Page 24 of What's Left of Us

I snap my gaze around, glaring at McKinney. I didn’t mean to get lost in my thoughts, but the moment I betrayed Jo was the moment I decided to protect her from the monster lurking beneath her mother’s fake persona. I just didn’t know how far the ruse would go.

The door closes, and I tear my gaze from him to the other side of the visitation room. Sterling and Tyler are standing on the other side of the table, staring at me like they’ve never even seen me before.

I frown, shaking my head. Then Isniffle,and what the fuck is that? I don’t show weakness like that. Not before prison, not in here, and not right now in front of the goddamn FBI.

Something soft touches my cheek, and I jerk away at the touch to glare at McKinney. He has a tissue in his hand, and there’s something smug in his expression as he turns his gaze to our visitors.

“I believe that psychopaths don’t generally cry?” McKinney asks, tossing the tissue on the table. “They are incapable of genuine emotions, right? Well, as you can see, my client isgenuinelydistressed. Are you certain, after all this time, that you’re condemning the right criminal?”

Sterling and Tyler exchange a glance, and I wish I knew what was going on in their heads. More than that though, I need to know what’s going on in mine. I don’t cry. Not anymore.

But when it comes to Jo, all rules are off the table. There’s only three people left in the world that I would cry for, and one of them is standing in this room.

Chapter 7

“If I didn’t think this would help, we wouldn’t be here. But the DNA results officially confirmed that the bodies found on the Nunes property belonged to the owners James and Diana. Your mother used Mrs. Nunes' body to pretend she was dead. We can't find justice for them until Porscha starts talking.”

I shoot Sterling a look. We’re on the way to visit my mother at the women's correctional facility downstate. It seems like we’re repeating history, the FBI asking me to go to yetanotherprison and speak with another psychopath. Except this time it’s my mother, and unlike my feelings for Alastair I’m positive I don’t want to see her. Listening to Sterling yesterday on our phone call didn’t convince me she’s worth the air I breathe.

She’s at a detention center closer to central Florida, a facility that’s women-only. She had an initial appointment with the court to introduce the attorneys, and I chose specifically to have Vinny drive us anywhere else that day. I’m purposefully ignoring her because I don’t want to see her.

I’m not interested in helping clear her name or ease her sentencing. For fifteen years she’s hidden in the background, doing god knows what, pretending she died.

If there's more evidence stacked against her, even better. I don't like hearing that more people died because of her, but if they gave Alastair death row for fifteen people at the time, she's got to be heading that way too. The amount of people she's responsible for murdering is staggering.

I won't let myself pity her even if her future looks bleak. She just left me there in Citrus Grove. Dying, bleeding, hurt. Alastair stayed, and I have a hard time believing he came up with the idea to kill me all alone. At least once I woke up and left the ICU, he was still around. Possibly taking the fall for too many crimes that weren’t his alone, but there all the same.

I don’t know what to think anymore. I really need to speak with Alastair one-on-one, but given that his visitation at CGP is revoked except for law enforcement, that’s not going to happen. I even begged Sterling to sneak me in over the weekend.

“I need to talk to him,” I tell Sterling, shifting away from Vinny’s grip to stand on my own. “I know it would be difficult, but I need to hear from him. I need him to look me in the eyes and tell me how he almost killed me. I’ll be able to tell if he’s lying.”

Sterling peers between us. After the last time we saw each other, we haven’t had much interaction since. Tyler of all people came to the house earlier in the week to relay that they had all of Porscha’s personal items transferred from her temporary home in Illinois to Quantico, and their tech person Finley is supposed to go back soon and start analyzing. From what I’ve heard, she’s supposed to drag Gabe along, even though he’s still recovering.

“I can’t sneak you into CGP,” Sterling says, his voice hard. “That line of communication is extinct. We made progress talking with Alastair before the prison break, but they aren’t going to allow him any visitors at this point. He has three new murder charges pending-”

“You don’t really believe that,” Vinny interrupts, and I step into my husband's embrace again. At least when it comes to this we’re always on the same side. “Porscha abducted him. Tortured him. And you think he went out of his way to kill during that time?”

Sterling’s jaw flexes, and I can see the war in his eyes. When he chose to come out to the cabin, he sealed his fate. He fell into our web, and once you’ve tasted Alastair it’s hard to go back. He felt the same connection we did, and the four of us together could be unstoppable. If he wasn’t supposed to be closing out the copycat case and could pick a side, I think he would pick Alastair’s.

“Stop trying to nail him for the kills,” I say earnestly, reaching out to grab his hand. He stiffens at the touch, and I dig my fingers into his palm instead of letting go. “Appeal to his softer side. The only other person who knows what Porscha is capable of is him. You said some things in the original case were passable, but not concrete proof? Nail her with those. Get Alastair’s side. Offer him something to help you.”

Sterling’s eyes soften, and I can already see where this is going. “He would have to give us a substantial amount of intel to change the verdict on his sentencing-”

“He gave you the house,” I say, crossing my arms as I let go of him. “That’s a start.”

“We have a house that could’ve been empty when Porscha arrived,” he agrees carefully. “And evidence we found there-”

“And the bodies,” I say, nodding my head. “I heard about the bodies.”

“One,” he grits out. “Just one on the premises. We don’t know how he died yet, there’s nothing to go off of at this time. And just where did you get that information?”

I glance at Vinny, who just shrugs. “Echo texted Vinny about a new webinar that’s going up every few days. It’s-”

“You mean that trash Beverly Heather is posting?” he asks with a groan. “You know all of her intel is off. She skews the facts.”

“Still,” I argue, “she has a point. More bodies, crossing timelines, facts that were overlooked by the original team? You could possibly change the past.”

Sterling sighs, dragging a hand through his hair. “I’m not saying it isn’t a possibility, but it’s far-fetched. He has fifteen life sentences to reverse if that’s the case.”

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