Page 64 of Splitting Secrets
But Bane? Fuck, I can’t live with myself if he’s disappointed in me. And by proxy, if she’s disappointed in me.
It’s been easy to stay away. The Syndicate has been increasingly needy as they scramble to recover from her escape. They can’t figure out how she managed to do it. Hell, I still don’t understand how she managed to pick an enchanted lock that shouldn't have been breakable. The only explanation I can come up with is that her bloodline provided some protection against them.
The Syndicate’s paranoia was the perfect excuse to stay away while the others help them settle in.
I’m a coward, hiding in the shadows to avoid facing what I’ve done. What I’ve become. And now, I’m going to have to answer to even more lies.
I twist around and head back toward my car. Blowing off my dinner meeting with Hatchcroft is just an added bonus to make up for the shitshow that’s about to happen.
Constance and Carter are nowhere to be found when I enter their home. They likely ran and hid in their loft, where they should have stayed until I could get here and explain everything myself.
“Oh, shit,” the guy who is always with Sonny calls to me as he rounds the corner from the kitchen.
What’s his name again? Jonas?
He points a steaming fork at me as he passes by, then plops onto the couch. “You’re in trouble,” he informs me.
My upper lift lifts in a snarl at the implication. “Where is she?” I grind out.
He jerks his head at me in surprise, his brows lifting to his hairline as he sizes me up. When he’s through with this, he purses his lips and jabs his fork toward the stairs before he turns away and dismisses me.
Hedismissesme.
Instead of responding, I head for the stairs. Of course, Jonas couldn’t make it easy and tell me which room she’s in. When I step toward the closed one on my left, my hand hovering over the handle, something tells me not to do it. I listen to it, going for the next one until the same thing happens.
There’s a tug in my chest toward the other end of the hallway and I swear under my breath.
Now I’ve got special Sonny senses?
A garbage bag full of splintered wood has been discarded into the hallway beside a broken head and footboard.
Not super promising.
When I got to rap my knuckles against this door, opting to knock instead of barging right in, it pushes open and reveals my little nightmare staring at the ceiling, sprawled across her mattress.
She springs up when she sees me, her expression instantly morphing from sweet and serene to absolute chaos.
“You,” she seethes, jamming her finger into the air the same way she had done when I surprised her in the interrogation room.
There are no cameras around this time. No chance of an Aeternum coming through to expose our secrets. It’s just me and her and all the little half-truths we’ve told one another.
I slip through the crack in the door and gently ease it shut until I hear the lock click into place. For extra measure, I throw up a sound shield around us to prevent anyone else from hearing. I’m about to admit things to her that I haven’t ever spoken out loud.
Resting my back against the wall in feigned ease, I tilt my head and offer my most charming smile. “I see you’ve met your hosts.”
A shoe flies past me, narrowly missing my head when it bounces off the wall, hits my shoulder, and then falls to the floor.
“Of all people,youshould have told me,” she guilts, bottom lip wobbling the tiniest amount before she stiffens her mouth and tilts her chin up.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Yes you did!” she screams back, proving me right about the sound shield. “You had so many opportunities to tell me. Most notably, when you convinced meyouwere the one to kill them.”
“Right in front of the people who need to believe they’re dead? My hands were tied.”
“What about every single minute we’ve spoken since then? Without their audience?”
I shake my head. “This wasn’t my secret to share and?—”
