Page 229 of Legacy
His voice is steel. Conviction. His eyes burn into mine.
I let out a laugh, sharp and broken, with no humor in it.
“Yeah, well… they wouldn’t really get much by trafficking me. I’m not that young. Killing me would hurt you more, I’m sure.”
“No.”
He shakes his head again, harder this time.
“They came for herrecently.Just six months ago.”
I go still.
Silence crashes down. Cold and thick.
My heart stutters.
No.No.
“That’s why I delayed bringing you here,” he says softly.
Santo’s wife was targeted recently.
I’m in danger now.
Something inside me snaps.
“Oh, you have me all the way fucked up!” I shout, and his jaw clenches.
“This is what you meant when you said to hear you out before I walk away?”
I throw my hands in the air, pacing now, trying to burn through the fury crashing through every nerve ending.
“She was almost taken? What—your guards saved her? Is that why she’s under constant surveillance now? You mock your brother for that shit, but it makes sense!”
My voice breaks on the last word.
I spin toward him, ready to keep tearing into him, but—
He looks broken.
Not angry. Not defensive.
Broken.
“No,” he says evenly, his eyes meeting mine. “She didn’t get saved by guards because she only had one with her.”
My mind begins to race, thoughts of the horrors she must have gone through, but he continues.
“She fought for her own life.”
A shiver courses through my body. “That’s what you want for me?”
He flinches like I slapped him.
Good.
Because that’s how it feels, like I’ve been slapped awake.
