Page 217 of Endgame
She shivers as my knuckles trace along her soft skin.
“I am.” The bravery she finds within her damn near thaws my cold heart.
“Good girl.” With a hand to the small of her back, I jerk my chin toward the staircase. “After you.”
At the first step, Randy emerges out of nowhere. He’s one of the two detectives leading this case who I talked to first. His hand is on my shoulder.
Sweat beads along his brown hair from running around here. “Mr. Alder.”
I narrow my eyes at him.
“Apologies.” He removes his offending hand, rubbing the back of his neck.
More people are being escorted out. More Miranda rights read. MoreI’m innocents.
“I was thinking it’d be better if I joined you two,” he offers. “The case is airtight as can be, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“I understand.” On its own, my palm trails up Aurora’s back, closing around her collar. A reassuring gesture. I’ll keep my promise to her. No one but me will be there when she’s at her most vulnerable. “That’s why I’ll be there to supervise it. You aren’t allowed in that room with us until I say so.”
“Mr. Alder.” His hands rise, a pathetic attempt to appease me. “I’m only suggesting it for your own good.”
“Stay. Here.” I still don’t have all the answers. Aurora is still a mess. I don’t give a shit about him and his suggestions.
“Okay.” Something in my tone or my expression must come off as final. It makes him step back. “Call me when you’re done.”
Telling him I will is a waste of time.
Up the stairs we go.
The large double doors at the end of the hall are closed.
Closed, but not locked, as I realize when I push one of them open.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur to Aurora as we walk in there together. “Never forget that.”
“Yes, I?—”
A phone crashes against the wall by Aurora’s ear. I’m quick to move her behind my back, standing guard between her and these two motherfuckers.
“Bitch.” Molly, the one who threw the phone at us, jumps from one of the armchairs by the window. In a pink sweatsuit and with wild hair, she stomps on the floor like a petulant child. “I gave you everything. My best years. My sanity! God, you were insufferable. Always. And this is how you repay us?”
Before she gets any closer, Winston grabs her by the waist.
“Watch your fucking mouth,” he whispers, throwing her behind him. His evil blue gaze is trained on us while he talks to her. “Do not move, you hear me?”
“You gave me nothing.” Aurora wriggles out of my hold for all of a second.
My fingers clasp around her wrist, yanking her to my side. I’m ready to throw myself before her, if need be, but she needs this conversation.
She needs to show them she’s so much better than they are. So much braver.
“Nothing?” Winston roars.
His wife remains obedient, snarling like the monster she is.
“Nothing,” Aurora spits out, her voice shaking with either rage or fear. Maybe both.
“Thisnothingwas far better than growing up in the streets, where your mother gave birth to you.” He’s talking about her and Lotus, about what he’d forced my sister to do. My fucking God. My mouth twitches. My murderous urges are hardly contained as is. “Better than starving to death. Or worse.”
