Page 187 of Anger

After a few tense seconds where he looks between Blue and me, I relax to see Kane’s posture shift, both of our eyes still squarely locked on each other.

“Kane,” she says, finally peeling her adorable as fuck warning stare off me to turn to her brother. “We need the drive. Well, he needs the drive. Or at least what’s on it. Have you worked on it at all?”

With effort, Kane finally looks from me to Blue and shakes his head. “I haven’t been able to decrypt it. Whoever did the encryption was a fucking genius, so I sent it out to a friend.”

Fuck…

The less people involved in this the better, and that damn drive is getting spread around faster than the common cold.

“Who did you give it to?” I ask.

But before he can answer, a third voice breaks into the late night, one that stills Blue in place, her shoulders going rigid.

“Kane? Who’s out there?”

Female, and judging by the wariness in her tone, I assume it’s a woman who has spent her life running from some unseen danger.

Kane stares at Blue—hard—but then his expression softens and he turns to the house. “It’s Ames, Mom. She’s decided to come for a visit.”

Blue’s shoulders deflate, and she stands frozen in place, her mind spinning so fast over what to do that I can almost see the myriad of decisions running through that head of hers.

Slowly, I move to block her access to the car, and Kane moves to block her from running down the road. We look at each other in approval when Blue sneers at both of us then begrudgingly turns to the house.

“Amélie? Is that really you?”

The hope I hear in her mother’s voice is enough to strangle my heart, but it’s the relief I hear as well that fully shatters it.

Blue never told me why she hasn’t spoken to her mom. She mentioned her fear that she was the cause of her mom’s problems but never quite got to why she refuses to just talk.

“Hi, Mom,” she answers, sounding completely dejected and defeated when she realizes she has no choice but to walk up to the house.

Kane and I step in behind her then follow her to the house, our shoulders brushing as if we’re the prison guards leading a man to the death chamber.

Except it shouldn’t be this bad, and I wonder what scares Blue so much that just making this walk feels like torture.

Amélie

My mother.

The bastard brought me to my mother.

Of all the crap Damon has put me through in the few months I’ve known him, this beats it all.

Demanding I lie to my best friend and help them abduct her was shitty. And as I’ve learned since, that wasn’t entirely Damon’s fault.

Stealing me from my apartment was also shitty. But with all this governor stuff going on, I can forgive him for it.

Keeping me in the dark about Brinley was insanely bad, but I learned that was a mistake on my part.

But this?

Forcing me to see my mom?

No. Nothing about this is forgivable, and when I get Damon alone again, it’ll be time to finally let go of all my pent-up frustration and kick his ass for his bullshit.

I’d like to think he could have at least asked first, but I also know myself well enough that I know my response would have involved me hightailing it one direction while he eventually chased me down and dragged me along anyway.

Okay, so maybe not telling me was the best move. But that doesn’t mean I have to like him for it.

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