Her head tilts. Eyes flickering. Between me, and… and the door.
“Yeah,” I whisper breathlessly. “That’s it. We’re just there, okay? And we’re coming back for you.”
She doesn’t snarl this time.
She does something worse.
Shewhimpers.
And it’s almost silent, and devastating, and I feel my heart shred into yet more fucking pieces, as if there was anything left. As if I’m leaving them there with her, scattered on the floor beneath the heavy boots of the Center staff as they lose patience and grab my arms, yanking me away.
I’m roaring, twisting, bucking, and Jake’s fist flies out as we both fight to get to Kenny. As more of them converge on her, as she shrinks back against the wall, her eyes finding mine in a small gap before she’s swallowed up.
“Stop,” I roar. There are tears on my face. “She’s not hurting anyone!”
I can’t see her anymore. And the door slams shut, sealing them away as I rip myself free, my fists banging against it. “Open the door! Open the fucking door!Kenny!”
Jake slams his hands against it, his face white. “What thefuck?”
My chest burns as my forehand lands against the steel, my breathing heavy. “She understood me. She didn’t want us to go.”
Pivoting, I brace, but there’s nobody here. Only a shaken Abrams and Joanne, her mouth open. I point at her. “Fix this. We need to be there with her. She’s not a threat to us.”
Where the hell are Oscar and Max?
“They threw them out. They’re in the hall.” Jake braces his hands on his knees. “I stayed back to help you, but when they wouldn’t move, the security moved in.”
I push past them, yanking the door open and coming face to face with Oscar. There’s a darkness around his cheekbone that looks like a fuckingfist.
“They put her to sleep,” he snaps at Joanne. “I want to see the board.Now.”
“I’ll need to arrange a meeting—,”
“Then arrange the damn meeting!” Oscar roars. “We tried it your way. For months. This is the first time we’ve had any interaction with her and shedidn’t hurt us. Now we’re trying it our way, or I will bring down fucking hell on your heads.”
Joanne’s eyes flicker to my chest.
“No.” I snarl at her, and she shrinks back, clutching her clipboard. “That wasn’t her. That wasthem.”
Shrugging past, I move next to Max at the glass that looks into her room. His face is grim. “They locked us out.”
I stare at our reflection in the mirror.Fuck.
I barely feel it when Max turns me, hissing between his teeth. “Those are deep. We need to get them cleaned.”
I can’t even feel them. “We need alawyer. This is insane.”
“Get one.” Abrams joins us, frowning. “I can’t say I would have advised you to do that… but it worked. We need to push this while we can. The intervention was hugely exaggerated.”
I’ll push them until they fucking topple and break.
I’m done playing by their rules.
Day 220 – Theo
“Momwantstoseeyou.”
Frowning, I slam the door of the truck closed, sinking back into my seat with a sigh of relief. “Nee… not today, alright? I just finished a twelve-hour shift. I’m covered in fucking dust.”
