Who was “she” and what had she done?
I tried to keep my eyelids loose so that it wasn’t totally obvious that I was forcing them closed.
“I bet she didn’t tell Grandpa.”
So theywererelated somehow. Was it just her grandpa? Did they share a grandpa?
Had she said “Mom” earlier?
“Doubt it. I’ve done everything else they’ve ever told me to do. She crossed the fucking line, and she knows it,” Alexander said in a voice so controlled I knew he was actually really pissed off. “What she did doesn’t make up for it.”
“I get it. You know I get it.”
I wished one of them would drop a clue or three.
“I haven’t talked to Mom yet, but I will. You might as well let her deal with it,” Selene kept going with a little cackle at the end. “I’m going to get my popcorn ready.”
Alex’s answering grunt was low, maybe irritated too, the sound of glass on glass clinking through the room.
“Speaking of…,” she whispered, “why did you wait so long to call?”
It sounded like the leather of the chair he was sitting in creaked. He didn’t say anything.
Did the son of a bitch know ASL?
Before I managed to open my eye to see if he was signing, Selene spoke up again. “She’s pretty, Lexi,” she said in soft French.
He made a low sound in his throat. “She laid down on top of me to protect me from the people who took her.”
I froze. My written and spoken French were atrocious, but I could understand a decent amount. Not that they knew that. Suckers.
“Why would she do that?” he asked, his tone tight.
“I don’t know. I would’ve let you get beat up,” she said seriously.
Alex huffed. “She’s not what I was expecting.” There was another pause and another clink of glass. “She didn’t complain once when we were going through the forest. Her teeth were chattering, I could hear her gagging, I felt her crying from how bad she felt, and she didn’t say anything.”
“Is that why you’re letting her stay here? We could have dropped her off at Mom’s or even Alana’s. You know they would keep her safe.”
“When we were in the cell, I thought about it.”
“Now you changed your mind?” Her tone was full of disbelief, I was pretty sure. “After everything…?”
There was a huff. “I can’t leave her. She’s my responsibility.” I heard a deep breath. “She’s going to be in danger for the rest of her life because of me.”
There was another heavy pause. “You think they’ll figure out it was you with her?”
“I don’t know, but we’re never going to find out.”
* * *
I must have totally passed out because I almost jumped out of my skin when I felt myself being moved.
Being… lifted?
Lifted?
Cracking an eye open, I startled myself even more when I took in the jawline above my head. It wasn’t like I would have expected it to actually be anyone other than Alex, but it still surprised me.
