Tore threw his head back in another fit of laughter. “That’s saying it lightly.”
“It’s not like there’ll be anything between you.” Vinny winked at me over the rim of his glass as he tipped its contents back. “Right?”
“There better not be.” Tore tossed up a finger. “I’m warning you, Ren. I love you as my cousin, but she’s like my sister. Don’t think you can lay a finger on her, even if she agrees to this.”
My heart raced in my chest. I twisted my phone round and round in my suit pocket. This was a bad idea, a terrible idea, yet I liked it a bit too much. The same way I’d enjoyed her pressed against me earlier this morning far too much.
“Let’s revisit this later. Right now, we need to go over everything you know about Micah Anderson.”
Chapter 34
“Why?”Myquestionricochetedthrough the basement interrogation room as the door swished open. Footsteps stumbled over the threshold, but I didn’t turn my head from my ex-foster brother. Micah dangled by his arms suspended above his head, scrambling to grasp some ground beneath his toes.
When Bee tracked him down five months ago, I almost didn’t recognize him. It had been seven years since he stood in that courtroom, testifying against Renzo. It didn’t matter that Renzo had committed the crime. What mattered was that Micah never witnessed it. Even worse, he ran, tacitly approving what Charlie Hayes had planned for Boyan, Lou, and me that day.
Micah wasn’t the same long-legged scraggly older kid I remembered. Pimple scars lined his cheeks and chin, made worse by the weight he’d put on. His body had filled out in a stockier fashion, not fit, not quite loose either. His hair was an oily mess, and his clothes were bland yet stained. His eyes held the most marked change. They were empty, almost like he knew he was living on borrowed time.
“Just tell me why. You owe us that much.”
“I don’t owe you shit,” he answered breathily, barely lifting his head.
Tore had kept him down here the last month, with the light constantly on as random sounds played intermittently.
As expected, Tore, Vinny, and Renzo entered the room, but Micah couldn’t see them, hanging as he was with his back to the door. I checked the IV line taped to Micah’s arm. The drip flowed nicely. It wouldn’t be long before his muscles began shaking uncontrollably and shots of pain rushed through his nerves.
“I wasn’t aware she would be here.” Renzo’s voice was so collected. He hid his monster well. “Are you sure this is appropriate?”
“She requested this. I authorized it. Hope you don’t mind, cugi.” Tore winked my way.
Renzo huffed a scoff and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms and feet. “Let’s see what she can come up with.”
He’d changed into jeans, and man, it was sinful how well he filled them. His shirt stretched over his abs, outlining every sculpted edge. My fingers itched to feel every groove and ridge, to remember exactly what touching him felt like last night—warm, smooth, inviting, sinful.
His gaze, with one eyebrow ticked up, tracked me. I’d never felt so exposed. He’d seen all of me. I put everything on display for him, and he simply used and discarded me. A mistake, a pawn, a debt owed—that was all he’d ever see me as. My face burned as I turned back to Micah.
“You betrayed us,” I said to my ex-foster brother.
“You can’t betray people you never trusted and cared about.”
“We lived in the same house. We shared food and clothes. We understood each other’s hardships. We were siblings.”
“I was never your family,” he spat. “Perfect Ainsley Burch. From a perfect home. With your perfect little life. Miss QueenBee, who turned her nose up at me the moment you set foot in that house. As if you were better than me.” His tone turned brash, spittle flying out of his mouth. “I deserved better. I deserved to be cared for, but you saw only those kids. Not me. Never me. Only them.”
“So you set us up?”
“I wanted you shamed. I wanted you brought down. You needed to get a taste of what real misery was.” His muscles started seizing and shivering. “For fourteen years, you got love, and all you could do when you lost it was bitch and moan and act the victim. What did I ever get? Who ever gave me anything good for free? I had to pay every day of my life. Why not little miss perfect?”
“What about Lou and Boyan? What’d they do?”
He gurgled a wobbly chuckle. His eyes sparked. “Collateral.”
“No.” I stepped closer to him. “You were bitter, so you decided to make them suffer too.” Sweat pimpled on his brow, and his jaw was tightened.
“Look at all of you. You all got adopted, and where did that leave me?”
“Who’s to blame for that? You sent our benefactor to jail.”
“He’s a crook.” His spit landed on my cheek. I wiped at it with my sleeve.
