“What?Why?” I shouldn’t care. Idon’tcare. This man has been stalking me for years. He’s a psychopath. Let them have him.
Even as I think the words, they feel false.
Yes, I’m fucking pissed.
And I have every right to be. This level of violation is sick and wrong.
But I still can’t make myself want anything bad to happen to Cormac.
“No idea,” he bites. “But I have to go save his ass.”
The slam of a door echoes through the receiver, and I hear the muffled sound of him running.
Even though I don’t want Cormac to get caught, I still can’t be here. Can’t be in the hands of a man who did that to me, and then I let him…Jesus Christ.
A sound stops me in my tracks from gathering the last of my things from the couch.
“Skyler,” I whisper into the phone.
“What?” he mutters. “Fuck, that alarm better not be you trying to open a door.”
The front door handle jiggles again, but doesn’t open.
“It’s not.”
After a beat, Skyler’s voice is deadly serious, “Saferoom. Now.”
I don’t bother arguing, knowing whoever is on the other side of that front door is going to be on this side of it any second. I don’t want to find out who it is that way.
Keeping the phone to my ear, I use my free hand to type in the code, taking the entire bag full of my stuff with me and slamming myself into the office I fled not ten minutes ago.
Skyler breathes out a sigh of relief, “It’s Steele. Do not leave that room. We’re on our way.”
“But you said-”
The phone beeps to alert me that he’s already gone.
Locked back in the safety of the office I just tried to escape, I’m stuck in a room full of the proof of Cormac’s betrayal.
Andall the proof of who he really is.
Everything Officer Steele is looking for isrighthere.
I could open the door, hand it over, and walk free of all of it right now.
I’ve been asking over and over for a way out of this, haven’t I? And now it’s right in front of me, along with even more motivation to do so.
Nausea spills up the back of my throat just thinking about doing it, but wouldn’t it be the right thing to do?
Cormachaskilled these people. And probably even more that I don’t know about. Skyler helped. Don’t they both deserve to face some judgment? Some justice?
A voice in the back of my head screams,"Yes."
My allegiance to the rule of law and the black-and-white of it all is calling me to turn them over.
But I know I can’t.
They’re violent criminals, yes.
