Audrey stared into his eyes. “Then stop.”
For one breath, she thought he might. Thought maybe this was the part where he emptied the whole file onto the table, looked her in the eye, and treated her like the person at the center of her own life.
Instead, his gaze shifted inward. He pulled back, which hurt worse than the lie.
“You still don’t think I can handle it,” she said.
He tilted his head by half a degree, but she didn’t dare read his emotions after violating his mind. “No,” he said. “I think you can handle too much. That’s what scares me.”
She hated that answer because some broken part of her understood it. Audrey tipped the rest of the glass back. If Sophia were alive, Audrey would find her. The woman who destroyed her life was finally within reach. She’d confront the man from the backyard as well. He was somehow tied to the fire.
They would both pay.
And this time—she wouldn’t ask permission.
Alex kneeled beside the chair where she sat. “Audrey.”
She didn’t look up. Her world had been reduced to the sound of her own breathing. “You know who I am,” Audrey whispered. “Now, tell me who you are.”
He looked at her as if he were measuring something, the way a scientist might study an experiment that had finally produced the result he expected. “I kept you ignorant because I thought it would keep you safe,” he said. “That was a mistake.”
“Glad you can finally admit that,” she muttered.
He threaded one hand into his hair. “I’ll tell you where you’re really from.”
Audrey froze.
“In exchange, you’re done. With that club. With Skyler. With the drugs. With all of it.”
Her shoulders sagged. “It’s not that simple, Alex. I owe someone a lot of money. We can’t just vanish and pretend he doesn’t exist. These people I work for are well-connected.”
Erik’s face appeared in her mind. She knew his reputation and the people behind him. They were powerful, and the way they handled debts wasn’t for the weak of heart.
“How much?” Alex asked.
Shame burned her cheeks. She couldn’t meet his eyes. “A lot.”
“More than a few grand?”
A humorless snicker escaped her mouth. “Closer to ten.”
Drugs, rent…survival. Numbing herself had never been cheap.
He swore under his breath. “I’ll get you the money.” Audrey shut her eyes. A warm hand clasped over hers. “We’ll get your mother and the answers to clear your name,” he added. “But we’re not staying here any longer than necessary.”
She expected Alex to keep the rest of his secrets and get up to go to bed, but he surprised her. He continued to hold her hand. “You, me, your family…we’re not like the humans here,” he said eventually. “We never were.”
Audrey stared at him, taking in the consequences of what his words meant. Not for the first time, Audrey wondered if the fire hadn’t been human either. Something inside of her shuttered, as if it was waiting to hear it.
She looked back at Alex slowly and realized that she had absolutely no idea what she was.
If she wasn’t human, what had killed her family?
Audrey laid her hand to the window, the decision hardening inside her. She thought of all the years she’d waited for someone to tell her the truth or give her a reason, how passivity had fastened her to a life of silence and anguish. She was done. Everything was razor clear now. She would find Sophia, unveil the truth about the fire, and reclaim her own life—no matter the cost.
Whatever secrets Alex still held, whatever dangers waited, she intended to find the truth and face her mother at last.
8
