I go still.
My hands fall away from her like I touched fire.
Brother.
For one second the room drops out from under me. Not an enemy using her. Not some debt. Not some random piece of collateral damage in a war I understand.
Blood.
Herblood.
I take one step back and just stare at her.
Her brother.
The words hang there for a second, wrong, impossible, like my brain refuses to fit them into place.
I look at her and see too much all at once. The bruises on her face. The rope burns on her wrists. The trembling in her shoulders. The way she keeps trying to hold herself together and failing by inches.
Then the rest of it catches up.
She was sent to me.
Sent into my house.
Into my bed.
Into my life.
“What exactly are you telling me?”
Her mouth opens and then everything comes out at once.
Too fast. Too broken.
Gabriel sent her. Ledgers from Smash and Sugar. She found them in my office. He was supposed to get one thing, now he has Exile too. She brought them here. She wasn’t going to give them to him. He was already waiting. He took them anyway.
I hear the words.
But the only one that matters is sent.
Sent.
Sent.
My hand twitches toward my gun.
She sees it.
Stops breathing.
For one ugly second I think about how fast it would be. How clean. One shot and the problem ends before it spreads.
My fingers close around the grip and lock there.
Ican’tdo it.
The realization tears through me so violently it feels like rage.
