“I’m so sorry, Kate.”
I needed to hit something, preferably Max, but this wasn’t about my feelings. My rage and pain weren’t helpful if they didn’t leave space for the feelings of the people who’d really been hurt.
I wanted to beg her to speak up, to stand with Elena, but it wasn’t my place.
Kate said, “I’ve kept my silence all these years. I’ve been asking myself all morning, am I ready to break it?”
I held my breath.
She looked at me expectantly, a feline smile on her face. “Aren’t you going to ask me to do it?”
“Elena would end me for asking that of you, even if it’s her reputation on the line. I want to see consequences for Max. I wish that could happen without either of you stepping into the line of fire, but he’s too powerful. Maybe if we all do it together, it would be enough. I can’t speak for you, but I’ll stand beside you.”
She took my hands. “Do you love her?”
Tears pricked my eyes, but I didn’t try to hide it from Kate. “More than anything.”
She gave my hands a squeeze. “Let’s bury the bastard.”
47
Elena
Iwas still wallowing in the room I’d claimed at Ophelia’s house when there was a knock on the bedroom door.
“Come in,” I said, hating how tentative I sounded.
Dean pushed the door open and stood awkwardly until I gestured to the end of the bed and he perched there. “I wanted to check on you, but you weren’t answering your phone. Ophelia said I could find you here.”
I gave him a weak smile. “It’s been a rough couple of days. Thank you…for checking on me, but also for being there when I melted down at work. You always seem to be there when we need you.”
He looked uncomfortable with my gratitude. “The client you accused, that’s the guy from the panic button that time.”
That timesounded so innocuous, but it was loaded with memories for both of us. He’d been the one to come and drag Max off, the one who had to threaten Max with the cops and physically remove him from the building when he’d continued verbally abusing me. He’d been the one to sit with me until I felt calm enough to drive home, then had ended up driving me when I got to the car and found my hands were still shaking. Dean had seen me at my most vulnerable multiple times and was always a quiet rock.
I nodded, confirming it was the same guy. “It feels like he’s going to haunt me forever now. My name will always be tied to his and who knows what kind of legal battle is ahead. He’s already said he’s suing me.”
“Want me to take care of it?” Dean asked softly, his Scottish brogue reverberating with quiet menace.
I huffed a laugh. “It speaks to how fucked up this situation is that I consider that a very sweet offer. But I’m going to pretend it was a joke.”
“It’s a shame we didn’t save the audio from when you hit the panic button.”
“What audio?”
“It’s continuously feeding audio through the system, but not saving it. It records a loop of a minute before and a minute after you hit the button, but we didn’t save them back then because the system was still working through glitches and it triggered false alarms all the time. We didn’t want to save hours of random audio from sessions in case it became a client privacy concern.”
“Good to know.”
“I’ll leave you to it, but if you decide you want me to pay him a visit, you know how to reach me.”
“Will do. Thanks for everything. We’re lucky to have you watching over us.”
He bowed his head and closed the door behind him.
It was interesting to learn the keys picked up audio, but I wasn’t surprised Victoria had kept it a secret. We were banned from taking phones into sessions for the sake of client privacy and a number of them wouldn’t be amused to learn it was still possible they were being recorded.
I reached for my choker and jolted when I remembered why I wasn’t wearing it.
