“I was talking to Molly and said ‘our’ uncle and named him. It was so stupid.”
Cassie hummed. “We don’t trust Molly?”
“I didn’t say that. It was just a bad mistake.”
“She’s new on the scene and an unknown quantity.” Cassie’s tone changed to something darker.
Dixie shook her head. “Molly’s good people. We don’t need to worry about her. Plus you have more than one sibling. No need to apologise.”
Cassie sounded less sure. “Make sure she sees you with Kane to fix that in her mind. I don’t get bad vibes off her, but I also don’t trust anyone until they’ve been tested.”
At the bottom, we congregated in the guard room, lit by screen light.
At the desk, Damien jumped up. “Party time. Who are ye here for?”
We all looked to Dixie.
“All of them, in turn.”
Damien gave her an appreciative once-over that immediately flattened when he clocked my expression. “And there was me thinking it would be a quiet evening. Follow me.”
He crossed to a corridor which contained the cells. Cassie formed a huddle with Dixie and Mila, offering them skeleton print bandannas to hide their faces. I tugged up my own.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I slid it out, some sense of foreboding crawling through me. What else could go wrong? Who else could possibly try to hurt her tonight?
But the message was from an entirely unexpected source.
Jonas: Bad news, heard on the grapevine. Call me when you get this, kid.
I stared at the demand from the uncle I hadn’t heard from in a long while. He left me well alone unless there was something specific he decided I needed to handle.
Which only meant one thing. And it wasn’t good.
A long-familiar pain built of shadows and darkness woke to swarm inside me, and a pit formed in my stomach. Memories flashed of the much younger version of me suffering. Enduring pain no one ever should.
But Dixie’s voice brought me back to the present.
“This is going to hurt,” she said.
Mila nodded and reached for her, the sisters standing together to face their past.
With solid resolve, I put the fucking phone away.
Dixie needed me. Everything else could wait.
Chapter 37
Dixie
Damien entered the prisoner corridor, almost invisible in his mask, black skeleton crew t-shirt, and biker jeans until he snapped on a light. It flickered then held.
He gestured with a flourish. “Pick a door, any door. Whichever ye want first.”
None of them.
I squeezed Mila’s hand and opened my mouth.
A pained shout came from behind a thick door. “Help me! I can hear you out there. Please.”
