She merely shakes her head.
“Getup.” I force her to her feet. “I can’t help you if you don’t help yourself.”
She lets out a dry laugh. “Didn’t realize you were trying to help me.”
Everest stops behind us, carrying a cheerful Aurora. The kid has no idea what’s going on, and the dissonance of it makes my skin crawl.
“You’re not taking her to the cell, are you?” he questions.
“Shut up. Come on, Lia. Stand up.”
She shakes her head again. “I’m tired.”
“You’re tired,” I repeat in disbelief. “You just spent the day sitting around on your ass in a room and sitting around on yourass in the car, but you’retired? Get the fuck up.”
“Not tired like that.” She lets out a loud sigh. “Justtired. Can you please just get it over with? Just kill me, okay?” Her two sparking blue-green eyes, made even more sparkling by her contact lenses, look up at me. “I don’t want to go to the cell. I don’t want them to film me or have me torn apart by dogs.” Her voice thickens. “I know you hate me. But if there’s any part of you that…” She swallows. “Please, Logan. I know I don’t deserve it. But can’t you take pity on me? Can’t you… kill me yourself?”
“I don’t think any of that is going to happen, Lia,” says Everest. “Logan wouldn’t let that happen. Would you, Logan?”
“Both of you, shut up,” I snap. “Come on, Lia. Last chance.”
But she merely stares up at me, so, hissing out all my frustration, I topple her over my shoulder.
“Logan!”
A peal of laughter makes me glance at Aurora, who’s looking at her mother as though it’s the funniest thing she’s ever seen.
“Piggyback mama!” she cries out. “Piggyback mama!”
Somehow, the laugh loosens the tension in my chest. I let myself smirk as I lead the way to the rooms Armando told us we could use.
There are two bedrooms, small but much nicer than the Oakley motel we’d been staying at before. And obviously, there’s no comparing them to the abandoned warehouse.
Though I start regretting that place when Armando pokes his head in without knocking. “Aren’t you bringing her to the cell?”
“Later.”
Lia lets out a whimper, and a second, louder one when Armando grins, showing off a row of yellow-grey teeth. “Guess you want to enjoy her first.” He winks again. “I’ll leave you to that.”
“Asshole,” growls Everest when Armando has retreated.
“Take that bedroom with the kid,” I tell him, pointing to one of the two rooms. Then I look down to the floor, where Lia has dropped, hugging her knees to her chest.
“Shouldn’t Aurora sleep with her mom?” questions Everest.
“I don’t think the cell is really the place for a kid, do you?”
His brow furrows. “Fuck you, man. That’s not funny.”
“Who said it was?”
Sometimes, I hate having him along. I really hate it. Because no matter how many guys he’s seen me kill, he doesn’t for one minute accept that I’ve hardened. Usually, I don’t care. But right now, I donotwant him making me come off as soft in front of Lia.
Luckily, Aurora chooses that moment to start whining. “Milk, mama! Milk! Hungry!”
Lia makes a small movement to go get her, but she doesn’t half try. I guess she, at least, doesn’t believe I’m secretly soft. I’m sure she doesn’t doubt for a second that she’s bound for the cell.
That should make me happy, and it does. But there’s also an uncomfortable lump in my throat that I do my best to swallow.
