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“Are the others at Mystique safe?”
Sean shrugged. “For now, until I cut the head off the snake.”
“Kill Bo… Boyan,” I choked out.
“Yes,” he said plainly.
I searched his face for a hint of deception. Why would he do that? It was something I’d hoped would happen for years.
“Why?”
“There are many reasons, but the one I want to know about is the one that made you shudder when you heard his name.”
I glanced away. I couldn’t face telling him that.
“I saw what he did to your mother, so don’t relive that unless you want to tell me.”
I blinked at him in shock.
“But did he ever touch you?” He gritted his teeth, looking furious.
“How do you know about my mamá?” I whispered.
He knew about the horror and shame that lived in my past.
“I saw the police report.”
My whole body shuddered. Sean pulled me tighter, and the tears sprang into my eyes. Snippets of the articles I read swam into my mind. They found her body frighteningly close to where I’d fled to, as if she’d followed me in death. Bile rushed up my throat, and I curled forward.
“Shhhh, a chuisle. I’m here.” Sean sat forward with me as I struggled to swallow the saliva pooling in my mouth.
“I never buried her,” I choked out as if that was the worst of my crimes. “She deserved better.” The sobs wracked my body as I remembered breaking down in the newsagent shop with the newspaper in my hand.
“I never knew what happened to her body. Did they burn her with a mass of unclaimed victims? She didn’t deserve that.”
Sean held me tight with his arm, rocking gently back and forth as everything spilt out.
“I had to run. I should have stayed. That day, I returned home early from a test at school and found her. I heard someone come back, and I hid. I hid under the bed as they laughed and joked as they took her body away. Niko said they’d grab me from school… that Boyan wanted to sell me, but Ivan said… I can’t… the things they talked about as they cleaned the evidence of Mamá’s life away. I froze, so afraid. I should have done something…” I broke off, the pain in my chest too strong. “B-but I stayed there until it grew dark. I crawled out, grabbed the bag Mamá left stashed with cash and ran. She told me I had to leave if anything ever happened to her. But it didn’t feel right…”
“Clever girl. Your mamá would have been proud of you.” Sean smoothed a hand down my arm. “Where did you go?”
“To my Spanish teacher’s house. Antonia was Mexican, and we used to talk. She knew about my life and was friends with Mamá. Sometimes, I’d go there after school. Antonia told me I could stay but I knew I had to escape. My being there put her in danger. She gave me money, and I found Briggs to do my ID so I could disappear and not end up in the system. But I didn’t have enough money…”
“You were fifteen.”
I nodded, wondering briefly how he guessed. Or did I say? He killed Briggs. Of course he knew. My head was a mess.
“And you’ve been surviving ever since on your own?”
“I moved around. For the first few years, I was paranoid, seeing them in every face, every patron. Eventually, it wore off, and I wanted to keep my promise to my mamá. After abandoning her, I wanted to show her she could be proud of me. All she ever wanted was for me to get my degree. She would have hated to see me dancing even though I learned from her.”
“I know she is proud of you.”
I choked and retched. Was she proud of me? Dancing to pay my way through various community colleges and now uni. I hadn’t received my degree yet. Instead, I’d fallen for a gang leader just like she did. I knew she loved Boyan at some point. I never saw him much, but I knew she met up with him. Would she be proud that I escaped only to be kidnapped by her killer’s rival?
“You’re safe now,” Sean said, shuffling us back against the pillows. I curled up against his chest, hiccupping.
Was I safe? I felt ruined. Ruined by the memories I couldn’t erase, ruined by the man next to me that I somehow had feelings for. Although even in my despair, I couldn’t compare Sean with the evil men who killed Mamá. Maybe I was naïve, but I sank against his warmth as exhaustion swallowed me whole.
