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“He knows that you tried to save him.”
I have to press my mouth shut to stop my bottom lip from trembling. Panic tears through my soul, and my gaze darts around the room behind Caesar. Oh God. How can he know all of this? Is Victor actually here? Please don’t tell me he’s really here. I don’t want to?—
“He wants me to tell you that it was not your fault. He says that he would have gone in anyway.”
My eyebrows draw into a small frown.
“He would’ve jumped in anyway,” Caesar says, holding my gaze.
A sob rips from my throat.
Shoving my chair back from the table, I shoot to my feet and rush towards the door.
I can’t be here. I can’t. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want them to hear this.
Tears blur my vision as I race through the room and towards the door.
Lionel must have shot to his feet and left at the same time because he is at my side immediately, placing a gentle hand on my elbow and leading me towards the back door.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, his voice breathless. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know that this was a… that your brother had…”
Another sob escapes my lips without permission. I want to yank my arm out of his grip because I don’t want anyone to touch me right now. I just want to be left alone. But I can’t find the strength to do it, so I just stumble along as he quickly walks us towards the back door.
“Let’s go outside,” he says gently. “The alley out here is usually empty, so no one out here will be staring at you if you want to… take a second to compose yourself.”
I shake my head.
I don’t want to compose myself. I want to cry my eyes out. I want to go home. I want a hug. And comfort food. And someone who will let me break down without making me feel like I’m embarrassing myself.
Lionel grabs the handle and starts pulling the door open.
Before he can even get it halfway open, Jace slams his palm against the door and shoves it shut again with a bang that reverberates through the air. Lionel lets out a yelp as Jace grabs him by the collar and yanks him away from me. The force of it sends Lionel stumbling backwards and crashing into the wall hard enough to rattle the paintings along the corridor.
“What the hell are you—” Lionel snaps, his voice furious. But then he cuts himself off when he straightens and finds Jace standing between me and him like a murderous demon. Shooting Jace an angry glare, he instead says, “I was trying to help her!”
“You’ve done enough,” Jace growls. Violence pulses from every inch of his carved body as he stares Lionel down. “Now, get the hell out of my sight before I snap your fucking neck.”
“I didn’t know!” Desperation bleeds into Lionel’s voice. And it pulses on his entire face as he looks to me, his eyes pleading. “I didn’t know that this was a psychic reading. I didn’t know that your brother drowned and?—”
“Get. Out.”
Lionel flicks his gaze back to Jace, who looks to be one second away from pulling the gun that I know he always carries concealed in his clothes.
I still haven’t said a word. I just can’t muster enough energy to open my mouth. So all I do is to look at Lionel, silently begging him to just leave. Fine, he didn’t know about the psychic and about my brother, but I still don’t want to talk to him right now.
Anger flickers in Lionel’s eyes, and he shoots another venomous stare at Jace. Then he spins on his heel and stalks away. He throws open the front door on the other side of the corridor and then disappears out into the night without a second look back.
I slump back against the wall.
My heart is still pounding in my chest.
Resting the back of my head against the wall, I stare up at the light in the pale ceiling above. The air conditioner hums faintly into the suddenly pressing silence.
“How could he have known all that?” I whisper. To Jace or to the ceiling or to no one at all. Pain clenches my heart. “He must be a real psychic. There is no way he could’ve known that. Which means that Victor was really here and…”
A sob rips from my throat before I can finish the sentence.
“No, he’s not.”
