Was.
Pissed.
“With each move I make, someone’s going to die,” she admitted. “I’m having to choose who to protect, and who to let him kill. I don’t like being in this position. I hate it. I hate him.”
He closed the door and headed her way.
Winn was worried.
In all of the time he’d known her, he’d never heard her say the word‘hate’.
Ever.
That she was there…
That was a bad thing for Devon Slater. He could already see what was coming, and it wasn’t going to be pretty. He’d pissed off and hurt Elizabeth to the point she was struggling to stay in control.
Her kids weren’t with her.
She’d been isolated from her husbands.
Now, he’d killed an innocent woman.
She was going to break, and when she did, it was going to be spectacularly ugly for him.
“He’s already won,” she admitted. “I can’t beat him the legal way. He’s stacked the deck, and I only have one choice. He’s beaten me with the chance of using justice. Now, I have only one thing left.”
Sitting down, he picked up her hand.
“Elizabeth.”
She stared at their joined hands.
“He’s dead. When I find him, I’m going to make sure I make him pay for this. With each strike at me, he makes me more like him, and less like Elizabeth.”
He was to the point.
“I’ve seen some shit, Lyzee,” he admitted. “I’ve seen some things that would make the strongest people weep. Not every person deserves justice. They’re animals, and they deserve what they reap.”
She let him talk.
“He’s killed, he’s maimed, and he’s been foul. If you put him in jail, he’s definitely getting out. That’s not justice. He’ll buy a hung jury. He’ll get a lawyer just slimy enough to get him off. Sometimes, Boo, you have to be justice. This is likely one of those times.”
She stared at him.
“I took an oath.”
He understood that.
“We all did too. Life isNOTblack and white. Sometimes, you have to live outside those colors and dance with the devil in the gray area. You live in the gray. Justice holds a scale and sword. There comes a time when you have to use both.”
She appreciated him sitting with her.
“Will it make me a monster?” she asked. “My daddy always told me that when you break the law, you become what you hunt. Will I become a monster, Winn?”
He lifted her chin, and stared into her eyes.
“No. You’ll still be what hunts the monsters. Do you think I’m a monster for doing what I’ve had to do? I know you’ve read my very classified files. Or Ivan? Or Uriel? Why do you think Ivan is such a tight ass over rules? He’s had to break them. Why do you think Caspian meditates? He’s seen some shit. We all came back from breaking the rules because we’reNOTmonsters. We’re people who had to do a distasteful job to save lives.”
