Cruel.
Satisfied.
“She watched them execute three people.”
The room went dead silent.
Every Ranger.
Every officer.
Every person froze.
My vision blurred instantly.
Because suddenly I wasn’t in Eagle River anymore.
I was back in Las Vegas.
Back in concrete shadows and blood pooling beneath fluorescent lights.
“No,” Hersh said quietly.
Not denial.
Pain.
Pure pain.
Vaughn kept talking anyway.
“She hid behind a car while one of the girls begged for her life.”
“Hersh…”
My voice cracked completely.
Vaughn turned his head slightly toward me despite Wolf nearly crushing him into the floor.
“You should’ve stayed hidden, sweetheart.”
Something snapped.
Not in me.
In Hersh.
I felt it happen.
The entire room felt it happen.
One second he was kneeling in front of me.
The next?—
He stood.
Slowly.
