I stepped a little closer despite Blaze practically radiating disapproval beside me.
“What happened?” I asked gently.
The girl’s bottom lip trembled instantly.
And just like that?—
She broke.
“I didn’t mean to find anything,” she whispered shakily. “I swear I didn’t.”
Ava reached toward her shoulder, but Isabel flinched hard enough the marshal stopped immediately.
Fear response.
Deep one.
My chest tightened painfully.
“She’s been running for two days,” Ava explained quietly. “Cartel hitters grabbed her aunt yesterday morning. Isabelbarely got out.”
The girl wrapped her arms tighter around herself.
“They killed Mateo.”
Trigger frowned. “Who’s Mateo?”
“My cousin.”
Her voice cracked apart completely.
“He tried to help me.”
Oh God.
That tone.
I knew that tone.
The sound guilt makes when it starts eating someone alive.
I crossed the room before I could stop myself.
Blaze caught my wrist gently.
“Flick.”
I looked up at him.
“He died because of me.”
His jaw tightened immediately because he knew exactly where my mind just went.
The people hurt after I agreed to testify.
The lives destroyed around me.
The constant feeling that survival itself was selfish.
