I open my mouth only to close it again. I may not be able to stand by and watch as he commits another murder but the thought of turning Flynn in is incomprehensible. My hand would stop listening to my mind before I even picked up the phone. I dig my fist into the pain in my gut and shake my head.
“Then you already are that person, Hazel.”
A sob chokes out of my chest and Wright grabs my face, raking her fingers through my hair before holding me steady. “It’s not a bad thing. It doesn’t make you a bad person, and it doesn’t make you any different than you’ve always been. We call them DMW’s, Haze. Dead Men Walking.”
I nod in her hold, trying to come to terms with the reality that I’m happy to let someone die even after what happened to my parents.
Wright’s blue eyes pierce into mine. “You know as well as I do the law doesn’t always get it right. Justice isn’t always served.” A darkness flickers in Wright’s gaze, a reminder of the battle she fights every day because of what was done to her. She and I are living, breathing examples of justice never being served and if Flynn was able to kill the man that hurt Wright, or the person who murdered my parents, I would want him to do it in a heartbeat. I would stand there and watch without blinking aneye. Maybe that makes me a bad person. But maybe it just makes me human.
“I want him,” I whisper, the confession ripping through my chest. “Despite everything he’s done. Despite everything he plans to do. I want him.”
Wright pulls my hand away from my stomach and twines her fingers with mine. “Maybe you should tell him that then.”
I nod.
Wright looks over my shoulder and I roll onto my back to see Livi standing in the door with a handful of tiny cameras.“I found them all,”she signs with one hand.“Is it ice cream time?”
“Fuck, yes,” Wright groans, and I laugh a little through the tears.
I tumble off the bed and follow Wright past Livi and out of my old room. Olivia stops me though, her hand feathering against my shoulder to get my attention. “Hazel, please be careful.”She holds up the cameras.“Anyone who goes to these lengths to keep an eye on you isn’t just going to let you go.”
31
A PERFECTLY HEALTHY COPING MECHANISM
Flynn
Lachlan has two black eyes.I didn’t break his nose, but I must have come close because the dark purple bruises bleed out under both his eye sockets. They look even worse in the car, only dim light filtering through from the streetlamp we’re parked by.
I don’t regret punching him, mainly because I don’t really do regret. I can, however, admit it may not have been entirely called for. It’s not his fault Hazel left and it did nothing to clear the building pressure in my head. Normally, violence is a sure-fire way to make the buzzing disappear, but I have a feeling it won’t go away until I’ve got Hazel back in my arms.
My hand itches to take out my phone and check the cameras, just so I can see her, but I know she wouldn’t want me to do that right now, so I bite on my cheek until I taste blood to curb the instinct.
“He’s leaving,” Lachlan says, eyes on the house across the street.
I twist in my seat to watch Danny Jones, the senator’s aide, walk down the steps to his house and get into his car. I check the clock on the dashboard. It’s 2am. “Bit late for a nighttime drive.”
“Want me to follow him?” Lach reaches for the ignition, but I shake my head.
“I have a better idea.” I reach for the door and slip out into the night.
“What are you doing?” Lachlan demands, climbing out after me.
I spin in the middle of the road and flash him a joyless smile. “It’s called breaking and entering brother.”
“We came to watch and prepare, not to break in tonight.”
“Plans change. We’re hardly going to figure out if Danny was Hope’s secret boyfriend by sitting out here in the car.”
Lachlan strides over to me, keeping pace as I head to Danny’s house. “You’re being reckless,” he mutters.
“I’m never reckless.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve never been broken up with before.”
I stop dead in my tracks, precariously close to finishing the job and breaking my brother’s nose. “We’re not broken up,” I say, my words flat. “She just needs a little time to adjust.”
Lach rolls his eyes. “You’re delusional.”
