Page 227 of Nyx

Kincaid handed me a box of tissues when I began to cry, and when I had to pause after the details of Kayla getting stabbed, Nyx placed his hand on my thigh for comfort.

"Anything else you can think of?" Agent Rankin asks.

I shake my head.

"Why was she working with him?" I ask after a long beat of silence.

"We've discovered that he had made promises about helping her with her case," he explains.

"Help her how?" I ask.

Agent Rankin looks over at Colton as if he's trying to decide whether he’s already given me too much information, but the look shared between the two of them doesn't keep him from explaining further.

"She didn't have money for an attorney. Whitmore had deep pockets."

"She betrayed me to help her daughter," I whisper, knowing that had I been put in the same situation, I would've done whatever it took to make sure my child wasn't going to be victimized by the man who was hurting me. It was why I was leaving. I didn't feel like I was worth the risk of leaving to avoid Graham's abuse, but I knew my babies were.

I can't even be mad at her, other than wishing she knew the true Graham before she agreed to whatever it was he wanted her to do.

"And Aleah's father?" I ask, praying that he won't be able to get custody now that Kayla is dead. "Will he get custody now?"

Instead of saying a word, another look is shared, only this time, Agent Rankin looks at Colton first before glancing over at Kincaid.

When he looks back at me, he seems a little different than he did before, and the change makes me more nervous than I was when I first walked into the room.

"Something has happened," I say.

"It has," he says, but in a way that doesn't make me feel like he's purposely avoiding the explanation, but that he's trying to determine how I'm going to react to the news.

"Tell me," I insist as I sit a little straighter in the chair, trying to prepare myself for news I have no idea what the context is.

Agent Rankin pulls in a deep breath before reaching out and turning off the recording app on his phone.

"There was an altercation in the jail last night," Rankin begins. "Conversations between the jailers were overheard as they discussed what happened at the parking garage."

"Okay," I say, still not having a clue what could've happened to make this conversation and explanation take so long.

"By the time Graham Whitmore had made it through processing, Glenn Pace, Kalya's ex and Aleah's father, had already heard the news," Agent Rankin explains.

My hands shake under the table, and Nyx curls his fingers a little more into my thigh, not in a way that hurts, but just as an assurance that he's right beside me no matter where this conversation leads.

"The inmates formulated a plan, and it was executed early this morning during their bathroom break after breakfast."

I shake my head. "You're saying a lot of words, but really aren't telling me anything."

"Glenn Pace used a shank against Graham Whitmore this morning," Agent Rankin continues. "He slit his throat and watched him bleed out while others kept guard and made sure they wouldn't be interrupted."

"Graham was hurt?" I ask, my voice sounding distant.

"He was killed," Agent Rankin clarifies.

I freeze, my eyes open but somehow unseeing. Flashes of my life since I was in high school rush through my head. Meeting Graham, dating him, marrying him, being abused by him.

This news does nothing to change my feelings about the man. My mind doesn't try to tell me I made mistakes or took the wrong steps. He isn't suddenly turning into someone who deserves a second chance. He was a monster, and he died a monster.

"Dead?" Nyx growls beside me. "You're telling us he's gone?"

"Yes, sir," Rankin says, his voice firm and professional.