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He’s goading me, I know he is. But that doesn’t stop relief from slamming into me at the words.
Maddoc may be a piece of shit who betrayed me, but he was right about one thing. He never actually lied, and I can’t bring myself to believe he’s doing it now. There’s just something about his dominant nature that makes it impossible to picture, like he’s arrogant enough to think lying is beneath him.
And right now, that means he’s telling me the truth. They haven’t found Chloe yet.
But that still doesn’t mean she’s safe.
He smiles grimly, like he’s reading my mind. “But we will find her.”
I swallow hard. “What do you even want with her?”
No one answers me.
Of course they don’t.
“You asshole,” I hiss, narrowing my eyes at Maddoc. “Just fucking tell me already!”
“The way you’re prepared to tell us where it is she’s gone?” Maddoc asks in a clipped voice that betrays no emotion at all.
I laugh. It’s either that or cry. He’s the most stubborn, unbending man I’ve ever met, and for all that I thought we’d had somemoments, some kind of connection growing between us, he’s put my sister in danger and betrayed my trust.
And he has the nerve to be angry at me.
My throat closes up. No, that’s not what guts me. It’s that he doesn’t even seem sorry about any of it. Not at all.
“You don’t know where she is,” Maddoc says after a breath, stating it like it’s a fact. An accusation that I’ve failed her.
And he’s right.
“But you probably know the parts of the city she’s familiar with,” he goes on. “Places she’d feel safe. People she might have turned to.”
I shake my head, turning away and blinking fast as tears sting the back of my eyelids again.
There’s nowhere in Halston Chloe would feel safe. No one in the city for her to turn to for sanctuary.
“I’m not telling you anything,” I whisper, hating the way my voice gives me away when it cracks.
Maddoc’s jaw tightens. “Then you’ve done more than just put her in danger by sending her out there on her own. You’re the one who’s going to be responsible for leaving her out there in harm’s way.”
The harsh truth in his words hurt worse than when he belted me.
“You asshole!” I scream, lunging at him only to have the handcuffs rip into my abused wrists like molten steel. This time, I don’t ignore the pain, I let it fuel me. “Youdid this, not me. Chloe is in danger because of you fucking Reapers! Because all she is to you is someone else to be used! Because you don’t fucking care—”
I choke off my words. I’ve already shown them too much of my heart. They don’t get any more.
Maddoc doesn’t flinch, but his glare turns murderous. Still, when he finally answers me, his voice is so calm that it cuts into me before I even know he’s sliced.
“Wrong, Riley. This one’s all on you. And all you have to do to fix it, to save your sister, is tell us where to look. Help us find her before it’s too late.”
Fear twists my gut.
Fear that he might be right.
But doing what he wants would mean trusting him again, and been there, done that… and instead of a commemorative t-shirt, all I got was fucked over and made to look a fool.
No, all I got was this. Chloe is gone again. I’m still the Reapers’ prisoner.
But this time, there’s no one to turn to.
