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When Kade’s hand whitens on the door handle, I focus on what it means. He’s holding back for now. That won’t last long. Everything in me wants to retreat, but I force myself to take a deliberate step down the stairs. “Don’t, Kade!”
Kade doesn’t turn. “Go back upstairs, angel. I’ll deal with this.”
A door upstairs creaks open a little wider. Dariel must be getting ready to come down here, and I know why he would. There’s a note in Kade’s voice that makes it clear exactly how he intends to deal withthis. A way that will end up with a body in the entryway. I’d rather it was the cop and not Kade, but I’m not willing to risk it being Kade.
“What do you want?” I ask the cop, looking him right in the eye.
Those sharp brown orbs scan me, take in the bites on my throat, and narrow as they linger on the scar I carved into my left wrist. Back then, the only way I thought I could escape Rylan was in a body bag. That’s how desperate Rylan made me. Would I make the same call again? I don’t know. I’d like to think now I’d take that steak knife and plunge it into Felix instead of myself.
But shame, like fear, is another creature I have no control over, so I turn my wrist inward so he can’t see my weakness.
When he refocuses his big brown eyes on mine, they’re missing the hostility and disgust swimming in Detectives Ferdinand and Bradley’s gazes. “My name is Detective Jake Morgan. You don’t know me, Miss Leo, but I know about you, and I’m here to talk to you about the man who I believe was responsible for all those scars.”
My heart thuds in alarm.
Did Rylan send a crooked cop to bring me back? Is he just like the expensive lawyer he has on retainer?
I inch up a step, ready to run.
As if he can read my mind, he lifts both hands in the universal sign of peace. “It’s not what you think. Ten years ago, my sister went missing. We never found a body, but she was going to meet Rylan Trevailer. I believe he killed my sister, and I believe you know how I can put him away for the rest of his life. I came to speak with you because I need your help.”
CHAPTER 11
ADEN
“Aden?” A male voice tugs on my consciousness.
A familiar male voice.
I should know it. Just need to think. Just need a second for it to make sense.
I blink my eyes open. Feel…strange.
And the world is…
Different.
I blink again. Everything is too sharp, too much to take in.
Don’t trust it.
Use nose, a voice in my head growls.Trust smells.
I sniff.
Clean lemon. Amber wood. Old blood.
Smells like… Dariel?
He comes into view and crouches in front of me, just beside a bed that smells like him.
I absorb his strong nose and olive skin, his dark hair and the vivid green eyes narrowed in concentration. His brow is furrowed.
He’s worried.
About what?
He cocks his head, green eyes watchful. “How do you feel?”
