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“No,” he whispered.
“Tell me something else. Something happier.”
Finn’s mind drew a blank.
Jewel’s face poked over the side of the bed. He saw the hump of curls that made up her bun, the delicate eyebrows arched high and the doe-like eyes. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember anything.”
“Of course I do.”
She pursed her lips. “Really?”
“Give me a minute. I’ll think of one.”
Jewel huffed out a breath and stared intently at him, thick eyelashes fanning up and down.
Finn glanced away and searched his mind for a happy memory, a good one.
He closed his eyes. Immediately, an image of Courtney’s cold body sprung to mind. Blonde hair tangled in dirt. Blue eyes open, unseeing. Nothing covering her lower half from view.
He grunted, searching desperately for another memory.
In the void of darkness, he saw his father bowled over her casket, his pathetic wails swallowed up by the stormy sky and the rain drops that fell and turned the ground to mush.
He almost busted a vein struggling to remember the curve of Courtney’s smile, the sound of her laughter, or the sparkle in her eyes.
Eventually, Finn gave up.
His life was so consumed with revenge that it was difficult to remember a time before everything went to crap.
“Forget it.” Jewel sighed and crawled away from view. He heard the bed creaking as it adjusted to accept her weight.
His chest tightened and Finn sat up, unable to breathe. His sister had become his entire world. After her death, he swore that he would track down the man who’d hurt her and end his life.
But there was more to Courtney’s story than the shadow of her death.
Why couldn’t he remember anything else?
“You know,” Jewel said softly, “I have no idea how your sister died and I’m getting the feeling that I shouldn’t ask, but I do have a little experience with feeling responsible for your sibling.”
Silence filled the room while they both wrestled with their own demons.
“I guess what I’m trying to say,” Jewel finally whispered, “is that it’s okay, Finn. You’re okay.”
The clamp around his heart tightened and her words bounced right off him.
No, it wasn’t okay. Courtney was six-feet-under while the man who’d strangled her to death was gallivanting around the world ruining other girls, ruining other families.
But instead of speaking up and revealing how much this subject was getting to him, Finn forced himself to lie back down and stare at the ceiling.
His obsession with justice was a sacrifice. So what if he couldn’t remember anything else about his sister? Those memories would come after he’d fulfilled his mission.
Kross would die.
And then Finn would find a way to rebuild his life.
16
Muffled screams shattered the air. Jewel trembled and forced her gaze to the bed where a naked woman lay beneath Kross’s fit body. He was choking her, slender hands tightening over her pale throat.
