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Jord rolled the car to a stop in front of us, and I sat us in the back, not willing to let Lola sit on her own. She curled up into the corner behind the driver’s seat, staring out of the window and clutching her shaking hands in her lap.
I had questions, so many questions, and I couldn’t vocalize one of them. I was trapped, not able to escape the confines being a DEA agent had put me in. I was Lola’s enemy right now, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
We pulled into the lot and exited the car. I led Lola inside and to the same room Hut was put in when we took him down. The only difference was that she wasn’t wearing cuffs. That was a line I refused to step over. She wasn’t a danger to us, and technically, we hadn’t read her her rights, a fact I was well aware of.
I was blurring the lines, but I didn’t think twice about it.
We entered the room, and I pointed at the chair. “Sit there. I’ll go and get you some clean clothes.”
She didn’t acknowledge me, and I puffed out a breath. Today was not meant to go like this. I wanted to see her, but not in this way. I worked on automatic, getting a bag to put her clothes in for evidence, and getting her a paper bodysuit to dress in. Jord was standing outside the door when I got back, and when I went to step inside, he blocked me.
“You can’t do this, Brody.” His dark eyes met mine, portraying what I already knew. “You go in there and ask her anything, you’re only gonna make it worse for her. You know that.” He held his hand out to me, and I placed the bag and suit in his palms. “We got your back, B. Never doubt that.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say as he opened the door, and gave me a glimpse of her huddled in the corner, her wide eyes begging me to help her. I was helping her in the best way I could, and that was by letting someone else take the reins.
“Brody,” Aaron’s voice called.
I turned around, seeing his carefully impassive face. “Need you in my office when this is done.” I didn’t need to know how he knew what “this” was. He had eyes and ears everywhere. He probably knew the second we’d gotten in the car to come here.
I paced the floor outside the interview room, watching the door and listening for any signs of distress. I didn’t know how long I did that until a hand landed on my shoulder.
“They’re about to talk to her,” Ryan said. He tilted his head to the room we used to watch people through the two-way mirror. “Come on.”
I followed him, my hands clenched at my sides, and my teeth grinding together. There was nothing worse than being on the outskirts and not knowing what was happening. I shut the door behind us, basking us in the dimly lit room, and stared through the mirror. Lola was still huddled in the corner, her eyes squeezed shut and her arms wrapped around her body.
“Can you walk us through what happened, Miss Martin?” Kyle asked, throwing her a reassuring smile she couldn’t see. He was the softest-spoken one out of all three of us, so I was glad it was him asking her the questions. But he should have waited. She was in no state to answer anything, and even though protocol said to get the information when it was fresh in someone’s mind, I hated it right then.
Kyle moved his chair back, the legs scraping against the floor, and she flinched, trying to back away into a corner she was already melted into. “Please, no,” her cracked voice begged, and every single hair on my body stood on end. She was breaking apart, and I was standing there, witnessing it while doing nothing to stop it.
No. I could do something to stop it.
I spun around and took two steps to the door. “Don’t,” Ryan warned, but I ignored him and kept going. I pushed open the interview room door and stepped inside.
“We’re not doing this,” I ground out at Kyle and Jord, my gaze focused on Lola who was still in the corner. Her hair was a matted mess with scratches on one side of her face and a visible boot print on the other. Dirt was caked over her skin, blood under her fingernails. But none of that affected me the way her eyes did when they opened and looked directly at me.
I stumbled back a step from the impact her hazel orbs had on me. They told me she was broken, that she wasn’t in this room with us, but back there with Hut and whatever had transpired between them.
Slow steps forward had me closer to her, and when I was in reaching distance, I offered her my hand. “Let’s go, darlin’.”
A noise escaped from the back of her throat, an echo I’d never forget. She sounded like an injured animal and looked like one too.
“Brody, you can’t—”
“I can,” I answered Jord. “She’s in no fit state. Look at her.” I didn’t look away from her, begging her with my eyes to take my hand. “Please, Lola. I’ll take care of you, I promise.”
She unwrapped her arms from around herself, her shaky hand reaching mine, and as soon as our fingertips touched, I encased her whole hand. She winced from the contact, but I held strong. She needed me to be there and to take care of her. I needed to protect her, even if it were from herself.
Chapter Thirteen
LOLA
I was scared of what I’d see if I looked down at myself. Would my hands be covered in blood? Would my skin be different? Would the bruises only mask what I did? What about when they disappeared? Would everyone know I had killed a person?
I’d killed him.
I’d plunged the knife into his throat and not thought twice about it.
Maybe I should have regretted it, but I didn’t. I didn’t regret it, and I should have. I should have wanted to take it back. To rewind time and change the outcome. But the reality was, nothing would have stopped Hut. He would have always been there, waiting for the perfect time to strike. And yet…
