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“You said they have people outside who can do things for them!” I struggle against his powerful grip and consider biting. If only I thought it would make him let go. “You promised to be straight with me! You said you’d always tell the truth. So don’t stand here and tell me the fact he’s in cuffs means she’s safe.”
“Aurora—”
“He knows where she is!” I cry. “He knows she’s dying. He knows everything, which means Vallejo’s people have already been there. They’ve already seen her.”
“And she’s still alive.” He fists my wrists and yanks me closer until our chests slam together and the collision empties my lungs. His eyes, green and gold and fiery enough to make my heart squeeze, burn me where I stand, and scare me enough to still. “She’s alive, Little Bird. If she wasn’t, you’d have already been called. So whatever their plans, they aren’t to kill a dying woman.”
“Drake…” I whine, tears plopping onto my cheeks. “She’s vulnerable.”
“No.” He gentles his tone and rolls his bottom lip between his teeth. “Youare vulnerable. You are their target. You are the one who saw what you saw, and now they want to shutyoudown. Not your mom. Not a woman who can’t leave the hospital anyway. She serves no purpose at all, except to be your Achilles.”
“What if they hurt her anyway? What if they do it to flush me out?”
“They won’t.” He releases my wrists but wraps his arms around my shoulders and crushes me close so I feel his heart pound against mine. I feel his anger coursing through his veins. The way he cares that I live, so my testimony can avenge his friend’s murder. “I’ll say this as gently as I can, Little Bird.” He pulls back, but only so he can look down into my eyes. “Your mom is useless to them. She’s already too sick. Her death is already too close.”
“She’s not useless.” My soul aches with a pain so deep, I’m not sure I’d be standing if not for Drake holding me up. “She’s the most amazing human on this planet. It’s not fair that they’ve—”
“I know.” He pulls me in again and squeezes. “It’s not fair.”
“She deserves to have me with her right now. She deserves to see me every single day,” I cry. “She doesn’t have many left.”
“I know.” He rests his chin on top of my head and exhales so his breath warms my scalp. “It’s not fair you’ve been tossed into this shit show.”
“I don’t want to be here anymore.” I sniffle back the long line of snot working to escape my nose and close my eyes. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“I know.” He squeezes me closer and rubs the tips of his fingers against the ball of my shoulder. “Those bad men did this,” he croons. “They did all this. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Like with the car accident,” I whimper. “Wrong place, wrong time.”
“And now you have pins in your leg,” he agrees. “It’s not fair.”
“Judy Jinx,” I sigh. But those words are just for me. No one else would understand them. No one else would have the capacity to process just how hellbent Judy is on ruining my life. “I want to see my mom.”
“I’ll make it happen.” He draws a pattern against my shoulder and brings me down frompanicked chaosto a more reasonableheart is broken but we’re all okay. “I promise. I’ll get you over to see her.”
“Alright.” The door slams open, startling me back until I hit a table I hadn’t even noticed was in here. Then Archer Malone strides through with a different folder. A different file. But the very same rage in his expression he left with. He spares a glance for me and Drake, as Drake places my cane in my hand and wraps my fingers around the handle. But he says nothing about the tears on my cheeks, or the swelling I feel in my eyes. He says nothing about how Drake stands over me, or the moisture soaking into his shirt. “Marcos Buchanan.” Archer pulls out a chair at the table and holds it, waiting for me to sit down.
I draw a shuddering breath deep into my chest and straighten my shoulders. Judy wants to hurt me, but I’ll be damned if I take it with my body hunched and my nervous system spazzing out in fear.
“Number Seven?” I settle into the chair and glance back as Detective Fletcher wanders into the room and closes the door. “Are you saying Number Seven’s name is Marcos Buchanan?”
“Yes.” Archer pulls out a chair opposite me and spreads the file so I catch mugshots and rap sheets. Pages and pages of crimes Marcos has committed. Warrants for his arrest. Time he’s already spent in prison. “Do you recognize him from anywhere else in your life?” He places a head shot down between my hands and peers into my eyes. “Thirty-six-years-old, unmarried, three kids to three women, but he sees none of them regularly. He’s not a well-known gun around these parts, but we’ve caught a couple connections between him and Vallejo. Which is why he’s here.”
“Do you know him?” Fletch asks, leaning over the table and resting his hand by the file. “Ever seen him before Monday night?”
“No.” I spin a long braid around my hand and study Buchanan’s horrible eyes. His stubbled jaw. His receding hairline. “No,” I repeat when I realize they’re waiting for more. “I’ve never seen him before Monday. I remember hearing his name when I was running after the murder. Someone shouted ‘Marcos,’ I think.” I inhale a deep breath and let it go again. “I remember him from the murder. I have no doubt in my mind.” But then I shake my head. “I haven’t seen him since.”
“He wasn’t in her house last night either,” Drake inserts seriously. “Why was he part of the initial kill crew, but not the cleanup?”
Archer only shrugs and sits back in his chair. “Dunno. But he made it really fucking easy for us to pull him in here today.”
My heart shudders in my chest. “W-what do you mean?”
“He means,” Fletcher rumbles, “Buchanan has been a wanted man for the better part of eighteen months. Detectives inside this station have twelve active cases open with his name attached. Cops have been looking for him for a while, and today, he just so happens to get caught lifting a car?”
“He wanted to be here.” Drake turns from the table and inches the door open to peer into the bullpen outside. “He needed to be near her.”
“To let her know he knows,” Archer ponders thoughtfully. “To let her know they know who she is.”
