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The room goes completely silent because like everyone else, I know I didn’t just hear what I think I heard. “What does that mean?”
Rubio clears his throat. “It means alleged just turned into false.”
Angel recoils as if he slapped her. “What? No that’s impossible.”
The doctor gives her a cold look, and that’s when I see it. The distance he’s keeping. The clipped words and monotone voice. He thinks she’s lying.
“I’m afraid the detective is right, Miss Romanov. There’s no evidence of trauma, no evidence of penetration, nothing to remotely suggest sexual activity of any nature. Not only that, the tox screen came back negative. You weren’t drugged.”
“No!” Angel screams. “Do it again. You did it wrong!”
I hold his stare. “There has to be some mistake.”
“I’m sorry, but there’s not. The tests are accurate. Even if the alleged assailant wore a condom, there would still be internal abrasions.”
“But my hands, my throat. I have bruises!” Shoving her arms forward, she twists them in the air. I can feel her panic. “And I can’t remember!”
The doctor shrugs, and I have to curl my fists by my side to stop myself from choking him with his own stethoscope. “Sometimes our minds play tricks on us. There might have been assault, Miss Romanov, but it wasn’t sexual.”
The doctor says a few more words neither of us hear and then leaves. I don’t give a shit about him. My focus is too centered on Angel as her eyes widen, the hell of the last few hours drawing her into a vortex of hopeless despair. Her chest rises and falls at an uneven pace. There’s a confusion splitting her beautiful face, imprisoning half in this world while the other half drifts away to a distant reality. One I’ve fought like hell to keep her from seeing.
“It was. It was. It was.” She keeps repeating those two words in a hushed cadence.
I’m guilty. I’ll burn in hell for the things I’ve done, but I won’t be alone.
And I won’t go first.
I kiss Angel’s cheek, but I don’t even think she notices. Which is probably for the best. I don’t think I could leave hearing her scream for me, knowing I may never come back.
Halfway across the room, I stop in front of Rubio. “You don’t like me, and I don’t like you. But this isn’t about us,” I tell him, steel lacing my tone. “I’m asking as a man trying to protect a woman. Will you stay with her?” Gritting my teeth, I add, “Please?”
He narrows his eyes. “Where are you going?”
I’m already out the door by the time I answer, “To stop a clock.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
ANGEL
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I quietly repeat Dominic’s words again. Even though hours have passed, and it’s the dark, early hours of the morning, I still say them in the vain hope they’ll gain more strength. That they’ll break through this captivity before the sun breaks above the horizon.
Before a new day comes and proves him wrong.
A shudder tears through me, causing Dominic to stir, his arm tightening around me from behind. Even in his sleep, his instinct is to protect me, which both comforts my soul and chills me to the bone. I fight the urge to pull away, repeating his promise as the last few hours speed through my mind.
“Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Romanov, the rape kit was negative.”
“Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I’m sorry Miss Romanov, the tox screen came back negative.”
“Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I went to Silverline to confront Rosten, rook. He wasn’t there. The night guard said he hasn’t been there for two days.”
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I whisper, but this time, my voice breaks. If I can’t make those words true, then I’ve lost. The spark that’s kept me alive through my darkest days flickers out. There’s no fight left. I always survived by believing you don’t drown by standing in the rain as long as you run from the storm. What I failed to realize is that some people are just meant to drown.
