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But those bodies were never people I knew. Never people I loved.
Jayela hadn’t just been stabbed. The red gash across her throat and the pool of blood her body lay in were all telltale signs of the brutality she’d endured in her last moments.
Agony rushed my system, as strong and swift as a raging current, bringing the guilt and shame and horror right along with it. Pain pierced my chest, my gut, my heart. A thousand stabbing spears that mimicked Jayela’s wounds.
Another scream caught my attention.
“We’re going to have to sedate her,” someone murmured, backing away from the huddled ball of a person in the corner.
Mae. She had her arms tucked tight around her knees, rocking back and forth, staring at her sister with unfocused eyes.
“Nobody is sedating her,” I snapped.
“We need to get her out of here, but she keeps thrashing out every time anyone goes near her.” The cop stared at Mae like she was some sort of science experiment.
Did he expect her to be turning cartwheels? Idiot. “Wouldn’t you? That’s her sister.”
The man had the sense not to say anything.
I squatted, grateful for something else to focus on. Because I couldn’t keep looking at Jayela. If I did, it might all sink in, and I couldn’t afford to break down. Not here.
“Mae.” I reached out to touch her.
Her head jerked my direction, and she threw her arms out, kicking and screaming and clawing at me. I jumped back.
The other cop gave me a ‘I told you so’ stare.
I’d never wanted to punch someone so much in my life. “You don’t touch her, you hear me?”
I waited for him to agree, then stormed back out through the hall and living area and stuck my head out the main door. “Tori. Will.”
Tears streamed down Tori’s face. “I can hear Mae’s screams, and they won’t let me in.”
“She’s hysterical. They want to call in paramedics to sedate her.”
“What? No, let me in. Let me talk to her first.”
I didn’t give a shit that I was breaking every protocol. It was what Jayela would have done. “My thoughts exactly.” Tori and Will both pressed forward, but at the last second, I grabbed Tori’s arm. I knew she was close with both Mae and Jayela. “Hey. Can you handle this? It’s…bad.” I couldn’t bring myself to explain exactly how bad it was. I could barely begin to process that myself.
Another scream from Mae came from deep inside the apartment, and determination hardened Tori’s eyes. “Let me in, Boston.”
I stepped back and then followed the two of them down to Jayela’s bedroom.
Tori flew to her best friend’s side, only a slight fumble and a muffled cry giving away that she’d noticed Jayela’s body. Will dropped down beside them, wrapping his arms around Mae, lifting her from the floor. Her screams cut off when she realized who they were, and she allowed the two of them to usher her out of the room.
But when the bedroom door closed behind them, that left me with nothing to focus on but the cold hard truth of what had happened.
I stared at my best friend. And all I could think about was the last words we’d said to each other. She’d been mad at me. Disappointed in the fact I hadn’t backed her up. She’d walked away angry.
That was how things would finish with us. There’d be no chance for apologies. No chance for explaining. This was the end.
A lump rose in my throat that made it hard to breathe. I wanted to bend over, put my head between my knees, and ward off the impending breakdown that was coming.
But I didn’t get to do that. Because I was a cop, and it was my job to find her killer.
So I took every raw edge, every frayed nerve, every choking breath, and let myself feel them. I stared at Jayela’s blood soaking into the mattress and let the anger come. I couldn’t fall apart. That wasn’t going to help Jayela. That wasn’t going to show her that I was still the same cop I’d been when I left the academy. The one she’d been proud of. So I let the rage stitch together the broken parts of me and made a silent promise to my best friend.
I’d fix this.
