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Kordin smiles at the unusually tall man beside him before addressing me, saying, “Darling, don’t give any credibility to this con artist by repeating his unfounded allegations.” He says it so calmly he might as well be ordering a niçoise salad from the building café, but then his voice hardens as do his features when he adds, “To me or to anybody else.”
I don’t miss the threat in his words. I just don’t acknowledge it, instead injecting a healthy dose of fear into my voice to see if I can evoke any in his while asking, “Are you going to jail?”
Sadly, I get none as Kordin and the man chuckle before the latter steps forward, allowing me to read his name tag. Hull.
Am I going to jail? Is this the moment Kordin throws me under the bus, revealing his true intentions for marrying me?
After a leering perusal of my appearance I feel all the way down to my marrow, Chief Hull only says, “Apologies for the disturbance, Mrs. Debrosse, but this is routine procedure when we receive tips of this nature.”
Chief Hull has a script, too, and it includes another routine procedure that favors the rich but fucks everybody else.
Kordin’s the one actually embezzling millions while Reece is only allegedly guilty of forging documents, yet these pigs are acting like it’s the opposite. The hollow’s cracking jokes and the fox is being manhandled.
This is not at all what I was expecting. I assumed it’d be a full-blown witch hunt, with Kordin’s finger pointed in my direction and Chief Hull and his men gleefully stringing me up. Even with a firsthand witness, saying it was Kordin, why isn’t he at least trying to pin this on me? That was his whole objective from the start.
Unless he doesn’t need to. If Chief Hull can make individuals disappear, what are “unfounded allegations” to him? Child’s play probably.
They’re going to make this go away.
After all, if I’m investigated, any accounts with my name on them will be, too, and there goes Kordin’s secret reserve.
Reece is yanked off my desk, revealing the work orders he set there.
I gather the sheets and thrust them toward Kordin.
“These have my name on them, but they’re not mine. Why did you put my name on them?”
Kordin’s humor evaporates quicker than a lightning strike, and no longer concerned with keeping up the kind-husband act, he snarls, “Shut your mouth, Lenox,”
There’s a scuffle on my left that I ignore to press, “Were you trying to make it look like I was the one misappropriating funds?”
“Not another word.”
“Does Kaisin know what you’ve been doing? I want to talk to him and—”
I get cut off as I’m hauled back by my elbow.
“No need for that, ma’am. We’ll just be in and out. But we will be taking these.” Snatching the documents out of my hand, the cop passes them over to Chief Hull without letting me go.
Chief Hull rolls them up and taps one end against a thigh, not handling them with the care one would expect a professional to treat evidence.
Reece appears next to us—still handcuffed, still silent—and head-butts the pig restraining me, causing him to release me in order to cup his now leaking nose.
Reece’s turbulent gaze connects with mine for a split second, the rest of the world exploding into utter oblivion around us until it’s just the two of us. One of his eyebrows is split open, causing a thin stream of blood to flow down his nose and lips, dripping off his chin to the carpet. He’s terrifyingly beautiful, and…I love him. Despite my best efforts, I fell in love with Reece. There’s nobody else I’d rather get jealous over, fight against, stay up all night fucking, laughing at, listening to, admiring his every feature while he’s fast asleep, gaze at the moon with, kiss amid the snow with, learn from, teach, kill for.
Even after I impaled his heart, twisted the knife, and pulled it back out, leaving him with nothing but fallacies to staunch the wound with, he’sstillwilling to take on anyone and everyone to protect me. I questioned his ability to do it using only one hand, but he just showed he could do it with none.
Suddenly, one equally bloody cop tackles him to the floor, bringing our surroundings back into focus.
The gasp that leaves me as two more pile on top of Reece is real. The agony I feel when all three officers proceed to elbow and knee Reece is real.
I watch Reece thrash from the simultaneous beatings, the sickening chaos a physical representation of my own internal struggle.
I tried to protect him, too. I eliminated Reece’s tormentor and he eliminated mine. Yet neither of us are free.
Kordin’s scrutinizing stare scrapes my skin worse than his cast did.
Making myself look away, I focus on my husband instead. Did he see what passed between us? Does he understand Reece’s actions?
