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And my heart shatters. He’s hurting so bad. The extent of what he knows is just a drop in the water compared to the truth.
“Freeze! Hands where we can see them!” booms across the room, and all of us go rigid.
“Hands up! Let me see those hands!” another voice commands.
“She’s in cuffs!” Damien groans. “I’m Agent Caden Bradley. I need medical assistance, please.”
I watch as the place is swarmed with Feds. A couple of them come toward me and another runs toward Damien. Or, actually, Agent Bradley.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” an older guy asks me as he takes off the cuffs. “We need medical assistance over here too. Her wrists are pretty bad.”
“What?” My face scrunches as I move my arms once they are released. The soreness and pain radiate through me.
“We need to get you seen. Your wrists are badly cut,” a second younger guy in a Feds vest informs me.
Ignoring them, my eyes flit toward the guys, and I see them being put in handcuffs. “No! They’re innocent! They came to look for me!” I scream and run toward them.
The younger agent pulls me back. “Miss. Stop. Let them do their job. Once we know who is who, they will be let go.”
“But they were trying to save me,” I insist.
He nods. “I get that. But we need to clear the scene first. I promise, if they are truly innocent, they will be freed.”
I watch as they cuff David, who is somehow still alive. Then they help Agent Bradley, while others cover the bodies of Aaron and Ledger. I watch as they walk toward the body of my mother.
And I drop to my knees and let out a blood-curdling scream.
Chapter Thirty-Six
AURORA
THREE WEEKS LATER
“You sure youwant to do this?” Xayden wraps his arm around me.
It’s been a couple weeks since my entire world fell apart. Well, since all our worlds fell apart. Everything that came out over the last couple weeks has thrown us all into a spin of what the fuck.
Dekker and Xayden learning about what their dads were involved in wrecked them. Seven’s dad was even involved and arrested. He had worked behind the scenes to hide evidence and some other computer things that helped Aaron get Ledger out. That came as a complete blow to all of us.
And as it turns out, David wasn’t lying. Theydidgo into witness protection. My parents were in hiding. Someone recognized my father; even though he had changed his appearance a bit, it wasn’t enough. David found his brother and killed him.
“Yeah. It’s time to say goodbye.” I blow my nose into a Kleenex. I have been dreading this day for the last couple weeks.
A part of me I think hoped the medical examiner would never release her body. As sad as that is to say, if she was never released, I wouldn’t have to bury her. To say goodbye to my mother.
In my mind, that moment still plays over and over in my head. The guys have all suggested therapy, and I have agreed to see a therapist. Maybe it will help me sleep at night. Maybe then I will be able to turn the lights off.
Maybe I can be normal again.
How can you be normal after watching you mother be murdered?
I can still smell the death. See the blood on the floor. Hear the sounds of each gunshot going off. The hands of the asshole who tried to rape me still make me want to puke. And a lot of that night I still have a hard time processing.
Like Damien. Or should I say Agent Caden Bradley.
When he was recovering in the hospital, I went to go see him. He saved me that day. Even though he held a gun to my head a few times, left me in a parking lot at a drive-in, and was a total asshole, he still saved me.
And I get why he had to. I get why he had to be that way toward me. He couldn’t blow his cover.