Page 107 of Royal

Phoenix puffed out a breath and ran a hand through his black hair. “He’ll stay in jail until they decide where he’ll stand trial.”

“Do you think they’ll be lenient on him?” I asked, not sure which answer I wanted to hear.

A huge part of me wanted Alex to burn in hell and rot for what he did, not only to Royal, but to the eleven other people he’d killed. Thirteen, counting Robert Fry and his fiancé, who Royal told us about after his rescue. Yet, another part of me knew Alex wasn’t mentally stable, and I wasn’t sure he deserved to be treated like he was.

“Unlikely, but not impossible,” Phoenix answered. “It depends on the defense attorney. They can plead insanity, as well as put forth a plethora of motions to help him, but a defense is only as good as the attorney working on it.”

A silence passed between us.

My thoughts were consumed by Alex and how he’d been abused by his dad. We’d both suffered at the hands of our fathers, yet we’d gone down completely different paths. He’d let the rage and suffering from the abuse break him, and I’d used mine as fuel to do better.

“Regardless of leniency, Alex will never be free again,” Phoenix said with indifference. “He’ll either get life in prison, the death penalty, or he’ll go to a long-term psychiatric institution.”

Phoenix stepped forward and unpinned Lauren Parks’ photo. All of the victims’ pictures were removed, one at a time, before he tucked them into a folder. The empty board seemed even more haunting than when the pictures had been pinned up.

“How do you do this?” I asked, looking at him. His eyes shifted to me. “How do you take these cases, seeing all the victims and learning about the horrible ways they died, and keep doing it? One after the other? Case after case?”

“It took me a while to learn how, but the trick is not to take it home with you,” he answered. “I stare at their faces. I let myself feel the horror of it. And then I pack it all away once I leave the room. Some cases are harder than others, though.”

“Okay, enough of this gloomy shit,” I said, clapping my hands before rubbing them together. “I told you that when all of this was over, I’d buy you a drink.”

A smile touched the agent’s lips. “Or twenty.”

“Since you leave tomorrow morning, you’re coming out with me tonight.”

“Stone? You okay?” Luke asked, walking into the room. He waved when seeing me. “Oh. Hi, Riley.”

“You’re coming, too,” I said, pointing at the younger agent.

“Okay.” His brow tapered. “Where are we going? Should I be worried?”

Phoenix chuckled and looked at Luke. “We all deserve a break after that case. Tell the others we’re going out this evening to celebrate.”

After I left the station, I called Royal.

“Hey, Charming,” I said after he answered. “You feel okay enough to go out tonight? Me and the agents are going to a bar to have some celebratory drinks.”

“I’d love to go.”

“I’m on my way to you now.”

“Drive safe,” he said.

“Always do.”

The sun was sinking below the horizon, but the light wasn’t gone yet. Some of the clouds were pink and others looked purple. Areas of the grass that the sun still hit were a vibrant green while others were cast in shadow. In that sliver of time between night and day, I found an unexpected sense of peace. I normally bitched about everything—allergies, the cold, the heat, and everything in between.

Right now, I just felt alive. And happy tobealive.