When she got close enough, I snatched her by the wrist. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded, getting up close to her face and keeping my voice low.
Not wanting to cause a scene. Probably was in vain. Clearly, one was about to be had.
Staring down at her, there was no missing the vileness.
The evil and the twisted greed.
“What did you do?” I grated, teeth grinding so hard I could feel them close to splintering, jaw cracking with restraint.
Her dark eyes flashed. “What did I do? I didn’t do anything, Mack. Question is, what did you do?” she challenged.
“If you’re responsible for what happened tonight, I will end you.”
She laughed a salacious sound. “So angry, aren’t we?” She dragged her fingertip down the side of my face.
Revulsion sliced through my body.
“Tell me if you had anything to do with this.”
She pursed her lips. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Shouldn’t it be me who is angry? You are the one who is running around on me.” She said it with all the ownership she possessed and like it didn’t matter at the same damn time.
It wasn’t like the two of us hadn’t been with other people.
The only thing it came down to at the end of the day was that she controlled me. All of me. A noose around my neck. The way it’d always been.
I tightened my hold around her wrist. “I told you it was over. I warned you to stay out of this with Izzy and me.”
“And you should know better than that. There’s a reason you and I are together. We fit. Belong. Didn’t you agree all those years ago?” It was pure seduction when she said it, like me going back to her again and again was because I wanted her and not out of obligation.
Out of this fucked up world we’d created.
She pushed up on her toes, venom in her tone. “I saved her, and I saved you. Remember? Now, she needs to go. Send her away, Mack, before it’s too late. She doesn’t belong here with you.”
“She’s not going anywhere. I’m finished with your games. I don’t give two fucks about that agreement. I was seventeen, and it was the worst decision I ever made. I’m finished covering for you. Finished turning a blind eye. It’s over, Clarissa.”
Disbelief lined her face. “You are such a liar, Detective Chambers.” She used my title like her own threat. “You have been covering your ass for all these years. You begged me, remember?”
My hold tightened. “I was doing it for her.”
Her face split in a malicious grin. “Really?”
“Really,” I spat.
“And what do you think changed? I would think you’d be all the more concerned about her since she has those two sweet little boys.” She cooed it the way she liked to do.
Old rage billowed from that dark, dark place. Fear and disgust and regret.
“And that sad, pathetic one with the disability.” She tsked. “Poor thing. Someone should have put him out of his misery.” Her expression was filled with forged innocence as she stared up at me, a dare on her face.
Urges slammed me. The need to wrap my hands around her throat and squeeze. Took everything I had to refrain from doing it. “That is my son.” I angled closer, darts of hatred flying low from my tongue. “They are my family. And I will do whatever it takes to protect them.”
She hiked up on her toes and ran her mouth up my jaw until she was whispering the threat at my ear. “I know you will. Nothing has changed, Mack. You owe me.”
It was just then that I felt it. The battered crash of energy against the floor. Deafening against the cold, stark-white laminate.
A shocked, horrified gasp ricocheted in the stagnant, sticky air.
I jerked to look over my shoulder. Izzy had been wheeled out, and the girl’s chin trembled as she struggled to process the sight in front of her.
Shame shook through my body. A landslide. A landmine.
“Isabel. It’s so nice to see you again.” Clarissa smirked, her cheek still pressed to mine, her claws firmly planted in my soul.
Thirty-One
Izzy
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I stood behind Maxon where he stared at a blank wall in my bedroom.
Bare morning light poured in through the window. I’d been released from the ER, and we’d just gotten back to a sleeping house.
During that whole time, I hadn’t stopped shaking.
Shakin’ and shakin’.
Tremors rose from a well in the middle of me and overflowed through every cell of my body. I still wasn’t sure if it was from the crash or from finding Maxon out in that hall with Clarissa.
The sight of the two of them from all those years ago had been engrained in my mind like a blemish.
Carved on my spirit like a scar.