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Chapter 53
The photos loaded one at a time, each one landing like a separate blow. Rhys holding a door open for a stranger. That same woman laughing at something he’d said, her hand resting against his arm like she’d done it a hundred times before. His palm settling low against her back as they crossed the street together, easy, familiar, nothing hesitant about it at all. Anna sat frozen on her bed, phone trembling slightly in her grip, something cracking open in her chest that she didn’t have a name for yet. She called Alisha back before she’d even finished processing what she was looking at. “Who is she.” Anna’s voice came out thin, stripped of its usual composure. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me that.” Alisha said, letting the pause stretch just long enough to feel reluctant. “I didn’t want to be the one to tell you.” “You’re the one who sent the photos.” “Because I care about you, Anna. More than you probably realize, given everything that’s happened between our families.” A pause,
Chapter 52
The photos loaded one at a time, each one landing like a separate blow. Rhys holding a door open for a stranger. That same woman laughing at something he’d said, her hand resting against his arm like she’d done it a hundred times before. His palm settling low against her back as they crossed the street together, easy, familiar, nothing hesitant about it at all.Anna sat frozen on her bed, phone trembling slightly in her grip, something cracking open in her chest that she didn’t have a name for yet.She called Alisha back before she’d even finished processing what she was looking at.“Who is she.” Anna’s voice came out thin, stripped of its usual composure.“I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me that.” Alisha said, letting the pause stretch just long enough to feel reluctant. “I didn’t want to be the one to tell you.”“You’re the one who sent the photos.”“Because I care about you, Anna. More than you probably realize, given everything that’s happened between our families.” A pause, soft an
Chapter 51
“We weren’t invited.” Alisha said it like the words tasted bad, pacing her mother’s living room with her phone clutched so tight her knuckles had gone white. “Every firm that matters in this city got an invitation to the Halverson reveal. Every single one, Mom. Except us.”“That has to be an oversight.” Fiona said, though even she didn’t sound convinced. “Our name should be on every list worth being on. Call them. Demand an explanation.”Alisha was already dialing, pacing harder now, heels clicking sharp against the hardwood. The call connected on the second ring, a receptionist’s voice bright and clipped on the other end.“Halverson Dynamics, Events Division. How can I help you?”“This is Alisha Ferro. I need to know why my firm didn’t receive an invitation to the reveal party. We’ve been business associates with half the companies on your guest list for years.”A pause, the sound of typing, distant and unbothered. “I’m showing no record of your firm being on the proposed guest list,
Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTYRachel drove in silence for the first few blocks, hands steady on the wheel, eyes flicking toward Rhys in the passenger seat every few seconds like she was still trying to confirm what she’d watched happen back in that interview room.“I’ve seen a lot of things in this job.” She said finally. “Overdoses reversed by paramedics with better timing than luck should allow. A guy once walked away from a car wreck that should have killed him twice over. But I have never, in nine years, watched someone’s hands glow gold while they pulled a man back from a stroke on a precinct floor.”“I told you I’d explain eventually.”“You said that an hour ago. I’m starting to think eventually means never, with you.”“It means when I trust you enough to not have you committing me to a psychiatric hold the second I finish the sentence.” Rhys leaned his head back against the seat, exhaustion finally catching up with him now that the adrenaline had burned off. “Give it time.”“Fine.” Rachel said
Chapter 49
“Get him on the stretcher, now.” The lead guard barked, two officers already hauling Luther up by the shoulders, his head lolling at an angle that made Rachel’s jaw tighten from across the room.“Wait.” Rhys said, pushing forward. “I can save him.”The guard, a heavyset man with a nameplate reading GRIEVE and an expression that suggested he’d heard every kind of nonsense a precinct could produce, turned to look at him like he’d just announced he could fly.“You can save him.” Grieve repeated flatly. “You. Some ordinary guy with a good face who wandered in off the street twenty minutes ago. Sure. Step aside before you get in the way of people who actually know what they’re doing.”“I’m not asking permission.”“You’re not getting the choice.” Grieve’s hand dropped to his belt, not quite reaching for anything, but close enough to make the threat obvious. “You touch him again and something goes wrong, I will personally see you locked up for interfering with a medical emergency in my own p
CHAPTER 48
The house on Larkspur smelled like soup when he walked in, which was the first normal thing Rhys had experienced in what felt like days. His mother looked up from the stove, relief breaking across her face the second she saw him. “There you are.” She said, setting down the spoon. “A detective’s been here twice already, asking when you’d be back. Said it couldn’t wait.” “Rachel.” He wasn’t surprised. Rachel didn’t do subtle. “She’s out front now, actually. Third time’s apparently the charm.” His mother wiped her hands on a towel, studying his face a moment longer than necessary, the way she always did when she suspected he was carrying more than he was saying. “You look like you’ve been through something.” “I have. I’ll explain later.” He found Rachel leaning against her car in the driveway, arms crossed, patience clearly running thin after three visits in one evening. Her coat still smelled faintly of precinct coffee, like she’d come straight from a shift without bothering to
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