Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
I feel sick, but I manage a slight nod.
He mirrors it, nodding back at me. Voice reassuring, he says, “Yes, and why should you? What good would it do? I feel the same way, and I don’t feel the same moral conflict about it. We can talk about that later, but right now, we have to get through this appointment. We have to get through the police interview. And it’s okay for you to be upset. It’s natural for you to be upset. But don’t lose your head. Think before you say anything, and remember that our fates are tied together. If I go down, you go with me. And vice versa. So let’s take care of that, hmm?” He caresses my bottom lip again, then leans in to kiss it.
I stiffen and, for the first time, flinch away from his kiss.
He notices, but other than the slight tightening of his jaw, he doesn’t acknowledge it. Pulling back, he catches my hand, and I want to shake it free, but I don’t.
I let him haul me back into the lawyer’s office, but I hate myself for it.
I feel useless in the appointment, too. The lawyer gives me a look of fake sympathy, but I can feel him observing me through it all. He doesn’t trust me any more than I trust him.
“You okay?”
I nod wordlessly as I sit back down. Terry’s words fade out, but I’m hyperaware of Tor taking the seat next to me. His chair feels closer to mine than it did before. I don’t know if it really is. I don’t know anything anymore.
I sit there in a fog, not participating in the slightest, as they have a conversation that will drastically impact my future.
Because Tor is right, of course. If I were to sink his ship, he could sink mine just as fast. It wouldn’t even hurt him at that point. What’s a little obstruction of justice when you have a murder charge?
He has saved my life up until this point, but if I betray him now, he will end it.
Maybe literally, considering what I know about last night.
I’ve also watched his family get away with their crimes before, so who’s to say it wouldn’t happen again? Maybe he would spin it somehow. Get out of it. Leave me to sink by myself.
It would be my own fault.
He threw me a life preserver, and I let go of it to point my finger at him.
It’s sickening because I know this is unjust, and I don’t want to help him get away with the murder of someone who wasn’t guilty of anything (except sometimes being an asshole), but I don’t want to go to prison for killing my rapist, either. And I will. The court has already made their position clear. They didn’t care what he did to me. They weren’t going to punish him for it.
So I did, and this is the fallout.
I guess I should have realized that tying myself to someone who responded the way he did to his brother’s murder came with its own risks.
Russell’s words from last night come back to me: Tor Walters is fucking crazy, and now you’re spreading your legs for him, so it seems like you like that in a guy.
And then his other words hit, and they hit a lot harder.
Maybe you want more than a guy who will jump through your hoops, Cassie. Maybe you want a guy who will kill for you.
I didn’t, though.
Right?
And even if maybe in the deepest, darkest corners of my soul it would have felt nice to have someone so completely on my side, so protective of me, I would have wanted him to hurt the person responsible for hurting me, never someone who didn’t deserve it.
I wanted justice, not vengeance. I settled for vengeance because the alternative was swallowing the injustice, and that wasn’t an option I could live with. But I’m not bloodthirsty.
I may have felt let down by Russell as a boyfriend, and he may have scared me a little last night, but I would never—
“Miss Pritchard?”
My gaze snaps up, my eyes wide with guilt as I realize I haven’t been listening to a single word my lawyer said. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”
He holds his pause for a moment to make sure he has my attention, then he says, “It would be understandable if you wanted to wait until tomorrow to interview with police, but there is some advantage to going today while this is still fresh. Your present mental state could work in your favor to convince the detectives that you weren’t involved, that you didn’t know anything. They’ll see how stunned you are.”
My blood runs cold, but somehow, it makes me feel instantly sweaty. “That I didn’t know anything?”
“About Russell planning Tim’s murder,” Tor says, to clarify before I say anything dumb.