Page 127 of Bones

I wasn’t going near the bay window, so I took the desk chair and pulled Aurora onto my lap—without fear of her doing bodily harm to my dick.

I’d assumed it was over, but Juno smirked at Aurora. “So… worth the five-day wait?”

For the love of fucking angels.

Expecting my mate to get embarrassed, I opened my mouth to tell my sister to cut it out, but Aurora answered first.

“Worth joining a cult for.”

“Nice. Again, also eww. But nice.” Thankfully, she turned her focus on our brother. “How’s retirement? Picked up golf yet?”

“Today is my first day off. I’d hoped to spend it in bed with Lilith, but those Absolve bastards have to ruin everything.”

“Don’t cross those plans out yet,” Lilith said. “Everyone talk fast.”

The other two took their default spot, and Nate grabbed a notebook.

“We need more than that.” Juno lifted her arms and spread them, and a shimmering whiteboard stretched across the entirety of the room. The timeline with all our individual variations was mapped out. No matter where we sat, the entire thing could somehow be seen. It was impressive.

It also had an unhinged-serial-killer edge to it thanks to the scrawled notes, photos, and length of magicks yarn.

Aurora stood and pointed at one of the photos. “I know him.”

“You know Thomas Hale?” Nate asked.

“Or maybe as Corey Willard?” Stellan added.

“No. I know Steve Jones. And I don’t actually know him. He’s the guy from my vision.” Adrenaline or fear—or both—made her tremble as she paced in front of the expansive data.

I was going to go to her, but I didn’t have the chance to move.

She sought me out.

Sitting on one of my thighs, she lifted her feet to my other one and wrapped her arms around her bent legs. I added my own arms, holding her tightly.

Her tremors stopped, but she remained rigid.

Hesitating for a few beats, she gave the room the bullet points of her relationship with the dick bag. She didn’t go into the same detail with them as she’d shared with me, but it was enough to make me tempted to reanimate the dust and bring the sorry bastard back to life, just so I could slowly and painfully take it away.

That wasn’t in my skill set, but I was sure I could find someone capable of giving me a hand.

I didn’t say any of that to Aurora. She didn’t need me interrupting the story that was already difficult to tell, and it wasn’t about me. My job was to comfort her, so that was what I did.

She continued by telling them about the vision of him handing her over to Steve Jones—the representative from some church.

Through the whole thing, her back went straight. She released her defensive hold on herself. Her legs lowered, and her chin lifted.

Fuck, she’s strong.

She might not have needed support, but she still got it. And not just from me.

“He groomed you,” Juno seethed.

Aurora shook her head. “No, he?—”

“He isolated you,groomedyou, and abused you.” She bolted to her feet. “Let’s go back to that house so I can kick that dust around. No, let’s swing by to get Tom and Victoria from Lea and then we’ll let them shit in his ashes.”

“That’s a nice offer. A gross visual, but a nice offer. But I’m at peace after getting that closure.” She smiled, and nothing about it was forced. “I will take my dog back, though.”

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