Page 83 of Broken Wolf Heart
He pauses as if to let the viewer take it all in.
“In recent days,” Vincenzo continues, and the screen returns to him at the podium, “Lexi Giovanni visited the very laboratory where these atrocities occurred. Not to shut it down. Not to bring justice. But to continue the work.”
The screen shifts to video footage of Capo. Grainy, but clear enough.
There I am. Walking beside Grey into the lab. Mia and Crow following.
No context. No sound. Just the visual of us stepping willingly into a building dripping in horror stories and criminal behavior.
My stomach pitches.
“I also have records and personal statements belonging to other women. Citizens of Indigo Hills who were forced to undergo similar experiments. It started with Franco, but I’m afraid it hasn’t ended with him. Lexi Giovanni carries the same bloodthirst, the same ambition, the same corruption, as a man who desecrated his own kind,” Vincenzo says. “And now, she seeks to use her newfound power to make you all into an abomination just like herself.”
He looks straight into the camera. “To make matters worse, I have borne witness to my own son committing treasonous acts nearly as damning. He attacked and killed Dominic Alberowithout provocation and has yet to report it to the pack leadership. This is a direct violation of our pack law and should be treated accordingly.”
Grey snarls, but I don’t make a sound, rooted to the spot where I stand and riveted to the screen.
Vincenzo finishes with, “I will not stand by and watch this city fall into darkness.”
I shudder at the last word and the way it reminds me of whatever unleashed itself from inside Grey today.
Onscreen, the broadcast cuts back to the newsroom, but nobody’s listening to the anchor.
The room is silent.
Not a breath.
Not a shuffle.
Just everything we’ve been building tilting dangerously, cracks spiderwebbing through the foundation.
I stare at the frozen image of my own face on the screen.
At the monster Vincenzo just painted me to be.
Grey’s hand tightens so hard on the back of the chair that the wood cracks. I flinch as a chunk splinters off in his hand. When I turn and walk out of the meeting room, no one stops me. Not even Grey.
17
LEXI
Behind me, voices sound as the meeting abruptly breaks up. Even though I’m striding through the house, I still feel trapped in that room, still staring at the screen where Vincenzo took everything I am and turned it into something dirty.
Something broken.
Something I might never be able to fix.
I don’t remember deciding to leave the house. Or slipping the guards and losing myself in the woods. I just know I’m moving. Fast. Like, if I stop, I’ll shatter into a thousand pieces I can’t put back together.
Vincenzo twisted my greatest fear into a blade and used it to carve me right out of the place I’d made for myself in this world. And the worst part? I believed him. For one long, gutting moment, I believed that I didn’t belong here.
But not anymore.
It’s time to fight for my place in Indigo Hills. Not just taking what’s offered but really stepping up and using my voice to claim this place as my home.
Home.
The word doesn’t sound quite as foreign as it used to. Instead, it sounds like I suddenly have a lot to lose if Vincenzo has his way. But I survived too many nights alone to give up now. Foster homes. Empty apartments. Self-reliance is written into my bones. I’ve always been the only one who saved me.
