Page 144 of Buried in Blood
Because soon…
The second wave begins.
They will all die.
* * *
The door slams behind me.
Not because I mean it to, but because control is an illusion right now. A muscle twitch. A breath held too long. A leash pulled too tight.
My house smells like cedar wood and bleach.
Too clean.
Too still.
Harmony’s perfume doesn’t linger here anymore.
Good.
It would only make me angrier.
Reese looks up from the dining table, his boots kicked up like this place belongs to him.
It doesn’t.
None of this belongs to anyone but me.
He sees the look in my eyes, and his smirk falters.
“She did it,” I say flatly. “She fucking turned.”
Reese sits upright slowly. “The bombs—?”
“She planted them,” I hiss, pacing the floor. “But she didn’tlet them go off.Shetoldthem. I watched it—every second. She went to Dante. Whispered like some whimpering whore, and gave away everything.”
His jaw tightens. “And the blast?”
“Killed twenty-three people. But not them. Not the ones it wasmeantfor.”
I slam my fist into the edge of the marble counter.
Pain flares up in my arm.
I welcome it.
I earned it.
Reese exhales through his nose, slow and deliberate. “You want her dead?”
“No.”
He stiffens.
“I want herfound.”
My voice is a blade now. Quiet. Precise. Laced with intent.
