Page 85 of Shattered Souls
“Dax and Blue are working on it,” Royce assures me, his voice strong and steady. “They’ll have something for us soon.”
He sounds so sure, but I’m too numb to feel… anything.
“Dax had offered to… question Lydia.” Grayson’s statement rings like a bell in the otherwise quiet room. I shuffle so I’m looking directly at him. “We’d said no ’cause we were worried about my father finding out about Aurora…”
“We don’t need to question her anymore, do we?” My voice is small. Flat. Dead.
“I wasn’t thinking about questioning her.”
Pushing upright, I meet Grayson’s hard, unwavering stare. There’s no uncertainty there—only cold, hard determination.
Determination to keep me safe. To get revenge.
“Do it.”
Was that my voice, so sharp and deadly?
“Do it,” I repeat, pushing up from Logan’s chest. I don’t bother to wipe away the tears. I’m not ashamed of them. They aren’t a sign of weakness. They’re healing tears. Acceptance tears. Ones that needed to be shed to give way for strength. “But not Dax’s guys.” I glance at each of them. “Us.Wedo it.Wego after Lydia. I want her to see that she failed. That she’ll continue to fail. That I’m fucking done yielding to her. We can use the video footage from campus and the driver she paid to keep her quiet.”
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Royce asks softly, even as determination blazes in the cold depths of those ice-blue eyes.
I hold his stare, letting him see the volition burning in mine. Then, I answer his question for all three of them to hear. “Yes.”
24
RILEY
The next day, I go to Ava’s dance studio. I feel bad that, bar the odd text, we’ve barely talked, and honestly, I need to dance out this maelstrom of emotion threatening to swallow me whole. Between discovering Bertram has had my daughter this entire time and the fact my own mother tried to have me killed, it’s safe to say that my head is a mess.
Grayson’s acknowledgment that Aurora is too young for Bertram is the only thing getting me through. I was fifteen when we moved into his house. Even if his preferences went a bit younger… Three is too young! That’s what I’ll keep believing until the universe tells me otherwise.
I can’t sit around that house while we wait for a call from Dax or his men to round up Lydia, and I’m incapable of focusing on my studies right now. Dancing has always been my escape, my sanctuary. The world could crumble around me, but in those moments when my body moves to the rhythm, I find solace. Today, I need that solace.
Unfortunately, I’m apparently unable to obtain it alone.
“After you,” Grayson grunts as he pulls open the door to the dance studio and gestures for me to go in. He volunteered as tribute when I said I was coming here. Unfortunately, Loganhas hockey practice, and Royce said he was going to The Depot to discuss plans to kidnap my mother—isn’t it funny how fate works itself out?—with Dax and his team.
Meanwhile, Grayson has been hovering like a mother hen since I was released from the hospital, despite me telling him—and the other two—that I’m perfectly fine. Pissed off and a little shaken up, butfine.I could tell he didn’t even want me coming here today, but for what must be the first time in his life, he learned how to keep quiet when I sent him a cutting glare after informing him and Royce what my plans were for the day.
“You can stay in here,” I tell him as I drop my bag inside the door of the empty studio.
“Why? Where are you going?”
I point up the stairs to where Ava’s office is. “To talk to Ava.”
“Then I’ll come with you.”
Before he can step forward, I plant a hand on his chest. “No. You won’t. Ava is myfriend, and I need to talk to her alone.”
The angle of his jaw pulses, and I fold my lips between my teeth to suppress my laugh at seeing him so easily riled. I definitely get a kick out of it.
“You’re not supposed to be alone.”
“Good thing I won’t be alone, then.”
“Riley.” He growls my name between clenched teeth.
“Grayson.” I pin him with a look. “That’s how this works: compromise. Do you understand that word? Does it exist in your dictionary?” I flick my finger back and forth between us. “There has to be both give and take between us if this is ever going to work.”
