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I was done I had to be done "We’ll figure it out"
"Not all of the elders ith hiroup of them"
"We’ll find who it was We’ll take care of the: ould happen to this family and me I would find the traitors I would kill them, and then I was done But to him I said, "That will be talked about then"
I didn’t want to talk about it anyot into the truck and headed ho I’d been questioned Eh my head I hadn’t left any orders in place in the event that she was released from the police station and I wasn’t
The cops at the station didn’t have enough to arrest us, but that didn’tIt was self-defense Both Eiven stateal jargon to get the cops to back down They’d wanted to pin so on me, but with no evidence to contradict what E, their hands were tied
When I couldn’t get Emma on the phone as we finally left, I called Drake, who said she’d been sent to Noah’s place where they were planning on picking her up once the detectives left them at the hospital Then a call to Noah told me what I needed to know Someone had picked her up, and those men weren’t ot, as soon as I walked through the door, was a betrayal
I waited a few blocks before I asked Cole, "He didn’t say ith hiot the sense that not all the elders backed hi"
But we didn’t know That was the bottom line
"Look, Carter--" Cole started
I shookToo much blood TooIf they weren’t a part of it, then…" All those elders All their families? Pain like I hadn’t felt since AJ’s death burrowed deep in me "They were my family, Cole" After AJ When Emma was in foster care Before she came into ht that they would take her froun to her head" Cole was quiet as he said that I heard the resignation, and I knehat he was saying
"We have to make sure ith him and asn’t" I pinned hiri his hands over his head, he groaned and rested his head back against his seat "We have to be unified You and lanced sideways toHe studied me for a o through hiht seehed a second later "She bit hi She bit hirinned Of course, she bit hihter
Four months later
Amanda was quiet beside me We watched from the car as Theresa and Noah went to the door and knocked We’d been parked outside of Andrea’s parent’s hoo first to scope it out, but the truth was I couldn’t move from the car I didn’t knohy I just couldn’t
"Are you nervous?" Auess?" Thirty rinned "Sorry I know I’m nervous, too"
"Why?" I turned back toward the house The question wasto be nervous about I’d been at Andrea’s bedside every day she was in the hospital We were still strangers, but ere a work in progress now Her parents had come too, but our paths only crossed one other time Andrea had wanted me to come in the afternoons, and her parents were allowed in the , and I knew soht with her parents, and she hadn’t said much to me We talked more about e remembered from our pasts, about AJ and our o into her parent’s home, but I was
"I don’t know" Amanda smoothed her shirt, then rubbed her hands over her jeans "This is real, you know? I mean, her dad is her real dad He could’ve been yours, or maybe he can help you find yours Who knows? He didn’t say anything about your brother?"
I shook o with him and Andy, and he refused AJ’s older than Carter and uess our mom kicked him out, and he was in the systeh the legal stuff for hio That’s what he said"
"Oh" She grew quiet
"Yeah"