Wildfire Spreading by Victoria Ruben

Author:Victoria Ruben [Ruben, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paracosmic Press
Published: 2023-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

ROBERT

“I don’t care why you did it, okay? I just want his name,” I hear her say when I slink in through the front door. “I’ll take it from there.”

“You don’t know his name. How do you not know his name?” Jonathan asks breathlessly. “You met him!”

I push open the door and enter the room. First, I think, This is it. Finally. The confrontation scene. This is going to be… perfection.

Then, I look at her, and a breath leaves me. A sigh, almost. I smile.

“Alice.”

And now I think:

If you knew what a relief it is, for you to finally know everything.

I want to tell her this and so much more, but Jonathan’s all keyed up, and she’s brimming with barely suppressed fury as she looks between the two of us, the two villains in hers and Liz’s epic love story. One she knew of, one she’s only just getting to know.

There were so many times when I was the only link between you and her, I want to say. That night when I found her, after she’d tried to escape, I’d spoken to you only a few hours earlier. You told me without saying it outright how much she means to you. It was artful, how you danced around the truth of it, hiding your grief, your fear, in stories about her generosity, her kindness… Not knowing that I was the only one you could speak to honestly, because I already knew the whole story of her and you. I was the only one you could grab onto and say, “She’s the only thing I love in the world. Please, please, please bring her home.”

And then, a few hours later, she was in the backseat of my cruiser, telling me how much she loves you. Begging me to keep you safe.

It hurt me, you know. It still makes me sick, to think about it. When I brought her back to Four Eyes, knowing what he would do.

And the next day, I was holding you after the ransom video, after you fainted, after you’d seen the mess Four made of her, when you knew, for the first time, that the worst-case scenario, which you’d told yourself time and again was so unlikely, was actually happening. That some big, scary man had gotten hold of your precious Liz, that he was going to hurt her more than she ever imagined she could be hurt.

But you’ve known men like that. Pain like that. It hurt you almost as badly. I could see it. To know not only what she was suffering, but that she was learning some hard truths about all the many ways people like him can hurt people like her.

And now we’re here. Finally. The truth of it is out. You’re so close to learning everything, and you think you’ve still got a chance to save her, don’t you? But you’re outnumbered. You’re a feral animal backed into a corner.

What will you do now? I can’t wait to find out.

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