Legend smiles.
God help us, he smiles.
“Careful,” he says.
Jeremy keeps his eyes on Amelia. “You see? This isn’t normal. These people are dangerous.”
“Yes,” Amelia says.
The answer throws him.
It throws me too.
She stands there in the rain, pale and shaking, and says it again.
“They are dangerous.”
Jeremy points at us like she just helped him in court. “Exactly. Amelia, come on. Think. You know better than this.”
“They are dangerous,” she says, voice trembling now, “but they’ve not hurt me.”
Jeremy’s face goes still.
“They’ve not called me crazy,” she continues. “They’ve not threatened to take August from me. They’ve not told me I’m embarrassing them. They gave my son a bed. They gave me a door that locks. That is more than you’ve given us in a long time.”
The yard goes silent.
Pride punches me right in the chest.
Not soft pride. Not sweet.
The rough kind that makes me want to grin and break someone’s teeth at the same time.
Jeremy’s mask cracks again.
This time, something ugly shows through.
“You need to stop talking before you make this worse for yourself.”
There he is.
There is the man from the bruises.
Sophie moves forward half a step, but Legend is already there.
His voice drops. “You threatening a woman at my gate?”
Jeremy’s gaze snaps to him. “I’m speaking to my wife.”
“That ain’t an answer.”
“Amelia,” Jeremy says, ignoring Legend now, “go inside. Get August. We are leaving.”
She shakes her head.
He breathes out through his nose, irritated now. “Don’t make me involve the police.”
“You already did,” Whiskey says.