In a low, cracked voice, her dark eyes trained on Alicia: “You don’t deserve him. You don’t deserve any of this. And it’s not just me.” Her gaze sharpens, glassy and hateful. “You have no idea how many people hate you. Want you gone.”
Alicia’s frozen. Gabriel’s at my side, scanning the room.
“Jake send you?” I ask.
“He’s outside. Circling the perimeter. There’s a ladder against the side of the house.”
“Unloaded gun,” I say, gesturing with my head to the desk.
He lifts his eyebrows in acknowledgment. Doesn’t say anything, but I read him.
She’s a crackpot.
“Cops en route. You got this?”
“Yeah,” I say, taking in Alicia.
“I’m gonna go clear.”
I understand what Gabe’s saying.
There could be others.
Outside the window, blue and red lights flash.
Hesitant to leave watch over Jessica, I hold an arm out.
Alicia steps forward, close enough I can touch the side of her face.
“You hurt?” Her gaze stays locked on Jessica. “Alicia—talk to me.”
A police officer enters the room. There’s another behind him.
I catch his eye and step back, gathering Alicia against me.
The officers round Jessica.
Alicia rests her head against my shoulder, sinking into me.
“You’re here.” Her voice breaks. “You got here in time.”
I press my lips to the top of her head. “Always.”
Chapter
Forty-One
Alicia
“Mom?”
Stella’s confused, scared voice ricochets through me, snapping me out of a fog.
I push off of Noah, arms out to my frightened daughter.
I want nothing more than to swipe this scene—cops towering over Jessica, red and blue lights coloring the walls—from her memory. To block her from seeing.
But by the time I reach her, I’ve accepted reality. There’s no protecting her—not from this.