“Hey,” I greeted her, managing to put a smile on my face. “How...uh, how are you?”
“I’m okay,” she nodded cautiously. I could still see the burn scar on her hand where she had grabbed that white–hot door handle, and it made me flinch every time I remembered it was there. “How are you?”
“Yeah, pretty good,” I replied, the smile turning more genuine when I remembered the news I had to deliver to her. “Uh, actually, really good.”
“Oh yeah?” She cocked her head, her voice lilting slightly. I wondered how long it had been before she came here since she had a conversation that didn’t revolve around her murdering someone for cash. She still didn’t seem that used to this, and it was kind of endearing to watch a woman as powerful as her tiptoe her way around the conversation as though it was a bomb that was about to go off at any second.
“It was the court case this week,” I went on. “They all got put away. Every one of them.”
“Really?” Her eyes bugged out of her head. “All of them?”
“That’s right,” I nodded proudly. I had last seen her when I’d come to take her statement about the case, and I could see then that she was doubtful that it was going to turn out the way we both wanted. I supposed, that’s what happened when you spent the last ten years getting beaten down at every turn. She raised her eyebrows and looked down at her hand for a moment, as though trying to center herself.
“How long?”
“Probably more than a century between them,” I replied, and the two of us exchanged a look; I wasn’t sure quite what it meant, but I knew it was something. An understanding. Both of us had been through the same thing, to some extent or another, and now both of us were out the other side of it. Yes, we were at different sides of the glass right now, but she was getting better with every day that passed. She already looked younger, with the pitch–black dye growing out of her hair in chunks and her eyes devoid of the heavy make–up she used to slather on.
“That’s amazing,” she blurted, and immediately clamped her lips shut. She wasn’t used to expressing that much emotion. I paused for a moment, letting her gather herself again, before I went on.
“And it was...your testimony, that was a big part of it,” I went on gently. “Between that and my father’s old file, we’ve got enough to keep them away for a long time, and hopefully take down some more people once we get our hands on them, too.”
She flinched at the mention of my father, but I didn’t. I spoke his name with pride, acknowledged everything he’d done without a second thought. Because he deserved it. I knew she was flinching more for me than for herself, worried that coming out with the word would be enough to send me down a spiral of sadness. But I had seen too much in the last few months to believe that sadness got you anywhere. I needed to act. It’s what my father would have done, and it’s what he would have wanted me to do. Rose smiled at me, nervously.
“That...that’s incredible,” she murmured, the crackle of the phone hiding the slight waver in her voice. “I wish I could have done this all sooner, Angel. Before everything with your—“
I held my hand up. I didn’t need to hear another apology from her. She had offered me enough over the course of her arrest and sentencing, and the mere fact that she had handed herself in and helped finish up my father’s work was enough for me to find some way to forgiving her. She stopped dead in her tracks, already knowing what was going through my mind. I couldn’t find it in my heart to hate her for all of this, no matter how justified I was in doing so. I’d felt the fear she had in the moment I woke up in that place. God knows what I would have done if I thought it would have given me some agency back. I didn’t even want to consider it.
“What’s been going on with you?” I asked, changing the subject. I placed my chin in my hand, and cocked my head at her, and for a second it felt as though we were far away from here – a coffee shop, maybe, or a bar, catching up like a pair of old friends. And yeah, as Rose began to outline the work she’d been doing in the prison kitchen, I knew that we would never have a conventional friendship. But what in my life was conventional now? Instead of the beat cop I’d been trained to be, I was heading up taskforces to end sex trafficking. I was dating an ex–con and police informant who seemed as set on ending the horrors in the darker corners of the criminal world as I was. And here I was, talking to the woman who’d killed my father, because I had found somewhere in my heart to put my forgiveness for her. Life went on, that was all I had learned. Just not always in the way you thought it would.
THE END
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Did you love Her Master? Then you should read Breaking the Rules: An MC Romance by Evelyn Glass!
Breaking the Rules is book 1 of the Forsaken 99 MC trilogy. Books 2 and 3, Breaking the Vow and Breaking the Bride are available everywhere now!
I'M BREAKING ALL THE RULES TO MAKE HER MINE.She thought she was safe.Well, she thought wrong.I don't obey rules – I break them.And I'm about to do the same thing to her.Off limits.Beyond my reach.What a joke.There's nothing in this world I can't have.And this sweet little princess is no exception.She thinks she can hide out in her little oasis?That's laughable at best.Freedom comes at a price, and she's gonna have to pay it.With her lips.With her moans.With blood, sweat, and tears.There's a war going on outside.But in here, I only want to hear three things:"Yes, sir.""Please, sir."And her moans.
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