Empire of Sin(Empire #2)(22)

Everyone turns around to Daniel and he grins at them, showing his dimples.

They’re flustered for a second, only a second, but then he hops to a sitting position on one of the desks and beckons them over. “Anyone here have popcorn?”

Low laughter breaks out and then they’re all surrounding him, watching the show and chatting among themselves.

I stay on the outskirts, feeling like I need to be there for some reason.

“Three, two…” Daniel counts with his fingers. “And go.”

At that exact moment, Knox stands up, opens the door to his office, and directs the girl out.

She doesn’t move, sniffling and jerking in place, then she goes to him. “Please…I have no one to ask for help.”

“Yes, you do. A thousand other attorneys, in fact. I’ll have my secretary send you a list of recommendations.” He’s speaking calmly albeit emotionlessly, like when he promised to find what I’m hiding the other day. “Besides, I’m a criminal defense attorney. Come back when you need to stay out of prison.”

“I don’t care. I’ve done my research and I know you aren’t afraid of a challenge and could take on a civil case if you wanted to.”

“I just said I don’t want to. Best of luck finding another attorney.”

“No one is like you. Please. They’re scared to go against him.”

“Not my problem. Have a nice day.”

And with that, he goes back to his office and closes the door and pulls down the blinds. The girl nearly collapses and has to grip the wall for balance.

“Told you.” Daniel grins. “You’ll pay me later. Now, back to work.”

They buzz to their desks and he strides to his office humming a tune.

The scene from a moment ago vanishes as if it never existed.

Everyone seems to have forgotten about the girl who’s slowly walking to the elevators, still using the wall to hold her up.

I follow her and click the call button when her hand shakes, unable to push it.

“Thank you.” She sniffles, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Then she’s touching her elbow again, and there’s a spot there, a hint of something violet that seems to have been hidden with foundation.

My chest squeezes and all I can see is how Mom used to do the same to hide the bruises, especially from me.

“Don’t take it personally,” I whisper. “He doesn’t accept many cases.”

“I know, but he was my last hope. I heard he doesn’t care who he goes up against, but maybe he does. Maybe everyone is right. Maybe I shouldn’t have started this.”

“No,” I tell her without thinking. “Don’t say that, please. You’re doing the right thing.”

She looks up at me then, her dark eyes filled with moisture, but she’s not crying anymore, because there’s a little smile there. “Thank you for saying that. You don’t know how much it means to me.”

The elevator dings open and she smiles again before she steps in.

But I don’t like the way it disappears the moment she’s inside, how her shoulders hunch and the tears come back.

Maybe there’s something I can do.

A crazy idea forms in my mind.

Knox told me he’s coming after me, but he won’t know what hit him when the tables are turned.





8





KNOX





I clench and unclench my fingers, but it’s impossible to keep typing.

The hurricane that’s brewing inside me is unable to be squashed or derailed. It’s not only eating everything in its path, but it’s also destroying any semblance of calm I’ve held on to for decades.

The shadows crowd over my shoulders, whispering, murmuring, getting sickeningly close to my ears.

They started when I was five and haven’t stopped.

They never will.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

I push away from my desk and inhale a few sharp intakes of air, but it’s like I’m breathing smoke, thick and foggy and fucking asphyxiating.

It’s not Sandra Bell’s words that play in my head like a distorted record anymore, it’s not her voice that I’m hearing.

It’s mine and my twin sister’s.

And they’re more haunting than hers, more fucking deranged and raw. I can still smell the rotten stench of our hellhole. The pungent smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and disgusting male musk.

It was twenty years ago, but it feels like only twenty minutes.

The twenty minutes Sandra spent telling me her story.

I can listen to tales of murder all day long and not blink an eye. I should’ve been desensitized to child abuse by now, too.

I’ve come a long way from when it all happened. I didn’t stand there, waiting for the hit.

I fucking punched back and rose above the shadows and their bloody rotten smell. I grabbed my sister’s hand and ran away without a look back, so why the fuck are those shadows dragging me under again?

My phone vibrates and I’m about to hit Ignore. The last thing I should do in my state is talk to people. They wouldn’t recognize me when I’m like this. I’m not the charming, fun-loving Knox they know, I’m the Knox from that hellhole.

A kid in an adult’s body.