Page 129 of The Complete Truth Duet
“Cora!”
“Cora!”
“Cora!”
I put a hand up to silence them while scanning the group for one I trusted. “Angela,” I called. “Go up with her. Lock the door.”
She peeled out of the group, taking the steps two at a time to catch up to River.
I turned my attention on Brittany. “Where is he?”
Her already pale face flashed ghostly. “He’s with Lexy.”
My pulse spiked as fear rocked me back a step. “Shit,” I breathed, taking off up the stairs at a dead sprint.
I’d just moved her up to the third floor. She hadn’t been there long, but she already wanted out. The girls up there all loved her. More often than not, I’d find them sitting around, waxing poetic about what they wanted to do with their lives. It gave me hope of one day helping them make it a reality. Lexy wanted to get into journalism. She had big dreams of becoming an investigative reporter for one of the major cable networks. Her whole face would light up like a sunrise when she’d talk about it.
But I had to get her out of there first.
When I hit the third floor, I found Angela trying to coax River into our apartment. But she was frozen in the middle of the breezeway, her mouth hanging open, while staring at Lexy’s ajar door.
And then I understood why.
“Get off me!” Lexy screamed from inside.
“Shut the fuck up,” Dante growled.
There were several loud crashes followed by another scream that echoed around the breezeway, slicing me to the bone with every reverberation.
My mind went to work trying to figure out any possible way in which I could stop this. I could have charged in there, dragging him off her. Dante loved to hit me. Hell, it probably would have been a treat for him.
But with one glance at River, I realized there was absolutely nothing I could do for Lexy.
He would have taken her. He would have beaten me senseless and then he would have taken her again back to Manuel. And God only knew for how long this time.
I was trapped. Caught between allowing a good woman to be raped and abused and losing my daughter to the very same man.
My whole body trembled, and my mind swirled, frantically trying to come up with a solution.
“You fucking whore,” Dante seethed.
“No!” Lexy cried.
I lifted a shaking hand to my mouth while tears scraped the back of my eyes like rusty razor blades.
“Cora,” Angela pleaded.
I shook my head repeatedly. “Get River inside.”
“No,” River argued. “We have to help her.”
Another scream.
Another grunt.
Another piece of me being stripped away.
My head throbbed with sharp, piercing pain—more than likely my conscience making its presence known. “I can’t. He’ll take you if I get involved. I can’t let them do that again. I can’t fix this, baby. I just can’t.”
Another scream.
Another grunt.
Another knife to my heart.
Like a coward, I came unglued and marched to the door to my apartment. I snagged River’s hand, dragging her after me, and barked at Angela, “Go tell everyone to get in their apartments and lock the door. I don’t want to see anyone outside until I let you know the coast is clear.”
Regretfully, she glanced back at Lexy’s door. She wanted to help as much as I did, but no one in that building could afford to go toe-to-toe with a Guerrero.
“This is so fucked up,” she whispered before taking off.
Another scream.
Another grunt.
Another blistering wave of guilt.
“Give me your key,” I ordered at River when I realized I’d left mine in the car.
She quickly dug it out of her pocket and slapped it onto my palm. Honing my focus on stilling the shake in my hands, I went to work on the locks.
Another scream.
Another grunt.
And then I died. Or at least, I thought I was going to.
“Dante,” River called, but she wasn’t behind me anymore.
I spun around and found her pushing Lexy’s door open. “River!” I whisper-yelled, lunging toward her, but it was too late.
“Get the fuck out of here, kid!” Dante boomed.
She didn’t move, but I watched in horror as she dipped low, picking something up off the floor before shoving it into her back pocket. Then she said, “Manuel’s looking for you. He’s been trying to call you. Apparently, something’s going down on the South Side. He wants you to meet him at home as soon as possible.”
“What the fuck?” Dante rumbled, but I heard his heavy footsteps. “Where the hell is my phone?”
In River’s pocket.
Shit. I was going to kill that kid.
With labored breaths and a marathon pulse, I clambered across the hall and put my back flush to the brick beside the door. Out of sight but close enough to grab her if I needed to.
“Yeah, don’t ask me,” she replied in a bored tone. “He didn’t give me any details. But he sounded mad.”
