Page 114 of Played
When I finally come back to myself, Julian's collapsed beside me, breathing hard, his forehead pressed to mine.
"Better?" he murmurs.
I laugh, breathless. "Yeah. That was exactly what I needed."
He kisses my temple, fingers tracing lazy patterns on my hip. "Good."
For the first time in days, I feel like I can breathe.
Colleen stirs her soup, distracted. We're at the same café we always meet at—small, tucked into a corner nobody notices. The kind of place where you can talk freely.
"I found something," she says, voice low.
My fork freezes halfway to my mouth. "What?"
"One of the lead investigators on Daniel's case? Detective Kirby. You know, the one who keeps finding convenient reasons to dismiss every complaint we file?" She leans forward across the table, her voice dropping even lower, barely above a whisper."Turns out they went to high school together years ago. They've stayed close ever since—they're actual buddies."
The lettuce in my salad suddenly tastes like cardboard. I set down my fork. "You're kidding."
"I wish." Her jaw tightens. "I went digging through old yearbooks, social media. There's photos of them at reunions, golfing together. They'refriends, Liza."
Heat floods my face, anger burning through my chest. "That's why they won't do anything. That's why they let him walk."
"Exactly." Colleen's hands tremble around her mug. "I tried reporting it, but they said it's not a conflict of interest unless there's proof of interference. What a load of shit."
I push my plate away, appetite gone. "So that's it? He just gets away with everything? Breaking Julian's hand, terrorizing us, whatever he did to Claudia—"
"I don't know." Her voice cracks. "I feel like I'm going insane. Like we're screaming into a void and nobody's listening."
My mind conjures an image so vivid it startles me: me, standing in Daniel's apartment, a knife gripped in my hand. Walking toward him as he sits on that pristine leather couch, unsuspecting. Plunging the blade straight into his heart. Watching the shock drain from his face.
I blink hard, shaking my head.
"You okay?" Colleen asks.
"Yeah." My voice sounds hollow. "Just... tired."
But I'm not tired. I'm furious. Helpless. And somewhere deep inside, a part of me I don't recognize whispers:You could do it. You could make him stop.
I shove the thought away, horrified.
"We'll figure something out," I tell Colleen, though I'm not sure I believe it anymore.
She nods, unconvinced.
We finish our lunch in silence, both of us knowing the same terrible truth: Daniel's untouchable.
And there's nothing we can do about it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The winter sun's brilliant today, almost offensively cheerful. Julian's hand wraps around mine as we stroll down the tree-lined street, branches bare.
"Want to grab a coffee? Maybe a croissant?" He tilts his head toward the café on the corner, the one with the striped awning and mismatched chairs spilling onto the sidewalk in the summer.
"Sure."
We settle at a small table, tucked into a corner where the late morning sun filters in. through a nearby window.
