Page 81 of Shattered Silence Duet

I start unbuttoning my shirt, and Ben’s eyes widen. “Wait—” he yells.

“Max, pass me that shirt you grabbed,” he says quickly.

“Oops. I must have forgotten it,” Max says, sounding entirely unapologetic. He winks at me, and I giggle. Dom narrows his eyes at me, making me slap my hand over my mouth, which only makes Max laugh.Did I actually just giggle?And I wonder, yet again, if my voice is truly gone after all.

Max’s laughter sets me off again, muffled behind my hand, and soon Ben is laughing too. I glance at Dom, waiting for him to either reprimand us or crack a smile but he just glares at us, it’s not malicious, though, I think he’s amused.

Grinning, I pull out my phone and type,Daddy’s mad,showing it to Ben and Max, who are seated on either side of me. Their laughter grows even louder as Dom’s eyes narrow further, clearly wondering what I wrote.

He holds out his hand, palm up, and I reluctantly place my phone in it. He reads the screen, then looks at me sharply.

“Hmm,” is all he says, making my cheeks heat and my insides warm for some reason.

“Uh-oh, Sweetheart. Now you’ve done it!” Max teases, nudging me. I glance at him, confused. He leans in and whispers, “I think he likes it when you call him that. The same way you like it when we call you a good girl.”

I gulp, looking back at Dom’s heated gaze. He smirks, then, to my utter shock, he pulls his shirt off and slips it over my head. My eyes go wide as I stare at his chest—his massive, muscular chest. First Atlas, and now Dom… He’s not as big as Atlas, but he is no less impressive, and I can’t stop myself from reaching out to touch him.

But my hand meets resistance, and I realize I’m trapped inside his shirt. Ben and Max burst into laughter again, and even Dom’s heated gaze softens into a smile. Flustered, I drop my eyes and start blindly unbuttoning my dress shirt, slipping one arm out of the sleeve and into Dom’s t-shirt.

Ben spends the next ten minutes carefully removing the bandage, applying ointment, and re-wrapping my arm. I realize now that this isn’t the gauze bandage I had used—it’s much higher quality. They must have redone it when I passed out yesterday.

God, I’m a mess. I can’t even take care of myself. There’s no way I could escape my family and survive on my own. I’d be dead in a week.

But maybe… Maybe, I wouldn’t have to do it alone. They said I could stay with them for now. Perhaps I need to really consider their offer.

Chapter 50

Jasper

There are so many moments when my worry for Mina feels like it’s squeezing the life out of my heart. Seeing her upset and broken is, unfortunately, frequent these days. But then there are these moments when it’s like I get to see the real Mina, like when she’s laughing in the car. It makes me wonder why she can’t talk.

At first, I assumed her vocal cords were damaged from her car accident, but I’ve done some research, and although that’s still possible, it doesn’t seem likely since we’ve heard her make a few noises recently.

I’d love her either way.

No,I can’t love her already, I barely know her. But my heart doesn’t seem to care about that fact. It just makes me want to scoop her up in my arms, protect her, and make her happy. I wish I could spend my day making her happy. As soon as we finish this case, we could all spend more time with her, getting to know her and figuring out what this is between us all.

My mind spins as I think about her arm. I can’t imagine what could have caused it. It looks so painful and I wonder how many times I’ve touched it. It clearly didn’t happen in the past few days. That thing has to be at least a week old. I hate that she doesn’t feelsafe enough to have told us about it. Even now she obviously doesn’t trust us enough to tell us what caused it.

Who is hurting this sweet, beautiful girl? It has to be someone at her home, and I hate that we are letting her go back there. I’m not sure any of us can handle this much longer.

I zone back into class when I hear Mrs. Pinkins asking a question. Although I’ve already passed grade twelve chemistry, I have to at least play the part and pretend to pay attention. I glance at Mina as she reads today’s book and can’t stop myself from smiling. She’s so smart, she doesn’t need to be here either. She learned this material on her first day. Ben has mentioned emancipation as an option for her, and I really want us to figure out this murder case as fast as possible so we can make that happen.

I feel my phone buzz and discreetly check it.

Max: I got a lead. I need you in the guys’ locker room now. Watch Matt G. I’ll be watching Brian.

Me: I’m in class with Mina.

Max: Text G or T to bring her to the library. We can meet there after.

Me: Got it.

Me: Gideon, can you get Mina from chemistry when it’s over and take her to the library? We have a lead.

Gideon: On it.

I turn to Mina. “Hey, Angel?” She looks at me with those beautiful green eyes. “I have to go do something important. Gideon will meet you right outside this class and take you to the library, okay?”