Chapter Twenty-Seven

My chest hollowed as I walked down the hall, my head held high despite the whispers coming from open doors. I took the stairs to floor C, using my keycard to pass through the security doors. The guard who stood at the desk looked over at me, then promptly turned around so he faced away from cell twenty-three.

Sienna must have called ahead. I jogged to the door, swiping my card and holding my breath until I heard the lock click. I stepped inside and peered through the thick, clear, bulletproof safety window.

Lucinda didn’t look up, but her shoulders tensed. There was no way in hell I wouldn’t get a confession out of her, new vampire or not. I didn’t give up everything for Carma to have her own mother throw her under the bus. This ended here and now. Even if Carma walked away and never looked back, I’d know that I was the reason she was free, and it would be enough.

It’d have to be enough.

I swiped my card at the second door, opening the cell. I pulled Sydney out of my holster, holding her in my right hand. “If you so much as blink at me wrong, I will put a bullet in you. Are we clear?”

She didn’t respond. I took her silence as a yes.

“I’m not sorry for lying to you as part of an investigation. But your daughter saved your life. Now it’s time to save hers. Confess. Protect her.”

Her eye twitched.

“You lied to her. You used her. And now you’re trying to get her to shoulder part of the blame for you. I will not let that happen.” I narrowed my eyes. “You made money off of lying to people while feeding them something you knew would harm them!”

“I was helping people!” she raged, her eyes burning brilliant red.

“Yeah, by literally killing half their body without them knowing.”

“Fat will kill them, too. This way they looked good and my business thrived.”

I took a step back and stared at the woman—vampire—in front of me. “You honestly think that knowingly poisoning people without their consent is comparable to extra weight? A person’s weight doesn’t change their value! A person’s health doesn’t change their value!” I narrowed my eyes. “Purposefully hurting people does, though.”

“I was actually making a difference. Helping the hopeless. Making people happy with their bodies again.”

“What about the lives you destroyed? The people you turned into vampires? Do their lives mean less to you?”

“Ask yourself, how did Thinner get so popular if people didn’t want my help? If they weren’t desperate for a solution? We were going international within a year. No one bothered to question a thing because we were filling a need.”

“You were filling your bank account while filling people with literal poison.”

She waved me off. “People fill their bodies with poison every day.”

“Yeah, fair, but they consent to it. See the key word in all of this is consent.”

She didn’t respond, but I saw the truth in her eyes. She didn’t think she did anything wrong.

I took a step closer. “Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A woman decides to start a company and begs her daughter to join. Drags her in blindfolded.”

She shrugged.

I wanted to scream. “You’re unbelievable.”

“No, dear. I’m a businesswoman.”

My finger flipped the safety off my gun. Oops. “How long did you think you could keep this up before someone caught on? Were you ever going to tell Carma?”

She leaned forward. “You don’t get it, do you? People will believe whatever you need them to, as long as you convince them it’s for their benefit.”

“How did someone like you raise someone as amazing as Carma?” I shook my head. “She’s so creative, full of light, would do anything for the people she loves. You took advantage of her. That’s why you wanted me to keep my distance. So I couldn’t interfere?”

She raised an eyebrow. A silent confirmation.

I studied her for a long moment. “You took the pills on purpose, didn’t you? To get her to stay by your side and guilt her into working with you?”

“She was the best and I needed the best.”

As the pieces clicked together, I swallowed hard, ignoring the wave of nausea at her confession. “Now you’re going to take the best down with you.”

She shook her head. “You wouldn’t let that happen. She’ll be fine. But I’m not confessing and damaging my reputation. I’m just another victim here.”

She morphed her face into a perfect mask of devastation. “I didn’t know the shakes were dangerous. Clearly my supplier lied to me.”

I took a step closer. “Not going to work for me. You may be a businesswoman, but I’m a woman in love. And I’m willing to sacrifice everything for Carma. So try me.” She shifted, and I held my gun directly at her head.

“I have rights. You can’t do this to me.”

“Want to take that bet?” I leaned close to her. “Because I killed the last vampire who attacked me.”

She just watched me, waiting. At least this time she was smart enough to stay perfectly still.

“Here’s what’s going to happen: You’re going to confess and name your accomplice. You’re going to confirm Carma had nothing to do with what was going on. And you’re going to go to jail for a very, very long time. When they say life sentence, it’s not just fifty or sixty years for you. Oh, it’s so much longer.”

She growled.

“I’m going to spend my life protecting Carma as long as she wants me around.”

“Stay away from—”

“No. You don’t get any say in our relationship. I love her and I will do what I need to do to make sure she’s happy and healthy. Even if that means shoving wooden bullets into your skin until you’re screaming in pain.”

She jumped at me and I shot her thigh, wincing at the echo of the explosion in the small cell. She wailed, gripping her leg as black blood spread across the thigh of her blue jumpsuit. Her fangs came out, but she sat down, gripping her leg. The wound wouldn’t heal until she dug the bullet out.

“Confess. If you love your daughter at all, confess and save her. Or I swear to god I will make you and you won’t like that.”

She nodded once, then lay down, whimpering.

I exited. “She’s ready to confess,” I told the guard. “And she needs a medic. It was so weird; she got some wood stuck in her thigh.”

“Pity,” the guard said.