You Are Mine Little Sister (by Syra Tucker) novel Chapter 196

My veins felt suddenly empty, stunned into stillness. My fingers stiffened against the counter as something ugly began to assemble in my mind.

'Ma'am, are those the men?' I still remembered the voice of the cop as he and his partner sat on the couch across from me, showing me the mugshot. Ryan and Tyler. Those were the names on their badges.

They sounded professional. They even had guns in their holsters.

'Well, all thanks to your friend here and the identification you made, we were able to track both brothers and currently have them in custody.'

My friend.

Dominic.

He'd been leaning against the wall, watching the scene.

It was him who had brought them. Together, they convinced me the Ash Twins were in custody. Now I stood in a police station being told those men had never been arrested. That the officers who swore they had them in custody did not exist.

"Are you alright, miss?" The woman's voice held concern. "If you feel confused, or think someone may have misled you, please go into that office and explain everything. We'll help you." She gestured toward a small corner office.

I couldn't move.

Couldn't even look where she pointed. Just kept staring into space as the harsh reality dawned on me.

A searing pain ripped through me in an instant. Panic threatened to consume me. I probably would've fallen straight into it had the woman not harshly grabbed my hand.

"Ma'am! Are you alright?"

Her face was already blurring through the tears swelling in my eyes. Everything hurt. Every nerve. Every breath. My past, my present; every fucking thing felt like it was tearing at once.

"He lied to me," I whispered. My voice sounded like it was breaking underwater. "It was all a lie."

"Who lied to you? Please tell me all about it."

I didn't. I tore my hand from hers and ran.

....

Dominic lied to me.

My hands were trembling so badly I nearly dropped my keys. I fumbled with the lock until the door finally gave way.

He's not who he said he was.

I ran into my room like I was being hunted and began throwing things into a bag—clothes, shoes, whatever my shaking hands grabbed first.

He's a liar. A liar. A liar.

I groaned. My head split open with a sudden migraine as another memory slammed into me.

The Torturer was helping me pick out some clothes.

'I don't need you to pick out my clothes, Void. I've told you this countlessly.'

I didn't even have plans of telling Marovelle or Rosaline. I knew they'd try to stop me, and the last thing I wanted to do was take anyone with me into whatever hell was closing in again.

I got my small bag ready and turned around to leave the room. And I gasped.

The bag slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a dull thud, but I barely heard it over the explosion in my chest. Adrenaline surged through me like wildfire through dry grass. My heart pounded so violently it felt like it was trying to beat its way out of my ribs.

Until this morning, he had been a face I longed to see. A friend that had turned into something more.

But now, seeing him standing silent in my doorway twisted my insides into knots. Fear and nausea collided in my stomach; made me want to throw up and pass out at the same time.

The darkness in his eyes was no longer subtle. It was visible now; like a blade I'd chosen to look away from until it was pressed to my throat.

He appeared too cold; too different. And something about the way he stood there told me he hadn't come to talk.

His gaze dropped slowly from my face to the bag on the floor… then lifted back up to me. The deliberate movement sent a frozen shiver racing up my spine. I'd never seen Dominic look this intimidating before.

"Going somewhere?" His voice had lost its warmth. The soft sound that once made me feel safe had been stripped away, leaving something flat and hollow behind.

My eyes flicked to the tattoos peeking from beneath the sleeves of his shirt. The same markings that had felt familiar the first day I saw them. Today, I realized why.

They were the very ones from my visions.

'The Torturer was dead,' so they said.

But for the first time, the man in my visions had a face. And it was the one staring straight at me.