Page 46 of Forbidden Fate

And I couldn’t save her. That’s the part that still hurts. I’m her twin. Her other half.

But I wasn’t a match. Neither were Hawk or Eagle.

Falcon was, thank God. Donating bone marrow to Raven even got him out of prison early.

If he hadn’t matched, Raven would have kept fading until she was gone.

She never would have met Vinnie.

Which actually could have spared us a whole new disaster, with his ties to the Bianchi crime family. But maybe that disaster needed to happen.

Maybe those secrets needed to be unlocked.

Except they nearly cost my father his life.

God, I can’t think about him without the world tilting. He’s supposed to be the strong one. The one who’s impossible to break. Then, out of nowhere, he tried to kill himself. Totally out of left field.

What pushed him? What made him decide that death looked easier than⁠—

Cruz stops. His hand tightens around mine.

Red fear grips the back of my neck as a figure steps out of the corridor ahead.

My heart stops.

Zabala.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.

Terror clutches at me everywhere—my hands, my feet, my knees, my gut. He was supposed to be on a break. Did Cruz lie to me? Have I been duped?

Zabala drops his gaze to our joined hands. “Well,” he says. “This is interesting.”

Cruz doesn’t flinch as he steps slightly in front of me. “Lock issue,” he says.

Zabala’s eyebrows rise. “Lock issue?”

“Her cell door isn’t catching right.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Zabala looks past him at me. “And you’re moving her yourself?”

“Vega’s orders.”

Cruz doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t act protective. He doesn’t give me anything except the steady pressure of his hand around mine.

“It couldn’t wait?” Zabala asks.

“You want to explain to Vega why the hostage was kept in a cell with a faulty lock?”

Zabala looks me up and down, his eyebrows furrowed. “I wasn’t informed.”

Cruz shrugs. “You want to be informed, take it up with him.”

My heartbeat is so loud I’m sure they can both hear it. Every inhale feels too shallow, every exhale too loud.