Chapter 10 · Blood Keeps Score

Sienna shoves the paper in my face and I can't read it because my hands are shaking and hers are too.

I grab her wrist. She jerks back. I hold on.

"Stop," I say. My own voice sounds like it's coming through water. I can't hear the word leave my mouth. "Write it again. Slower."

She pulls free and writes in huge letters: MARCUS SOLD HER.

The garage door's still down. We've been in here twenty minutes and she won't let me open it. Every time I move toward the panel she blocks me. I don't know if she thinks I'll leave or if she's scared of what's outside. Either way I'm stuck in a concrete box with a woman who just told me my sister was sold like furniture.

"Sold to who," I say.

She writes: I DON'T KNOW.

"Bullshit."

She underlines it twice.

I step into her space. She doesn't back up. We're close enough that I can see the ink smudged on her thumb, the way her chest moves when she breathes. She smells like coffee and something sharper. Fear, maybe. Or anger.

"You brokered the deal," I say. "You were there.