Going back

29|| I've got you

A/N: here's chapter 29. Enjoy, people.

"Alex, just tell us what's going on!" Jax exclaimed desperately. "Whatever it is, we can help you—"

"No you can't," he snapped. "This is something I need to do by myself."

"Jax." Harry laid a heavy hand on his shoulder with a kind smile. "Remember what we talked about? Not everyone stays the same after so many years."

Iris crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Something's wrong."

Jax stared at her. "Ya think?"

"Wait a second." Lisa raised a hand, cutting Iris' scathing remark off.

She crossed the room and tugged on the collar of Alex's jacket. Alex flinched, pure terror in his eyes, as Lisa pulled out a tiny black chip connected with a wire that ran down his chest and disappeared somewhere in his sleeve.

How long has that been on? Iris sucked in a sharp breath and felt a flush crawl up the back of her neck as she thought back to her bickering with Alex in the alleyway. She was so stupid for not considering the possibility of a listening device.

"Stay silent won't help you, young man," Lisa said in a loud, clear voice while motioning to David.

He nodded and slammed his hands on the metal table, mimicking the sound of a body slammed against the ground. David glared meaningfully at Alex, who simply looked puzzled.

Jax sighed and slapped him over the head.

"Oh ow!" Alex exclaimed, rubbing the sore spot. "What the hell?— oh!" Realisation dawned on his face and he continued making pained groans and spluttering.

To add to the false torture effect, Lisa continuously asked question which Alex answered- falsely, Irish assumed, based on the subtle shift in his demeanour.

She hated how she still knew him so well. Hated how she could read every single one of his micro-expressions, and how her heart still hurt at the sight of his wounds. Even after all these years. Even after everything he'd done. It still hurt. It shouldn't hurt.

Lisa disappeared for a few moments- possibly to discard of the microphone, or maybe to escape the stifling tension. She returned with a glass of water and she handed it to Iris with a reassuring smile. "You okay?"

Iris felt like breaking down. How many people had asked her that question ever since her mother died? She wanted to curl up and cry. Shut out the world and just forget it all.

What point did it make, anyways? Her mother was gone. Finding her murderer wasn't going to do anything. It wasn't going to bring her back.

Iris remembered reading about some religious- or was it ancient?- cultures that claimed the souls of those who were murdered would wander the earth, forever at unrest, until justice was delivered.

Iris's own relationship with religion was complicated, but she couldn't bear the chance- no matter how small- that her mother could be suffering in the afterlife. She had been through enough alive, and deserved a rest in death.

Squaring her shoulders, she imagined Elise standing right beside her and levelled her gaze at Alex. "Who killed my mother?"

Alex lowered his head and his eyes fluttered shut. "Ask Mi Cha about it." His voice was strained- pained, even, like the words took a physical effort to break free.

"Why can't you tell me?"

"I just can't."

"That's a pretty shitty excuse." Jax's grey eyes were dull, as if the life had been snapped out of them, and he hunched over. He scuffed the toe of his shoe against the pristine, white floors. "I thought... I thought you'd changed."