Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
She shakes her head. “I’ll be fine.”
I sit on the edge of the bed and hand her the glass of water there. She takes a sip and hands it back. “Drink it all, will you?”
“I’m fine, Judge.” She tries to get out of the bed, but I stop her and hold the water out. “Fine.” She rolls her eyes but drinks, then hands the empty glass back to me.
“Have you had to use it before? The EpiPen?”
“When I was younger but I’m really careful.” Her forehead creases, and I’m not sure if she’s embarrassed or scared. I consider how much to tell her. “I eat beignets from there all the time. They know about my allergy.”
“It happened. Just try to forget about it. Probably just an accident.”
“The EpiPen in my purse didn’t work, Judge.”
I was hoping she wouldn’t remember that part, but the EpiPen was tampered with. I wonder how long ago that had been done. I don’t have to ask who did it. Miriam is missing. She left most of her things behind and took off. Her fingerprints were on the EpiPen although we all handled it, so it was kind of a mess. Ezra has men looking for her.
“I ordered more. I replaced the one in your bag. Put two in there in fact. Solana and Georgie have more as well. Just in case. I’ll be keeping them in the cars and Lois has several in the kitchen. There will always be extra—”
“Judge,” she says, stopping me. I watch as she pushes her hand through her hair, soft waves of it falling over her shoulders when she releases it. “Did someone tamper with it?”
“It was probably just faulty.”
“Those things aren’t faulty.”
“Either way, you don’t need to worry about that.”
“Yeah, I kinda do.”
I clench my jaw.
“You moved me in here before that happened. You’ve got security around me like I’m the Queen of England. What’s going on?”
“Miriam is gone, Mercedes.”
“Miriam?”
“I know what she did to you. The paperweight. I know you weren’t lying, and I’m sorry I doubted you.”
Her eyebrows rise, but it’s not in an I-told-you-so way. More just in surprise. Probably from my apology. I think this is the first time I’ve apologized to her.
“I confronted her a little while ago,” I tell her. It won’t hurt her to know this.
“Why did she do it? I mean, she and I never really liked each other but fuck. She really hurt me.”
I clear my throat. I’m not ready to tell her that part just yet. Because that secret would unravel far too many others.
“I don’t know,” I lie instead.
She studies me. “You think she messed with the EpiPen too?”
“I suspect so.”
“But she’s gone now. What does that mean exactly? Gone like Theron or…”
“I have men looking for her.”
“Jesus, Judge! You knew what she did to me, and you didn’t have her arrested or something?”
“There was more to it than that, and I was managing her. I felt it would be better to have her where I could keep an eye on her. That was clearly a mistake.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question. Why did you move me in here? Why the extra security?”
“With Abel having attacked Ivy like he did, I didn’t want to take a chance he’d come after you, too.” It is true. I have considered it. And I think this will be less frightening for Mercedes to deal with than knowing the brother of the woman she killed is out for revenge.
“Abel? He won’t come after me. Why would he?”
“You’re Santiago’s sister. Not to mention you can testify against him to The Tribunal.”
“Abel doesn’t scare me.”
Cupping her chin, I tilt her face up to mine. “Well, I’m not taking any chances with you. I will do what I need to do to keep you safe, little monster, even if I have to lock you away to do it.”
“That was actually starting to sound sweet and then just got creepy.”
I cup the base of her skull and pull her close. “I mean it, Mercedes. Seeing you like that the other day, feeling fucking powerless to fix it, it fucked with me.”
“Be careful, Judge.” She turns her huge eyes to me. She’s so close that I see faint rings of gold inside them, and fuck, she’s so beautiful, disarmingly so. “You don’t want me to get the impression you care.”
We look at each other for a long moment, and I know what she’s waiting for. Confirmation. But nothing has changed between us. Nothing can change. I won’t marry her. I can’t. And she’s right. I can’t give her false hope.
So I change the subject. “Georgie’s gay.”
She searches my eyes, and I see her disappointment, but then she grins. “It took you a really long time to figure that out.”
“Why did you let me believe you two were together?”