Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
He stares at me, looking haggard. I want to put out my hand and comfort him.
But I don’t. We can’t touch anymore. It’s for the best.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “He couldn’t have done anything.”
“He was so worried. We all were.”
“Don’t worry,” I say. “It’ll never happen again.”
Kaiser
Bella’s awake, but she’s not herself.
Atticus comes and looks her over, pronouncing her out of the woods. He prescribes lots of liquids and rest.
I order every type of soup I can think of. I call in more favors until I reach Royal Regis, the head of the mafia family. Royal’s wife, Leah, owns Pane P’s. I offer him a favor in exchange for a special delivery of Bella’s favorite baked goods.
It doesn’t work. Even the cruffins—a disgusting mix of muffins, croissants, and cream—don’t tempt her.
She stays in bed, drinking plain broth and tea. Color returns to her cheeks, but she still acts listless.
I put on her favorite season of Vampire Varsity and tell her that I think Luna shouldn’t have ended up with Dargon, the evil twin. She usually argues passionately about that.
She says nothing.
And she doesn’t let me touch her. At all. She’s careful to make sure our skin doesn’t touch, even by accident. I never realized how much I touched her until I couldn’t touch her anymore. She’s shut down, and normally I’d rub her shoulders and neck to get her back online.
She’s still recovering, I remind myself. She’s not herself.
But it feels like more than that. It feels like the old Bella died. She’s gone forever.
I’ve never seen her act so cold, so remote. Almost robotic. A lot like her father. The emotion is gone, buried deep. She doesn’t laugh, doesn’t cry. The only time I see a flicker of anything is when I show her the journals.
“You can keep the journals,” I say. “Your mother would’ve wanted you to have them.”
She nods, running her hands over them.
“Do you want to read them?”
“No.” She stacks them up and puts them to the side.
I take a deep breath. “Your father would like to come visit. Do you want that?”
“No.” She lays her head on the pillow and stares at the ceiling. I know she’s recovering, but it feels like she’s shutting me out. “Keep him away.”
“He would want to see you.”
“His life is better without me in it.”
I begin to protest, but she says, “No, it’s true.” She sounds tired. “He blamed me for her death. And he’s right to. I’m the reason she was murdered.”
32
Kaiser
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I try to remember what I know about Shoshonna Bosco’s death. It was in the files St. James gave me when I started the job.
“It was a turf war,” I say. “Someone wanted your father to work for them. He told them no, and they refused to take no for an answer. They had men on you. Following you.”
Bella stares into the distance, not really seeing anything. I don’t know if she’s even listening.
I try again. “You were five. It wasn’t your fault. It couldn’t have been.” I move my hand closer, and she flinches away from my touch, coming awake again.
“It was my fault we were out in the first place. I wanted to go see the ducks. Mama said no, but I threw a fit and she took me to the park. That’s when they found us. The bad men. We left as soon as she noticed them, but it was too late. They followed us. She didn’t think she could make it home, so she went to the closest place she could hide. One of our nurseries. It had a warehouse where Papa grew the most poisonous plants. That’s where she hid me…”
I stare at her, feeling a growing sense of dread. I want to stop her, to tell her it’s okay. But I want to listen. I want to know her. I want to know everything.
“I remember…” she says and trails off. She’s far away, gone back in time. A little girl, clinging to her mother.
“What do you remember?”
“She must have been terrified. But she didn’t show it. She told me it was a game. We were going to play a game. I was to hide and be very quiet. No matter what. Until Papa found me. She left me there. She told me she loved me and to be good for her and hide. And she left.
“I didn’t find out what happened until later. She drew them away from the room, and they killed her right in the warehouse. I heard voices—men I didn’t know—but they didn’t come into the room marked as dangerous. They left her body for my father to find.”
“They didn’t find you.” I know that much. I also know they spent hours torturing Shoshonna before leaving her body for her husband to find. “I was so quiet,” Bella whispers. “I was good for her. I waited for hours hidden in the plants. The grow lights turned off. I fell asleep… My father found me. I was barely conscious. He carried me out of the warehouse. I remember the cool air on my face.”