His nod this time around is ten times quicker, and I’m out the bathroom even faster than that. Although he follows me, he maintains an amicable distance when I gabber out under my breath, “Don’t forget you taught me how to shoot.” I kick the butt of his gun before I commence getting dressed. “You lied to me,” I growl out when his eyes shift from seeking an instrument to tie me down. When he ruefully shakes his head, I shout, “An omission of the truth is still a lie!”
“N-No. I-I saved y-you. I-I never w-wanted to h-hurt you.”
His stutter breaks my heart as much as the sentences it delivered. He is a large, proud man, but his eyes reflect nothing but the pain of a lifetime of abuse when his words don’t come out as polished as he’d like.
With my mood nowhere near as unhinged, I ask, “If that’s true, why didn’t you tell me any of this at the cabin?”
“Because I wanted you to know me…”he touches his chest before continuing,“… JR. Not Colum Junior Petretti.”
“Bullshit!” Cedric groggily enters the room like JR isn’t capable of knocking him out for longer than two minutes. JR went easy on him because he doesn’t want me looking at him as if he is a monster, so Cedric shouldn’t be so cocky. He should be counting his lucky stars. “You knew with one truth comes many.” He drifts his glassy eyes with mine. “And he only wants you to know the good parts.”
“Don’t,” I snap out when JR looks set to make Cedric’s return to the land of the living a short stay. “Although a part of me really wants to see him get his just desserts.” Cedric acts maimed by my words. His acting is pitiful. “I’m not sure you have the right to issue that punishment just yet. We have a lot to discuss.”
JR’s disappointed expression during the first half of my comment maims my heart more than Cedric’s fake offense. “We do. ButI didn’t do what he said. I’m not a murderer.”
I’m certain JR isn’t the only stranger standing across from me when Cedric replies to his signed pledge. “We both know that’s a lie.” He’s not once told me he understands sign language, and he had plenty of opportunities to announce that. I was brought in to assist a deaf patient with consent forms only last month. Cedric was his surgeon.
When JR’s fists ball, Cedric makes a mad dash for my half of the room, stupidly believing he’ll be safer on this side. I’d hate to tell him his assumptions aren’t close to accurate. I hardly know JR, but if push comes to shove, and I’m forced to determine who’s telling the truth and who isn’t, Cedric would be labeled a liar from the get-go.
I’m still on the fence when it comes to JR, but I can’t forget the memories that cleared away some of the goop in my head only minutes ago, not to mention the ones we’ve created the past couple of days. No number of skirts will change the outcome. He saved me, and to date, that’s far more than anything Cedric has ever done for me.
Unaware his slander is tainting his light instead of brightening it, Cedric continues chipping away at JR’s hard exterior in an extremely demoralizing way. “I wasn’t around during the earlier stuff, but I know for a fact you did some of the things you’ve been accused of.” He folds his arm under his chest, all pompous-like. “Roderick didn’t kill himself like Cecil did. Youkilledhim.”
“Cecil didn’t kill himself. Roderick murdered him…” Before JR can consider the consequences of his next set of words, he signs in a hurry,“So I hurt him in retaliation.”He shifts his eyes to me.“What happened was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just—”
All his dirty laundry isn’t aired for the world to hear. A bang splinters the door of our hotel room a second before riot police storm inside. They scream for us to get down, but not one of their eyes are on Cedric or me. They have their target locked and loaded, and he can’t hear a single word they’re screaming at him.
My eyes burn from the smoke bomb they release to blind JR before they stealthily approach him. They’re coming for him at all sides, screaming their demands like they’re unaware he is deaf.
“Armed law enforcement officers. I repeat, we arearmedlaw enforcement officers.”
“Put your hands behind your back and get down on your knees!”
“Now, CJ!”
“Do not resist! If you resist, we have the right to shoot.”
“He isn’t resisting,” I plead on JR’s behalf when I remember how concerning his size can be to some people, much less his inability to communicate in what society deems an acceptable manner. “He’s deaf. He can’t hear your demands.”
“Why are you defending him?” Cedric asks in shock, his voice more disgusted than curious. “He tried to kill you.”
I snap my eyes to his so fast, I make myself dizzy. “And when he supposedly couldn’t go through with it, you told the men exactly where to find me!”
“To save you from him!” he shouts, his words overtaking the federal agents’ repeated demands for JR to surrender.
“Dogs wanting to tear me apart aren’t rescue dogs, Cedric!” I push him away from me with all my might before falling to my knees so JR can see me under the cloud of smoke. “Stay down, don’t resist, and maintain your right of silence until you have a lawyer present.”
My heart breaks when Cedric sneers out, “He just confessed to murder on tape. You can’t fucking save him, Jae.” He yanks off a length of wire taped to his chest, unlatches his necklace, dumps both products into the hands of an agent wearing a black balaclava and thick gloves, then exits the room like I cheapened our relationship by bringing in a third party into our duo.
Although some may say that is what JR is, I don’t feel the same way.
He saved me from a lifetime of misery.
He didn’t push me headfirst into it.
ChapterNineteen
JR
