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“No, ma’am.” My eyes are on my hands. I slide a finger over the bandages at my wrists, thinking of that nylon rope. “When I lost my sight, I became very depressed. Then my aunt died.”
Warmth swirls at my side and she sits beside me on the cot. “Your aunt—did you live with her? Not your parents?”
“My mother died shortly after she had my brother. It was a hard pregnancy, and she never recovered. I don’t know my father.”
My hands are covered by cool, slim ones, and she gives them a squeeze.
“Why were you working with Blix?”
Why is she doing this? I’m not sure what to make of her kindness. She knows I’m one of the bad guys.
“I… I helped a friend. Well, not really a friend. I helped a guy I knew move drugs around. He paid me a lot of money for my help. Enough to take care of Cameron and me for a month.”
“Cameron is your brother.”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“Please call me Ava.”
I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to do that. She doesn’t give me a chance to object. “So you did drugs?”
“No—I wasn’t a junkie.” I hesitate. Just because I never took drugs doesn’t make me somehow better. “I moved them from place to place. My… friend said they wouldn’t bother me because I’m blind, and I guess I look… innocent.”
“You’re very beautiful.” Her voice is gentler. “Is that what led to Blix? Did he make you swallow balloons?”
Shaking my head, I think of the mules who swallow heroin wrapped in latex. One weak link and as much as two kilos could dump into their bloodstream. For comparison, twenty milligrams is an average bump. Basically, it would be a gruesome way to die.
“He said I was too valuable. I only carried them on my person. Then one of his connections thought he would trick me by switching out the pills. He was stupid.”
“Did Blix hurt you for it?”
That night lingers in my memory. It doesn’t take much work to remember Blix’s hand clamped over my wrist, the knife pressing into my knuckle. “He threatened to hurt me, but instead he dealt with the man and moved me to Florida.”
Her voice is grim. “I can’t believe he’s capable of mercy.”
“He’s not. He made me earn back the missing pills. It was thousands of dollars. Then it happened again. Only the second time, it was one million.”
“That’s how he got you to do this?”
It’s difficult for me to take that easy way out. “My bad choices led me here.”
She stands and walks around the room. I’m still holding the plate in my hand, and I lean forward to set it on the desk.
“You need to eat something,” she says gently.
I’m so confused by the change in her. I don’t know if it’s rude, but I have to ask. “Why are you being nice to me?”
“Earlier when I said you don’t know me.” All traces of anger are gone at this point. She’s speaking as if we’re friends. “Before I came here, my sister and I lived on the street. We had to steal money for food. We broke into boathouses to sleep when it rained. My sister robbed casinos…”
My brother had told me a little about this new queen, how she was a true Cinderella story. At the time, I didn’t really care.
“Basically, it would be a cruel hypocrisy if I sat here and tried to judge you. I’ve never had any disabilities. You might say I had an edge… although, you wouldn’t really know me if you did.”
I’m not sure what that means, but surging to the forefront of my mind is the problem I prayed all night about. Could this woman standing here be the answer?
“I have no right to ask this, but you see, I must.” My hands are clutched together in my lap.
She walks back to where I’m sitting. “What is it?”
