AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Char offered up his best, fakest smile, turning on the charm that made me wonder why I’d ever fallen for it. “I’m Char. I do a bit of this and that.”
Sasha didn’t press that one, but after being with Jarrod, she probably understood an answer like that meant the truth was a bit ugly. When her gaze moved to Tor, I piped up.
“Tor can’t speak.”
Sasha set her fork down, her hands moving quickly.
Tor lifted his eyebrow, then responded, the gestures meaning nothing to me.
“You know sign language?” I asked.
Sasha shrugged. “Not much. I learned a little to help with deaf patients, but I still remember a little. Anything beyond the basics or requests for pain meds and I’m not much help.”
“Being able to get drugs feels like the most important ones,” Vance said, breaking the tension.
The meal went on like that, with us all dancing around the truth, around the questions they all had, no doubt.
Funnily enough, this feels like the most normal family dinner I’ve ever had.
* * * *
Kenz
I put the plates in the dishwasher as Sasha and the men remained at the table, drinking coffee that Char had made.
I’d needed a moment away, to escape the anxiety that ran through me as Jarrod stared daggers at the men.
“I don’t like them.”
I didn’t bother to turn toward Jarrod when I heard his voice. He liked sneaking up on people, taking them by surprise, which meant I didn’t react to it much anymore. “That’s not a surprise. You don’t like anyone.”
“What is it with women picking terrible men? You, Nem, Caroline—”
“Sasha?”
He snorted. “Yeah, her too. Hell, she probably has the worst taste of all.”
I closed the dishwasher and hit the Start button, then turned and leaned against the counter to stare at him. “You’re not that bad.”
“You just don’t see it. It makes me even more worried about these guys, because clearly you don’t judge a person well.”
“And if you’re here, I bet you know everything there is to know about them.”
He didn’t deny it, and I was so not surprised that he’d have researched them that I couldn’t even find it in me to be angry.
“So much for trusting me, huh?”
Jarrod came over and leaned against the counter beside me. We usually had our conversations like this, where we both looked in the same direction instead of at one another. It was easier to speak freely when I didn’t have his silver eyes locked on me.
They were the same ones Nem had, and sometimes I wondered if that wasn’t part of my connection to him. Seeing those eyes made me feel as if I already knew him.
“If I really didn’t trust you, I’d have already handed this over to Nem.”
“So why haven’t you?”
“Because as much as I don’t like it, you’ve got to make your own choices. It’s something I learned from Sasha. I almost lost her, almost got her killed all because I wanted to make decisions for her, because I thought that doing everything for her would keep her safe. Turns out that isn’t the way it works.”
“Sasha’s good for you.”
