Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Jude lets out a rough laugh.
“I love you, man,” Axel says quietly, “but I don’t buy it. What if this doesn’t work? What if nobody shows up? What if the list stays hidden?”
Jude stares at the floor. “Then I keep looking.”
“And if you can’t find it?”
His jaw tightens. “Then my father goes after everyone I care about. He already took my mom. I’m not letting him take anyone else just because he can’t live with what he’s done.”
For a second, nobody says anything.
Then Axel grins.
“Aw. Look at that. Our little psychopath grew a conscience.”
Jude rolls his eyes. “This is all we can do. Try our best.” He glances around the room. “Wait... where’d Charlie go?”
I hadn’t even noticed that she’d slipped away.
The door swings open.
Charlie walks back in wearing a pair of black heels that could probably kill someone, a slinky black dress, and red lipstick that somehow makes her smile look dangerous instead of pretty. Her hair is twisted into a messy bun like she just rolled out of bed and decided to start a war.
She flashes us a grin. “Ready for seduction.”
Axel goes completely still. “Shit,” he mutters.
She winks. “You get me later. Right now, I’ve got an old man to ruin.”
“Can everyone please stop saying old man?” Axel groans. “It’s weird.”
I pull out my phone.
“So what?” he asks. “We send the Dean’s List another tip? Hope whoever’s behind it bites?”
I snap a few pictures of Charlie and attach them to the anonymous email.
Fishing for a Dean.
If we catch and expose him...
Will you finally show us your face?
We just want the truth.
Axel watches me hit send.
Axel studies me for a long second. “Your own father. You’re really willing to throw him to the wolves? For Jude? For every other name on that list?”
I swallow hard.
Seven years ago, that question would have broken me.
Seven years ago, I would have made excuses.
He was scared.
He was trying to protect us.
He had no choice.
I know better now.
“I’m not throwing him to the wolves,” I say quietly. “I’m making him stand in front of the truth.”
The room goes still.
“My whole life I’ve let everyone else decide who I should protect. My dad. My mom. Jude’s family. Everyone had a reason for lying to me, for hiding things, for deciding what I could handle.”
I shake my head.
“I’m done carrying secrets that were never mine to keep.”
Axel studies my face. “Even if it destroys what little family you have left?”
A sad laugh slips out. “I lost my family a long time ago. I just didn’t know it yet.”
Jude reaches for my hand. I lace my fingers through his without looking away from Axel. “My father made his choices. So did yours. So did everyone on that list. They don’t get to keep sacrificing people because they’re afraid of consequences.”
Charlie smiles from the corner of the room. “So,” she says lightly, “we burn the whole thing down?” How typical of her. All or nothing. Kill or save.
I squeeze Jude’s hand. It’s warm, strong, unyielding. “No.” I glance up at him. “We tell the truth. Finally.”
His eyes soften in a way I’ve never seen before. The anger is still there, the grief too, but for the first time it isn’t aimed at me or my past sins.
He steps closer. “You know,” he says, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear, “we really suck at this.”
I laugh through the tears threatening to fall. “At what?”
His forehead touches mine. “Being on the same side.” He presses a kiss there. “We should have been here from the beginning.”
“No secrets,” I whisper.
His fingers tighten around mine. “No more lies.”
I rise onto my toes and kiss him on the mouth. It’s nothing like the desperate kisses we’ve shared before. There’s no revenge in it. No guilt. No trying to make up for seven stolen years.
Just a promise.
When we finally pull apart, he rests his forehead against mine and lets out a slow breath.
“We end this now.”
I nod. “Together.”
And for the first time since Jude Hale walked back into my life, I believe the universe is actually rooting for us along with his mom and every other victim.
Maybe by righting a wrong.
We set ourselves to right too.
Maybe happily-ever-afters are possible after all.
23
“Justice is a beautiful word. Revenge wears it well. Until love calls it by its real name.” –The Count of Monte Cristo
JUDE
I’d be lying if I said I was confident about what Charlie has convinced us is a foolproof plan.
Truth is, I don’t have a lot of options.
I know my dad has eyes on me. I know he’s waiting, watching. I don’t speak to him anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the men in expensive suits and dark sunglasses that magically appear everywhere I go.
He’s afraid.
He wants the list.
And he’ll do everything in his power to get it.
The problem is, I need to get it first. It’s the only leverage I have left.