Page 47 of Touch Her and Die
“And that got you out of the marriage?”
She reached for my coffee and took a sip.
“Well. Obviously not if you got an invitation. I wonder who it’s to?” She poured more coffee, and the rooster crowed again. For such a dead place, there were a few too many noises. Peeking out the window, I saw a horse chasing a goat.
“What is wrong with this place?”
She followed my gaze through the kitchen window.
“Believe me. This is the only way I am staying, uh, sort of normal. Maybe we should get out of here. I assumed what got me out of the wedding was throwing up on the altar and everyone thinking I was pregnant, but no one knew whose baby it was and, well here I am. Until they could do the paternity test.”
I looked down at her flat stomach.
“And?”
She smiled. “I’m allergic to peanuts. I popped one of those bad boys in and ta-da. But when a girl is sobbing, and the groom is beating up his brother and the brother is screaming that it’s his baby and their father was screaming at my dad, no one cared about details. Parks just said he would take me to the safe house, and they could talk. I think they forgot about me. Mostly.”
Tilting my head, this seemed like so much chaos. I’d have just killed them all and lived my life.But this?
“So, you didn’t kill anyone?”
She handed me back the coffee, and I ignored the rooster crowing because there was way too much that I didn’t get about this. Or her, or the life that Parks lived.
“That’s silly. No. Not yet anyway. But, at the end of the day, it’s way better to let them just destroy themselves. I think.”
Yes. I liked her. This was next level mind games.
Still, minutes passed. The cup was drained, and I couldn’t decide if we were friends or not. She didn’t kill people. She didn’t seem to want to kill people and she...?
“Wait. So, you’re okay out here?” I asked.
There was that damn pause again. It was just so damn quiet here. I never thought I would miss the crazy noises of the city. In fact, maybe I’d just never appreciated it. Too focused on the people.
“I guess it’s better to be forgotten then to be forced to marry someone?” she said.
My jaw was hurting. “Parks is being forced to marry someone. We can’t let that happen.”
She was quiet again. Then, abruptly, she pulled her phone from her pocket. It seemed to be slow motion as I watched the color drain from her face.
“Remember how I said I’d been forgotten?”
I didn’t have to answer because she just kept going.
“Well, I refuse to forget the world, and the one person who still talks to me just sent a text, and it’s not good. The wedding was moved up to tomorrow.”
I must have flinched because she looked at me and then at my hands.
“You’re bleeding.”
Sure enough, as I looked down, my hand palm was bleeding. I was back to the numbness, and I hadn’t even realized it. God, I’d missed not feeling. Except, that wasn’t entirely true.
“Great. So, when do we leave?”
She gave me the most wicked smile. It made my heart swell. There was a little demon in her after all.
“In five. Let me get Gertie.
EIGHTEEN
