Page 84 of Taking Jenny
It was late, but I couldn’t sleep. To sleep would have meant to relax in theswamp mud, and I certainly was not capable of such a thing. So, I occupied myself with the guards and eavesdropping on their horrid conversation. Anything to keep my mind from my circumstances. Or Jenny’s.
“You think he’ll rip ‘em out?” a guard asked his partner.
“What else is he gonna do?” the second guard replied. “His mouth was sewn shut. I woulda ripped them stitches out days ago.”
They were speaking of Thyme, and I grunted and deliberately cut in to their conversation. “He’ll probably die of dehydration or hope. Probably both.”
They turned around to glare at me through the bars of my cell door. The first one raised his brow. “You think he’d die rather than destroy his pretty face?”
“Not that you can relate, but when your pretty face is all you have going for you, what do you do?” I asked, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my pants as I addressed the pair. “Thyme is not particularly smart, according to the guards who were here earlier, nor is he well-liked by most of the other guards, even before he started sleeping with Justice. As I understand it, he cheated on his former lover to trade up, so to speak. I would bet good money that he’s counting on Justice to release him before he dies of thirst.”
Both guards shot me a wary glance before the first one asked, “How muchgood moneyare we talking?”
I shrugged nonchalantly. “I’d go as high as twenty-thousand credits, but it depends on who I’m betting with. I don’t like to take money from men who can’t afford it.”
One of the guards narrowed his gaze at me. “You tryin’ to say we’re too poor to gamble with you, Executioner?”
I licked my parched lips. “I was trying to say it kindly.”
“I’m in for five hundred,” the second guard said.
His cohort smacked his chest with the back of his hand. “Too scared to make a real man’s bet?”
“Jaffa would kill me if I bet more than that.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes. “You’re worried about your significant other’s approval? No wonder you’re just a guard.”
He stiffened. “I may be just a guard, but I’m on the right side of those bars you’re standing behind, so watch your mouth.”
My lips smoothed into a sinister smile. “You do know who I am, don’t you? And that I never forget a face?”
The man gulped audibly. “Six hundred credits.”
I laughed again, my eyes shooting to the other guard. “And you? What’s yourmanlybet?”
“I’m in for two thousand,” he said, with slightly more confidence.
“Better,” I drawled. “But still the bet of a child. I’ll stay by my bet of twenty thousand—don’t worry, I don’t expect you to match it—and if I lose, you two can split the profit. But if I win, I’ll give you the option of either paying the credits or I will take a finger. I’ll even let you choose which of your digits you get to keep. Deal?”
“You think I’d lose my finger instead of paying two thousand credits?” the first guard asked.
The second one shrugged. “It’d be easier to explain to Jaffa I lost a finger at work than I lost all of a month’s grocery money on a bet. Alright, I’m in. For a finger.”
The first guard shook his head, laughing at his cohort. “I’m in, too. For the money. Either that boy rips his stitches out of his face and we win, or Thyme waits until either he dies or Justice pardons him, then you win, yes?”
I nodded. “Or, if I win, you keep your money and your finger, and you just let me out.” They both had a laugh then, so I joined them. “Kidding, of course. Wouldn’t want you to lose your jobs or your lives over a bet.”
The first guard said, “You know, I’m surprised you haven’t asked about your lady love.”
Until he mentioned her, I had done a respectable job of keeping Jenny from my mind. If they thought she meant anything to me…that would not bode well for her. “I’m sorry, who?”
“The avatar. Come now, you didn’t forget about her already, didja? She’s the whole reason you’re down here. You can’t go helping the doomed. Ida thought the Executioner woulda known better than that.”
“Would seem like the first thing they teach you at Executioner School,” the second guard joked. “No helping the doomed.”
“Actually,” I held his gaze and calmly said, “the first thing they teach you at Executioner School is how to kill a man with your bare hands. Not safe to put a weapon in untrained hands, you know.”
Interest flickered in his eyes. “How…what’s the best way to do that?”
