Page 83 of Crossed By the Stars
“Fucking Romeo and Juliet,” Cillian grunted.
“What?”
“You’d both kill yourselves for the other, and all that would happen is you’d both end up dead. Don’t make that kind of mistake.”
“If you see a way out of this with both of us living, you know that’s what I want.”
“Then give me twenty minutes to meet with the team and come up with a plan. Sit down, ice your fucking knee, and let me do my job.”
Was twenty minutes going to make a difference? How long did Jada have?
“I’ll give you ten.”
He banged open the door, looked at the two men standing outside it, and said, “If he leaves, shoot him.”
Their eyes widened, and then the door slammed shut behind him.
I sank down on the couch and put the ice pack on my knee, hissing at the cold and the pain. I was terrified that any delay would mean we’d be too late, but I also knew that having a plan was always better than bursting in with nothing but bravado and words.
Jada’s eyes full of tears hit me, the vulnerability she’d let me see every day since bringing her home from the hospital. It was something she’d always kept to herself, hidden behind layers and layers of badass, don’t-give-a-shit attitude. The only sign that she’d ever been suffering was the way she’d abused her own body over the years as a means of escaping her life.
If I’d stood up to my father at seventeen, would everything have been different? Would she have left her family behind then? We’d be completely different people. Who knew if I would have gone into business with Dawson. She might never have been sent to New London to finish high school online, and then she’d never have met Violet.
I couldn’t undo our past. I couldn’t undo the things that had made us who we were, but I’d be damned if I would sit by and just quietly wait for her to walk into the other world by her own or anyone else’s hand.
I stood up, ready to leave regardless of what Cillian had told the guards at the door. They wouldn’t shoot their client. The door crashed open, and Cillian was there, looking grim and ready for battle. He had on a bulletproof vest like the S.W.A.T. teams used and guns at each hip. He handed me a second vest. It was thinner, smaller.
“Put it on under your shirt and jacket.”
I didn’t hesitate. I stripped down, threw the cold heavy fabric over my chest, and then redressed. Everything was tighter, the clothes normally fitted to my frame by tailors pulling at the extra cushion.
“Let’s go,” he grunted. “I’ll get you up to speed in the vehicle.”
Jada
KNOCK 123
“That will be our secret call.
You'll find me under your spell.”
Written & Performed by Imelda May
The blue kimono was nothing Iwouldever wear. Once upon a time, in a life that wasn’t mine, I’d letObaasanshow me how to wear the traditional dress. I’d hoped that my father would see me in it and be proud. I’d worn it for thechakaiI’d held for both my parents—the one he hadn’t attended. Now, standing before him with the soft silk flowing about my ankles and the intricately embroideredobitied about my waist, I felt like that teenage girl again. Except, this time, I knew the truth about him. That he was not a good and benevolent man. He was determined and powerful, but he would show no mercy.
Except he had. He’d shown it to me and Dawson both.
He looked up from his massive desk on the second-to-the-top floor of the Mori Enterprises building in San Francisco and took me in as if he’d never seen me before, a critical eye gazing over every aspect of me from my hair down to the loose sandals on my feet.
I twisted the bracelet on my wrist because I had no phone to flip, my hands seeking a release from the tension brewing inside me. Unfortunately, it drew his eyes.
“You can’t wear that,” he said.
Jewelry was never worn at a formal tea ceremony, but I wondered if my father suspected what it really was because the design wasn’t anything I’d ever buy for myself.
After debating with myself the entire time we’d been on the plane, I’d decided to keep the bracelet on. It was Dax’s own words that had pushed me into it. He’d said that sometimes being brave meant letting others fight at your side, letting them take the risk with you. The anxiety of that decision still made my stomach swarm like bees were stinging it. This risk was larger than any I’d ever taken before, because I was endangering him…endangering Cillian and the other bodyguards. But I also knew the truth. Dax would come after me no matter what I did at this point. I’d have to trust that Cillian would do what he’d promised and keep Dax safe first.
A selfish part of me still hoped and craved for the beautiful mirage Dax had painted me. The one where we escaped into endless oceans and palm trees blowing gently in an air heavy with the scents of the islands. A place where we could conduct our businesses far away from the taint of my father and the noise and grime of the city. I ached to have the bubble we’d created become permanent. The dream where I woke every day at Dax’s side suddenly seemed worth fighting for. Maybe because he wanted it almost more than I did. Maybe because I wanted to see him as happy as he’d seemed the last five days.
