Page 30 of Choosing Jenny
She grinned. “It’s just Sarah.”
Deacon frowned, still judging us. “I appreciate your confidences. All of you. But understand, the more people who know what’s happening here, the more danger my family is in and I will do whatever it takes to minimize that risk. However, you are welcome to stay here as long as you are on Halla. We will provide accommodations and supplies, perhaps some helping hands. However, as far as any talk of war goes, we cannot risk sharing any of that information.”
“Deacon,” Sarah said, her tone scolding. “We should speak privately about this.”
“There is no point. I have made up my mind.”
She shook her head. “You’re as stubborn as a dreck, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to speak privately about this.” Then, she glanced back at us with a diplomatic smile. “Give us some time, while you do whatever it is you’re here to do with the orbs. We will discuss what you need to know, given your intentions at the palace.”
“I guess that’ll work.” Jenny’s voice was calm, but her energy was not.
She was clearly angry about the situation. Her rage practically boiled the air around her. Obviously, it was hard for her to grasp why Deacon was so paranoid, but I understood his hesitance.
We’d brought notorious strangers to his home, and he had already been through a lot. Not long ago, Jac had let it slip to me that Deacon wanted Justice dead for the beheading of his father, so I hoped that would bridge the gap for him and he would understand we were all on the same side.
Only time would tell.
CHAPTER 10
Jenny
Mal and Tiger went to our room ahead of me, so I could have a private chat with Sarah in her office. She had brightened it up, like the rest of the mansion. I was glad to see Deacon’s grumpy, overbearing attitude didn’t stifle her sense of style. The shelves behind her desk were bright white and covered in books and live plants. The desk itself looked bamboo, but I wasn’t sure if bamboo grew on Halla. Our chairs were comfy, overstuffed floral things.
Once she closed the door, she sighed. “There. Enough of all that noise.” She sat behind her desk, while I sat in front of it. “You wanted to talk alone?”
“I’m sure you can guess why,” I said in a wry tone.
She closed her eyes and rubbed her fingers along the bridge of her nose. “Deacon.”
“Good guess.”
She met my gaze, but I didn’t miss her small grimace. “I know he can be a lot sometimes—”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s aniceway of putting it.”
“But he has the best intentions.”
I crossed my arms and gave her a pointed look. “You’re a queen here on Halla, and you let him run roughshod over you like that? What about listening to your gut?”
She sighed again and put her hands on her pregnant belly. “I know you’re pissed, Jen. You need to understand that Deacon has—”
I waved a hand in the air, cutting her off, beyond annoyed. “Oh, I am so over hearing about Deacon. His worries, his family, well guess what? I’m his family too. For all intents and purposes, I’m his sister-in-law, and he should show me some respect.”
Sarah’s lips pursed. “You showed up in the middle of the night to our home with a group of known murderers. What kind of respect do you think you’re showing us?”
“But they’remymurderers!”
Sarah’s eyes widened, then danced with mirth as she covered her mouth and snorted a laugh through her nose. “Did you really just say that?”
When the sentence hit me, I laughed once. Then again. Before I knew it, we were both laughing so hard that we were crying, like a cathartic release. She passed me a tissue and we wiped away our tears.
“Gods, things really are crazy right now, aren’t they?” Sarah said once our outburst was over.
My eyes widened in shock. “Did you just saygods, as in plural?”
“Yeah, I did,” Sarah said, and shook her head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore, Jen. I realize we weren’t raised that way, but—”
“We weren’t raisedanysort of way. Not when it comes to that stuff.”
