Page 17 of His Pretty Little Lies
Still, his words about having a stigma on him sit with me. I fiddle with the end of my skirt. I truly never thought of it from his point of view.
“Just tell me you’re not scared of me, Bunny.”
“I’m not scared of you.” I should be, but I’m not. I see out of the corner of my eye his shoulders relax.
If not for the dead body, I might be a touch smitten with the whole letter thing. It’s not a terrible way to get my attention. In fact, it’s kind of outside the box and different. He would have had to put thought into it. The same way he’d done with getting me the key to the media room and Alice’s and Celia’s schedules.
“I’m going to fix this.” I can feel his sincerity, or maybe I’m being naïve and trying to cling to anything.
“And I get to be a part of that?” He wasn't wrong when he pointed out that there was going to be a missing girl tomorrow. We can’t save her, but maybe we can find out what happened and be able to tell her story.
“If you want, you can forget it altogether and know I’ll handle it.” I chew on my bottom lip, pondering it. Is that what I want? Hell no.
“I’m guessing either way that girl would have died. We didn’t take her there.” We were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Likely.”
“No one might have ever known about it, but we do. If it is a high school girl, she’ll be tagged a runaway.” I sit up straighter. Which means I have to see this through with him. “This might not be so bad, actually.” I keep thinking this over. “I mean, it’s bad for the dead girl, obviously, but for us, we merely want to find out who did this to her, right?”
“If you think that’s the best plan of action,” he agrees. I eye him.
“Are you pretending I’m in charge when I’m really not?”
“There are things you can be in charge of and things you can’t be.” Why does that sound dirty in my head? “You’re in this now.”
“I am,” I quickly agree. “This could be a big story or mystery.” I cringe. “Is it terrible I’m starting to maybe get a little excited, and someone died?” Again, maybe the parents were right about me needing a head doctor.
I can do a level of disassociating. I didn’t see the girl’s face and had no clue who it was. It’s almost as though it was a dream. A flash so quick you start to wonder if you saw what you thought you did.
“No.” He smirks. Right, Jax is the perfect person that I can say those things to without any judgment. “I can find a few more dead bodies for you if you like.”
That offer should not be sweet, but it oddly is. I’m a weirdo for sure.
“Because you make them dead?” I let out a small laugh. Jax doesn’t join me. I smack his shoulder. “It was a joke.”
“Right.” He gives a curt nod.
“I don’t know if you’re serious or we’re using dark humor.”
“Whichever makes you feel better.” I almost suppress a laugh, but I decide to let it out because I know he won’t judge me. “But I do need to warn you,” Jax adds when we pull up to two giant iron gates.
A large letter M is positioned in the center. The gates swing open as if they know it is Jax, or perhaps he pressed a button. I don’t know. Either way, this is pretty badass. I have heard of the Marino estate, but I’m only at the gate, and it’s screaming old money wrapped in an iron fist encased in barbed wire. I’m not sure if I should be in awe of it or scared to pass through them.
Obviously, my nosy ass is going. I have already come this far, and I don’t think Jax is letting me go anywhere yet. I’ll have to sweet-talk my way out if he really does have a crush on me. When the time comes, after I get a good look around. Obviously.
"You’re warning me as we are already passing through the gates?" I glance behind us to watch them closely.
"I only want you to be prepared is all."
"Okay, now you're freaking me out." I mean, I witnessed a crime on one of the other Marino properties, and now I’m basically walking into the lion's den.
"You know I won't let anything happen to you, right?" His hand comes down on my bare knee.
"Can you protect me fromyourfamily?" Jax’s brows rise, his eyes on the long driveway up a hill that is lined with perfectly square bushes with pink flowers sprouting from them. I can see part of the house ahead. It’s a beautiful white stone with giant columns and an archway over the front. "Jax!" I snap, wanting a response.
"I can and I will, but my mom…"
"Your mom?" That is not what I thought he was going to say. "The bubbly blonde that has lungs you can hear across an entire football field?"
