Page 35 of Save Me Enemy

Frowning, I bend and pick it up. The paper is simple printer paper with words written messily with a dull pencil.

I know how to help. Meet me just outside the south side of town, I know someone who can cure you. You can live!

My heart almost stops, and I throw the door open in hopes of seeing who left the note. There are servants everywhere, carrying platters of coffee and biscuits that smell divine, but there isn’t a resident in sight. I walk slowly down the stairs, trying to avoid the people as they pass by me in a hurry to serve their employers.

I bite my bottom lip, realizing that’s what my position should be, serving these rich people, not living with them. Whoever wrote the note is long gone, though, and I sigh as I stare at the hurriedly scrawled words.

They hold a promise of a future I want more than anything.

But I won't be going to meet anyone I don’t know, no matter what they think they can promise. Why are they hiding? What’s the big secret?

I try to shrug off my rush of hope and the sinking feeling of disappointment as I sneak to the kitchens hoping I’ll find something simple to eat and not be a bother to these people who must see I’m reaching far above my station.

When I get there, I turn and press my head on the other side of the door with a heavy sigh. I have to believe there's a way to survive this, for my baby and for Jax, but it won’t come from some vague note slipped under a door. My stomach growls and I lay a hand over it. I’m eating for two now, and I can’t skip meals anymore. I turn and look straight into Ruby’s eyes while she takes a bite of a huge French bread sandwich and my stomach growls again.

Her eyes fall from mine to my stomach and she stops mid-bite, dropping the sandwich. “Oh my god, no way! Already?”

She skips over to me and grabs my collar, peeling my shirt away from my skin and looking down at the mark on my chest. I jump back in shock, feeling scandalized, and Ruby opens her robe enough to show me her mark over her swollen stomach.

“I’m so happy for us!” she squeals, hugging me tight, and I just stand there with eyes wide in shock.

“Catherine, will you make my fellow preggers some breakfast? Her stomach is growling so hard my baby felt it through that hug!” Ruby laughs and sits back at the table while a grandmotherly woman chuckles and starts serving a plate of eggs and bacon off a tray she’d assembled for someone else.

“Congratulations, sweetheart,” she says as she places the food on the table and gestures to me to sit.

I smile at Catherine, although I only have eyes for that delicious-looking sandwich Ruby is eating.

“Dude, these have been my life for the last few months. Here!” She breaks off a piece and I take it greedily. When I bite into it my eyes roll back in my head and I moan.

“I know right? So good!” She pats her swollen stomach. “My baby loves them.”

We sit in silence for a while and just eat. In between bites of the sandwich I eat the eggs and bacon and that seems to make Catherine happier than anything.

“I’m so excited that this house will be full of babies again soon!” Catherine looks off into the distance wistfully. “I miss the pitter patter of little feet and the laughter of a child.”

Guilt makes the food turn to ash in my mouth. These babies mean so much to these people, and if my dream was right, they’ll have to suffer through watching a child die.

“Oh, Cricket! We could go shopping for baby stuff!” Ruby says excitedly, her hands back on her stomach.

I’m starting to regret coming in here. These people are so amazing and I’m going to destroy them when I die anyway.

I think about that note I got upstairs…could it truly be possible?

Maybe I should go after all, maybe it’s worth the risk.

“...we could buy cribs and onesies and all the tiny little shoes!”

I hadn’t realized Ruby was still talking. I look up at her and smile slightly. She’s glowing, so beautiful and strong and pregnant. I want to go shopping with her, I want our babies to grow up and be friends. I want to live more than I ever imagined I ever would. I’ve been resigned to death for so long, told I was nothing, told I was weak. Now these people say I’m strong, they want me here, they love me here.

There’s a commotion out front and I know Cole and Jax are back. Happiness floods my body the moment I hear his voice and all my doubts and sadness leave my mind. He finds me like I’m wearing a homing beacon, and he sweeps me into his arms on sight. He kisses me gently, his hands entangling in my braid.

“I’m so lucky to have you…” he whispers quietly.

Behind him I see Cole walk in. He looks like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. It must be hard being a leader…

“Ruby, have you seen Killian? I need to talk to him,” he says briskly, refusing to look at me and Jax.

“Pretty sure he’s in the surgery,” Ruby says, then quickly takes a huge bite of her sandwich and shrugs at her brother when he raises an eyebrow at her. He rolls his eyes and sighs, exasperated, before leaving the room.

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