Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Jardin lightly squeezed her shoulder and then stepped out of the room. She waited and she waited.
Then Jardin returned and he was smiling.
“How did he die?” she asked.
“Asphyxiation. Someone smothered him to death.”
Relief filled her. But then she realized it wasn’t over yet. “I have no way to prove that it wasn’t me that smothered him. And I did hit him over the head. It’s assault at least. What jury will find me not guilty? Look at me!”
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Jardin told her sharply. “Not a thing. But you’re not gonna have to worry about a trial.”
“I’m not? But how?” she whispered.
“You’re a Malone, Opal. You helped my cousin escape a monster. You helped Lilac. And you’re one of us. We protect our own.”
She still didn’t see how that helped. The Malones weren’t above the law.
“But what do I do? What do I tell Eli and Kellan?” she asked.
“You tell them the truth.”
The door opened and Eli and Kellan walked in. She winced as she heard Renard yelling in the background.
God, she wished she could go to him. Help him. But she couldn’t even help herself. There were dark spots in front of her eyes and she felt like she was going to vomit.
“Right. Are you ready to talk to us, Opal?” Eli asked, looking tired and defeated.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m ready.”
“I’m going in there,” Renard stated. “They can’t keep me from her.” He jumped to his feet and started to storm out of Jake’s office.
Jake got between him and the door while Saxon grabbed him, hauling him back.
“You can’t!” Saxon told him.
“Let me go!” he yelled. “She’s mine! My responsibility. I am her guardian and they can’t question her without me.”
“Do you think she can’t hear you?” Saxon said quietly. “No doubt when that door opens, she can hear you yell, and you are fucking well making things harder for her.”
“I should be in there protecting her, though.”
“Sometimes, protecting her means letting other people help,” Saxon told him. “It means, stepping back and taking a breath and just trusting that others have her back. And yours.”
“And after she’s released, the last thing she’ll want to do is bail you out of jail,” Alec told him from where he was leaning against the wall, tapping on his phone.
“And what if she’s not released?” he asked.
“She will be,” Alec said firmly.
“How can you be so sure?” Renard asked.
“Because she’s one of mine. And Malones don’t go to jail.”
Jake started to swear and walked out of the room.
“Poor Jake. Hard to be the sheriff of Haven,” Alec said.
“What did you do?” Saxon asked, moving back to his seat.
Renard was too wired up to sit, so he paced back and forth.
“I called Jardin. Jardin called Regent.”
“Regent’s helping?” Saxon asked.
“Of course,” Alec said. “Also, he doesn’t like Grey Lindon much and he really didn’t like his son. He met him a few times, said he was evil. And he’s not letting one of us go down for taking out someone like that.”
“If she did it,” Saxon said.
“Right,” Alec added. “But it doesn’t matter if she did or not. She’s not going to jail.”
“Regent is going to make it so she’s safe?” Renard reiterated, unsure if he was hearing right.
“Yep,” Alec replied. “So just hold tight and let him do what he needs to do.”
“I fucking hate feeling useless,” Renard said.
“We all do, man. But sometimes you have to let other people help you,” Saxon said.
He hated that too.
But the last time he’d let someone help him; he’d ended up here in Haven. And it had saved his life. So he was going to trust again and hope like fuck that Regent Malone came through.
“Fuck,” Eli Jones said, closing his eyes and pinching the top of his nose.
“Messy,” Kellan said.
Worry filled her.
“Breathe, sweetheart,” Jardin told her.
She glanced at Jardin. But he didn’t look worried and she forced herself to breathe.
“So now you know the truth. Opal was defending her mother from a rapist. And it wasn’t the blow to the head that killed him. He was suffocated after she left. Likely by one of Stefan Masters’ goons.”
Eli and Kellan shared a look.
“It’s not that we don’t believe you, but you know who the victim’s father is. He’s not going to let this go without someone going to jail for the death of his son.”
“That person isn’t going to be Opal,” Jardin said firmly. “His son was killed by one of Stefan Masters’ goons.”
“And you have no proof of that,” Eli spat out. “How are we supposed to keep her safe from this with conjecture?”
Keep her safe?
“You want to keep me safe?” she asked quietly.
“Of course we do,” Kellan told her. “We’re not the bad guys. Fuck, we don’t even want to be looking into this asshole’s murder. By all accounts, the world is a better place without him. But our boss is under pressure from his boss. And then his boss, who is the fucking President. We cannot shield her from this.”