“Don’t be.” When I peeped a look at him, I saw his lips were curved in a faint smile. “We both have older brothers called ‘Luc’ and they have both been put on this Earth to drive us insane.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, well, now’s not the time for me to realize I need therapy. I guess we should go and catch some Z’s…”
He nodded, but I noticed his jaw tightened when I stepped away.
My sisters waved their tremulous goodnights at us, but whether it was because she was still too drunk to care or because she was used to being looked after by us, I knew only Neev would be getting any sleep.
Ah, to be the baby of the family.
No matter what she said, once her head hit the pillow, that was her—out for the count.
I only headed toward my door once I heard the locks click on theirs.
“Kitty?”
I turned to look at him over my shoulder. “Is there a cure? Or an antidote?”
He frowned. “For Red?”
“I’ve seen what it does, Stan. We get a case in every couple of nights. Something like that, it’s heinous to witness the aftermath of.”
“Is there a cure for molly?”
Disappointment welled inside me. “That’s not an answer.”
Before I could ream him a new one, what could only be called a ‘mini’ explosion had me jumping as I whipped around to seek out the source of the noise.
Stan sounded relatively calm considering the situation. “Martinez was right yet again.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Army’s arrived.” His mouth flatlined. “What do you want from me,gattaredda?”
“Nothing.”
“You never need to lie to me. Your mouth tells me one thing, but that disappointment in your eyes says something else entirely.”
You never need to lie to me.
Like this was about more than today.
Hands squeezing into fists at my sides, I half-warbled as the words poured out of me, “If my dad hadn’t died, I’d have been bartered into a marriage I didn’t want by now. I’d have had kids, multiple, to a husband I likely hated who made a living off of hurting others, and the idea of being a nurse, my vocation, would have been laughed at by said hated husband as he joked about me to his friends over a game of poker.
“I might give Lucas shit, but he’s never forced us down that path. And for whatever sins he’s committed, imagined or otherwise, I need to thank him for that when I get home.
“But women’s lives are bartered with on the daily—not just in our world, but in every society. We’re paid less, worth less. Our health doesn’t matter in comparison to a man’s. We’re jeered at, mocked, reviled when we literally bring life into this horrible, horrible world.
“We’re not allowed to control whether we carry our rapist’s baby, and every street we walk down could lead to something we’re not prepared for. And I’m saying this as a white woman. With so much privilege that I can’t begin to comprehend what my sisters of other colors and creeds go through.” I felt the weight of my speech like Atlas bore the burden of the Earth on his shoulders. “My already dangerous world, Stan,youmade more dangerous.”
The statement sank like a hot stone through butter.
I could almost hear the bang as the collision happened.
But he said nothing.
And the silence wasn’t exactly silent thanks to the chaos in Cancún.
The breath hitched in my chest. “It doesn’t matter.”
