I rubbed my eyes with my fingertips, not trusting my voice quite yet.
“What’s going on?” She set the oven mitts down and put her hand on her hip.
“What’s going on with what?” Max asked, coming around the corner.
I must have done something really wrong in a past life.
Kari and I just stood there, staring at each other. She knew something had happened, and I wasn’t about to tell her yet—especially not in front of Max.
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine. So you tried to make frozen pizzas again? Nice.”
“You’re a liar.” She crossed her arms in front of her.
“Not now, Kari,” I said through clenched teeth. “Don’t we have some Charlie to watch?”
“Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
I looked away to try to prevent the tears from falling, but my eyes landed on Max. He was standing in the doorway, his hands in his back pockets, Saints hat backward on his head. His stance may have been casual, but his eyes were unrelenting, assessing the situation in a way that only he could.
“Drop it.” I turned back to Kari, my eyes hard. “I’m just going to go to bed, okay?”
“Jada,” Kari said, reaching out to pull me in close.
As soon as her fingers touched my arm, I jumped back in pain and covered my arm with my other hand.
“Jada?”
I tried to turn away, but Kari pulled up the sleeve of my shirt before I could take a step.
“Jada!” she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand. “What happened to you?”
“Nothing.” I brushed her off, pulling the sleeve down over the purple marks starting to appear. “Just leave it be.”
“I will do no such thing! What happened?”
Max quickly covered the distance between us and picked up my arm gently. There was no point in fighting him, so I just let him look, closing my eyes, knowing that things were about to get real.
I hadn’t had time to dissect what Simon had done.Nor why. I didn’t know whether to call the police, to go to the doctor, or to just go to bed and cry. But this was about to get ugly with or without my consent.
“I’m going to ask you this one time, Jada,” Max said, his voice eerily calm, “and youwillanswer me. Who did this to you?”
I pulled my arm away from him, and he let it go, but his eyes forced me to stay put.
“I don’t want to go into this right now,” I said, my body starting to shake. “Just give me a few minutes to sort this in my head.”
“You can take all the time you want to sort whatever you need to. But you have about five seconds to tell me who did this.” His unyielding voice overwhelmed me. I knew he was looking out for me, but I just needed a damn minute.
I turned, frustrated, and walked across the kitchen with every intention of grabbing my purse off the island and going to my room and locking the door.
I really need to make getting my own apartment a priority.
I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder and then picked up my phone. I looked at the screen and gasped, a chill tearing through every fiber of my being.
Simon: I owe you one.
I stared at the message, my mouth dry. Tears sprang to my eyes with renewed urgency, filling my lids before spilling down my cheeks.
Max grabbed my phone from my hand.
