“She likes the flowers.” And it’s the only connection I have left to a man I can’t seem to find a way to leave behind. I like that in our own way, she has a piece of him too.
“She does, or you do?” He flicks one of the large green leaves and then spots the box. “What the fuck is that? He adding gifts now?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Can it be considered a gift?
Jericho gives me awhat?look and then plucks it out. He stares silently for a long moment at the finger. A muscle in his jaw twitches, and he carefully puts the lid back on, placing it withdeliberate movements back on the counter. Then he heads for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To kill him.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting a little?” Besides, he wouldn’t get close enough to do any real damage. Xavier is surrounded by people who shoot first and ask questions later. Not to mention his shadow, whose hands are stained with more blood than any of us really want to know.
“Are you fucking serious? He sent you afinger, Hunter! Where did he even get it?”
“It’s not his,” is all I can think of to say to that. Am I so used to who Xavier is that this doesn’t even register on the scale of things to worry about? We deal with worse in our line of work.
“I didn’t ask if—how do you—no, don’t answer that. It’s not the point. Hecut a finger off someone and sent it to you. I don’t even have words for how messed up that is.”
I frown at the box. He’s not wrong. This does seem severe, even for Xavier. I can’t even begin to fathom what he was thinking when he chose the gift. Did he cut the finger off himself or have someone else do it?
Does it matter?
“Let’s try diplomacy before we resort to murder.” Especially when I’m not sure whose murder the action would result in. Would Xavier care that Jericho is family? I wish I could answer that, but I lost my trust in the man a long time ago.
Jericho laughs without mirth. “Diplomacy? Withhim? You can’t be that delusional.”
“He can be reasonable.” When he feels like it. The finger seems particularly unreasonable, but it’s hard to tell sometimes. He’s the head of a company whose slogan should be “unreasonable and dangerous.” Among other less savoury things.
“I doubt he’s been reasonable a day in his life. I’m serious, Hunter, this ends now. He’sdonetormenting you.”
I’m not sure that tormenting is the right word. I don’t believe he’s ever done anything with the intent to cause more damage, though I can’t be sure of that. A finger certainly sends a kind of message.
“Let me speak to him first before you do anything drastic.”
“No fucking way. I’m not letting him within a hundred feet of you.”
“That’s not your decision to make,” I say firmly. Xavier is my burden and my responsibility. The message was for me, and I’ll be the one to answer it.
“He almost killed you,” Jericho hisses furiously, jabbing a finger at me. “And then he broke you. Andthenhe helped a psycho kidnap and torture my boyfriend. He doesn’t get a free pass to you, fucking ever. And once he’s in Hell, he won’t be able to get anywhere near you.”
“He didn’t know.”
“Making excuses for him, now?”
“Yes.” I can’t lie, and say that I’m not, or that I won’t continue to do it. I want to believe that he’s an irredeemable monster, but I know I never will. Not deep down. There’s still something under there, something I fell in love with even if it was a lie. Not enough for there to ever be a chance to reclaim the past, but enough that I’ll never be able to walk away, not completely.
It’s also the truth, in this particular case. Xavier didn’t know about the connection, and once he did, he fixed it. Jericho can’t deny any of that.
“Don’t let him do this to you. Not again.”
With a heavy sigh, I rub my forehead. “I will handle this.”
My beautiful daughter saves me from continuing the conversation by bouncing into the room like a herd of elephants. “I can’t find my reader.”
“You can find it after school.”
“What if I need it today?”
