I turned toward him. “Even though it isn’t your job, you punish child molesters andrapists.”
“Like I said, I punish them because your kind doesn’t. Your kind’s too busy trying to locate a glimmer of hope in their putridsouls.”
I sucked in a breath at his admonishment. “You’re right, Jarod.My kindscratches at the ugliness to find a spark of beauty.My kindtries to save sinners instead of ending their miserablelives.”
We glowered at each other from across the room—well, I glowered; he just looked at me in that steady, inscrutable way of his. I reminded myself that Triples didn’t get their score by being docile and moral; they got it by being cruel andselfish.
He started toward the opposite end of his bedroom. “I told my guards not to let anyone in or out untilmorning.”
A gasp rocketed through me. “You’re going to keep me here against mywill?”
His long fingers curled around the sleek wooden edge of a door frame. “I didn’t force you to come back, Feather.” He slipped out of sight, but his voice drifted to me. “You’re welcome to hang out in the dining room until daybreak. Everywhere else is under alarm, so unless you want my guards rushing at you with raised guns, I suggest you stick to the diningroom.”
My jaw dropped on another gasp. “Keeping me against my will iswrong.”
Jarod padded back out barefoot, wearing a black T-shirt and tapered black sweatpants. He hadn’t seemed the type to own sweatpants, nor had he seemed the type to lock up women. No, that wasn’t true. He did seem like the type who’d do something ascallous.
He dragged his hand through his hair that curled harder as it dried. “You seem to think I have a moral compass.” He opened a set of French windows, the metal bar clanking as it retracted from the ceiling and floor, allowing the glass-paned doors to swingout.
My fingers became fists which I longed to pummel into Jarod’s arm. He was bringing out the absolute worst in me. Thankfully, rage didn’t cost feathers, but hitting him would. When he didn’t reappear, I went to findhim.
I burst onto a narrow stone balcony lacquered in moonlight. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the obscurity and another to spot Jarod reclined on alounger.
“Let me leave, and you willneverhear from me again.” Frenzied heartbeats swarmed my body. “Ipromise.”
He twisted his head to look at me. “By all means, Feather, godownstairs.”
“I don’t mean your bedroom; I mean yourhouse.”
He checked his wristwatch. “Five hours from now, they’ll disarm the place to let the supplicants in. You’ll be able to leavethen.”
“Why?”
“Whywhat?”
“Why don’t you disarm your housenow?”
“Because Amir and Mimi are the only ones with the code to my alarm system, and they went to sleep to recuperate after yesterday’sfestivities.”
It felt like a lie. How could he not know the alarm code to his own house? I eyed the courtyard below and noticed movement in the shadows—a guard. I walked over to the stone balustrade and measured thedrop.
“The last person whohoppedfrom my balcony broke hisspine.”
Ifroze.
“Don’t worry. He didn’t suffer long. My guard put a bullet through hisskull.”
My mouthparted.
Jarod turned his eyes to the sky that stretched over us. Not a single star pinpricked the chilly darkness. Like in New York, stars lost out to smog and ever-burning city lights. “And before you start doling out sermons, know that he was a hitman paid to assassinateme.”
“Would your guards put a bullet in my skull if I tried toescape?”
Jarod linked his fingers over his abdomen. “If I ordered them to,yes.”
“Would you order themto?”
“Do you want to kill me,Feather?”
