“Exactly. So, if you really want to be with Justus, you’re going to have to convince him to stayhere.”
“And standtrial.”
“Yes,” shesaid.
“Well, that brings me back to the help I mentioned. A favor, really. To help me comehome.”
“What can I do?” Faythe asked, her voice thin with a fragile thread ofhope.
“It sounds like two of the three Alphas on the tribunal are going to vote against Justus. Which means he only needs to gain one more vote,right?”
“Yes,but—”
“Who’s on the tribunal? You mustknow.”
“The names are drawn at random, typically excluding family members or Alphas who might have obvious bias. Which, in this case, is Marc and me, since we’re Justus’sAlphas.”
The door to the rental place opened and Justus came out swinging a keyring around his index finger. Grinning like afool.
“Faythe, I have to go. I’ll call you rightback.”
“Why—”
“I can’t tell you anything else. But I’ll call you back in a few.” I hung up the phone just as Justus got to the car. He motioned for me to roll the window down, so I pressed thebutton.
“Got it.” He held the keys up for me to see. “Can you follow me down the road? I thought we could grab some tacos or something and leave Jared’s car in the restaurant lot, then head out. We need to go fast, though. If Titus is monitoring my card, he probably already knows where weare.”
“Yeah. Lead theway.”
“It’s that little white one on the end.” He pointed to the car on the last row of the small rentallot.
“I’ll be right behindyou.”
While Justus got in the rental and pulled out of the parking space, I called Faythe on speakerphone.
“It’s me again,” I said when sheanswered.
“Whathappened?”
“Nothing.” I pulled out of my parking spot and followed Justus onto the road. “You didn’t think I’d call back, didyou?”
“Of course I did.” The tone of Faythe’s voice told me she was rolling her eyes. “You still need my help. Are you driving somewhere? Is Justus withyou?”
“Yes, I’m driving. And yes, he’s with me, but he can’t hear us. And that’s all I’m tellingyou.”
“Kaci—”
“I just… Faythe, I need you to know that I’m trying to do the rightthing.”
“By breaking all therules?”
“I learned from thebest.”
Faythe actually chuckled. “Touché.”
“We both know the right thing isn’t always the legal thing, and it’s not right that they’re going to execute Justus for infecting people, when he didn’t even know that’s what he was doing. Or for killing Drew, when no one has ever deserved to die as much as that bastarddid.”
“I don’t know,” Faythe mused. “Everyone I’ve had to kill deserved todie.”
