Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“I— I can’t—”
Her champagne glass slipped through her fingers. Eileen followed its path.
“Mom!”
Jacques caught her before she hit the floor.
“Rainey, call Doctor Nash!”
“Oh no. Are you okay, Judge Stone?” Jeremy asked.
Her chest heaved, breaths laboring as she struggled for each one.
“Let me help—” The Crow grasped her arm.
“Don’t fucking touch her, you son of a bitch!” Jacques flew at him, punching Jeremy across the face. “You did this!”
“Hey!”
Micah, Steven, Arsenio, Mayor Creed, and three townspeople pried them apart.
“You’ll regret this!”
My insides curdled under the rage and loathing Jacques spewed at the Ellises. I’d never seen him, or anyone, like this.
“If anything happens to her, I swear you’ll find out how we got our name!”
“Hello?” The doctor sounded in my ear.
Suddenly Cairo was there. He took the phone from me. “Jacques, enough! It’ll be quicker if we take her to him. Get her in my truck. Now!”
The two ran out with Eileen, friends and the guys’ families on their tail.
“Oh, dear. I hope she’s okay.” Steven clicked his tongue, his arms slung around Jeremy and Micah. Jeremy cracked his jaw but otherwise would live.
“But this is the sort of thing we’re talking about,” Steven said to his growing audience. “Violence, menacing, accusations. My son tried to offer a hand, and that boy punched and threatened him. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the same boy who’s a part of the group that has so many of us concerned. I can assure you in the new Crystal Canyon, no one will fear their neighbor. All are welcome. All are safe.”
I drifted to Jeremy, meeting his eyes.
He winked.
I turned and walked out.
I’d catch a ride to the doc’s. I’d walk if I had to. All I knew was I wouldn’t spend another second in a Crow’s presence, and the next time I saw one, it’d be me they’d have to drag off.
Chapter Eight
I put my hand on Jacques’s shoulder, gently shaking him. He accepted the water I held out, downing it in one go. His head fell back in his hands.
He and I were in Doc’s waiting room. It pushed two in the morning.
Jacques sent the other guys home an hour ago, but I refused to leave. No one should sit alone in the dark waiting to hear if someone they loved was alive. I knew that better than anyone.
“It was Ellis,” he rasped. The first sentence Jacques spoke since I arrived. “Wasn’t it?”
“Judging by the wink he tossed me on the way out the door, that’s a safe bet.”
His fists balled.
“But how?” I asked. “She was fine and then all of a sudden—”
“She went into anaphylactic shock.” Doc Nash came out of the exam room. “Very severe. You did well to get her here in time.”
Doc Nash was a pleasant man with a wide smile and bushy eyebrows that he wriggled to make his young patients laugh.
I looked away.
All I saw in Doc Nash was the man who witnessed me at my lowest.
“Any idea how this happened?” he asked Jacques.
“We were having dinner in the hall.”
“Ah, yes. I received the invitation to that as well. What did you have to eat? As you know, your mother is allergic to sesame seeds. Could she have ingested...?”
He trailed off as Jacques roughly shook his head.
“Nothing we ate had sesame seeds. Mother even had the server check with the chef to be sure. She was talking to Jeremy Ellis and his father, drinking champagne, when she collapsed.”
“What kind of champagne? Was there anything in it?”
“It was ordinary champagne from what I tasted,” I spoke up. “And we each grabbed our own from the tray.”
Jacques shoved off the seat. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Nash said. “I gave her something to temper the reaction and help with her breathing. She’s sleeping now. Would you like to stay?”
He motioned toward the hall. “I keep pillows and blankets in the closet. You’re welcome to sleep on the couch. Just you, Jacques. Rainey, I’ll drive you home.”
I tensed.
“I’ll drive her home,” Jacques said, “and come back. Leave the key under the mat for me.”
“Giving it to you works just as well.”
Doc Nash tossed over his entire key ring. He truly was a nice guy, even if I could hardly remember our time as doctor/patient.
“Let’s go,” Jacques said.
I didn’t speak till we were in Cairo’s truck. He left it for us to ride back.
“What are you going to do?” I whispered.
“Nothing.”
I blinked. I couldn’t have heard that right.
“Nothing? The Crows did it, Jacques. I don’t know how but I’m sure of it. To make it worse, Steven used your explosion as further proof Bedlam is lost to a bad element, and the town needs to break off and start new. They both punished and used you, and worst of all, it worked. They won more support tonight, Jacques. I saw it.”