Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
When he reluctantly bobs his head, I suck in a shocked gasp of air. It wasn’t a proud, I’m-a-member-of-mafia-royalty nod. He looks a little sick, but it is a head bob, nonetheless.
I brace myself for a second blow before asking, “Were you involved in the events that occurred the night of Ophelia’s accident?”
His nod this time around is ten times quicker, and I’m out the bathroom even faster than that. Although he follows me, he maintains an amicable distance when I gabber out under my breath, “Don’t forget you taught me how to shoot.” I kick the butt of his gun before I commence getting dressed. “You lied to me,” I growl out when his eyes shift from seeking an instrument to tie me down. When he ruefully shakes his head, I shout, “An omission of the truth is still a lie!”
“N-No. I-I saved y-you. I-I never w-wanted to h-hurt you.”
His stutter breaks my heart as much as the sentences it delivered. He is a large, proud man, but his eyes reflect nothing but the pain of a lifetime of abuse when his words don’t come out as polished as he’d like.
With my mood nowhere near as unhinged, I ask, “If that’s true, why didn’t you tell me any of this at the cabin?”
“Because I wanted you to know me…” he touches his chest before continuing, “… JR. Not Colum Junior Petretti.”
“Bullshit!” Cedric groggily enters the room like JR isn’t capable of knocking him out for longer than two minutes. JR went easy on him because he doesn’t want me looking at him as if he is a monster, so Cedric shouldn’t be so cocky. He should be counting his lucky stars. “You knew with one truth comes many.” He drifts his glassy eyes with mine. “And he only wants you to know the good parts.”
“Don’t,” I snap out when JR looks set to make Cedric’s return to the land of the living a short stay. “Although a part of me really wants to see him get his just desserts.” Cedric acts maimed by my words. His acting is pitiful. “I’m not sure you have the right to issue that punishment just yet. We have a lot to discuss.”
JR’s disappointed expression during the first half of my comment maims my heart more than Cedric’s fake offense. “We do. But I didn’t do what he said. I’m not a murderer.”
I’m certain JR isn’t the only stranger standing across from me when Cedric replies to his signed pledge. “We both know that’s a lie.” He’s not once told me he understands sign language, and he had plenty of opportunities to announce that. I was brought in to assist a deaf patient with consent forms only last month. Cedric was his surgeon.
When JR’s fists ball, Cedric makes a mad dash for my half of the room, stupidly believing he’ll be safer on this side. I’d hate to tell him his assumptions aren’t close to accurate. I hardly know JR, but if push comes to shove, and I’m forced to determine who’s telling the truth and who isn’t, Cedric would be labeled a liar from the get-go.
I’m still on the fence when it comes to JR, but I can’t forget the memories that cleared away some of the goop in my head only minutes ago, not to mention the ones we’ve created the past couple of days. No number of skirts will change the outcome. He saved me, and to date, that’s far more than anything Cedric has ever done for me.
Unaware his slander is tainting his light instead of brightening it, Cedric continues chipping away at JR’s hard exterior in an extremely demoralizing way. “I wasn’t around during the earlier stuff, but I know for a fact you did some of the things you’ve been accused of.” He folds his arm under his chest, all pompous-like. “Roderick didn’t kill himself like Cecil did. You killed him.”
“Cecil didn’t kill himself. Roderick murdered him…” Before JR can consider the consequences of his next set of words, he signs in a hurry, “So I hurt him in retaliation.” He shifts his eyes to me. “What happened was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill him. I just—”
All his dirty laundry isn’t aired for the world to hear. A bang splinters the door of our hotel room a second before riot police storm inside. They scream for us to get down, but not one of their eyes are on Cedric or me. They have their target locked and loaded, and he can’t hear a single word they’re screaming at him.
My eyes burn from the smoke bomb they release to blind JR before they stealthily approach him. They’re coming for him at all sides, screaming their demands like they’re unaware he is deaf.
“Armed law enforcement officers. I repeat, we are armed law enforcement officers.”