Page 21 of Justice

“I got her,” I said quietly to Justice, and put my hand light on Rita’s arm. “Miss Rita. The ice already came, baby. Curtis signed for it himself, not twenty minutes ago. Everything’s handled.”

She turned those frightened eyes on me. “Curtis signed?”

“He did. Put it right in the back cooler, packed to the top. I saw it myself.” I kept my voice a low, warm current, gave her hands something to hold onto in mine. “The club’s all set for tonight. You did your part. Now the only thing left on your list is to rest, because you can’t run a room on no sleep. You taught me that.”

The panic drained out of her by degrees, the far-off place letting her go, and she came back into her own eyes tired and small.

“I taught you that,” she agreed, uncertain, holding my hands.

“You taught me everything.” I walked her slow toward her new rooms. “Come on now. Let me get you settled.”

I got her into bed and sat with her till her breathing went deep and even. When I finally stood in her doorway looking back at her, I felt the ache I could never afford. The one that came for me every time I loved something I was going to lose.

Justice was in the hall when I came out. He’d been standing there the whole time. He’d heard all of it.

“How’d you know to do that,” he said, low. “You went right into it with her instead of fighting her out of it.”

“Because arguing with where her mind is at only scares her worse.” I pulled the door to soft behind me. “She’s not confused about whether she’s confused. She just needs the world to make sense for a minute. So I make it make sense. That’s all.”

He looked at me in the dim hallway, and he wasn’t giving me the X-ray this time. This was rawer. And it stayed on me too long.

“Thank you,” he said. Just that. But the weight he put on it could’ve filled the hall.

I meant to go to my room. I truly did.

But when I came back down to get my phone off the counter, he was standing at the island with two glasses out, a bottle of red already open. He looked up at me like he’d been hoping for it and betting against it at the same time.

“House is finally quiet,” he said. “Everybody down. First time all day.” He nodded at the second glass. “You want one? You earned it about six times over today.”

I should have said no. I had a list of reasons why, and every one of them was still true. But the house was warm and dim and hushed all around us. This cold quiet man had just watched me love his grandmother back down out of a nightmare and told me thank you like it meant something. And I was so tired of saying no to things I wanted.

“One glass,” I said.

He poured it and slid it across the island. I wrapped my hand around it and did not let our fingers touch, because I knew myself, and I knew exactly how little it would take.

“To surviving day one,” he said, and lifted his glass.

“Day one,” I echoed.

And I drank, and he watched me over the rim of his glass, and neither one of us said the thing sitting in the quiet between us. We just stood in his big silent kitchen at the end of a long day, two people with too many secrets and one glass of wine apiece, pretending this was nothing.

It was not nothing.

God help me, it was not nothing at all.

11

JUSTICE

Behind my computer at the office in the casino, I ran numbers. We were coming up, and everything was looking a lot better. After everything died down with the Black family and the Rios family, we’d been able to pour all our energy into the family business, and it was paying off.

Just as I was about to open another spreadsheet, I got a text from Kira. After the other night, I figured she’d want nothing to do with me outside of the girls. I was wrong.

Kira: What are you up to tonight?

Me: Got plans.

Kira: Oh. Do you need any help with Dream’s party?