Page 10 of You Were Warned: Part One

He glances up, and his painted grin doesn’t tell me anything, but his eyes do. “Say the situation requires a level of anonymity. The person doesn’t know you’re aware of their situation.”

I pick the spatula back up. “Then you make yourself known. Anonymity is not a reason to do nothing.”

“And the moral component?” he says.

“What moral component?”

“If that someone was going to die anyway,” he says carefully. “By other means, not their own, and you are one of those means. Is it better to let them choose, or to intervene and send them back to the situation that kills them slower?”

I walk back around to the stovetop and take the pan off the heat, serving him a plate. “You’re asking me if it’s kinder to let someone die by their own hands because you know they are going to die anyway?”

“I’m asking if there is an argument for it.”

“There’s always an argument for it, and the argument is wrong. You intervene and make yourself known, then deal with the rest later,” I say, coming around into the bar and placing a plate of food in front of him.

He looks at the food in front of him for a moment and then picks up a fork. “And if they hate you for it?”

“Then they hate you, but at least they are alive to hate you. Now eat the food before it gets cold.”

He eats as we sit in the quiet bar, and after a few minutes, he speaks again.

“This is excellent,” he says, and I smile. “You should make it more often.”

“I’m considering it.”

Pretty Boy swears from somewhere outside, and we both look toward the door.

“He escaped again.”

The Jester laughs. “Vesper is going to lose her mind.”

That makes me chuckle. “Vesper’s always losing her mind.”

“She is,” he agrees.

I know he is obsessed with her, and if he found out about our situation, he would be less than thrilled. It’s not like we are friends, and I won’t feel guilty about it because it works for Vesper and me. Besides, I like how she trusts me with her body, especially since I know she has trauma around it. And if I’m honest, I’m glad she was clear that she wanted nothing more than sex from me, as I don’t want anything more. How could I ever be with someone when I can’t sleep next to them?

Crow is the first one through the door when the bar actually opens, and he takes a stool. He has put on a clean shirt with no holes.

“You save me any?”

“I did.”

I plate it up, and he eats it at the bar, telling me it’s the best thing I’ve made since I got here, though he says that about most things I make. The Jester has moved to a booth at the far end of the bar and appears to be writing something on a napkin. Crow glances at him and then back at his food.

Khodi comes in next and sits beside Crow, and I put a plate in front of him.

“Gates in five,” I remind him.

“I know, I know. This is incredible, Rue.”

“Thanks.”

Khodi shovels the food into his mouth, and once he is finished, he puts his plate in the dish bin. Then he rushes to leave before he is late for his shift.

Crow stays and has a second coffee as the island comes alive—rides start up, and more people come into the bar.

“Bad one?” Crow eventually asks, and I know he is referring to the nightmare.