Page 38 of Day

“I called yesterday. He’s busy doing something. I don’t know. He got a job a few years back with a tech company. He’s a tech geek, but not like AJ. He can build stuff.” He laughed to himself, then those eyelids pulled back, giving me what I wanted from him.

Those beautiful brown eyes stared back at me, and I saw he wasn’t in pain right now, which was a relief.

“He would love our communications gear. Except he would probably take it apart, then rebuild something totally different.” He grinned, and it was sweet the love he had for his relationship with Charles.

“We should go hang out with him soon. Just because you’ve found this new group doesn’t mean you don’t have time for him.”

He nodded in agreement.

“Yeah. I’ll call him in the morning.”

There was silence between us. I knew he was thinking something, but couldn’t tell what. So I asked.

“Whatcha thinking, Star?”

“I wanna know more of your story. But I don’t wanna open a box that can’t be closed once opened.” He was nervous asking, and out of everyone in the world who asked about my past, my husband should be the one that knew my story. But in light of recent freak-outs, I didn’t want to go into everything. I wasn’t ashamed one bit—I was who I was because of my deck of cards. But I wasn’t sure what Leon would think about the worst of my story. Things between us were new and still very rocky.

“I made my first kill when I was fourteen. No one would suspect a young girl to be a weapon. I wish I could say I had remorse for it, but I hadn’t known anything different. I didn’t develop a conscience until I was twenty-one. It finally came, and then after a few more years of being forced to do things I didn’t want to, I fought back. I earned my freedom, and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.”  I felt the demons in my head caress the wall I put up, trying to seduce me to let them out. But I couldn’t let that happen right now.

He was quiet, likely digesting what I said.

“Are you afraid of me?”

His eyes softened.

“No. You’re still crazy as shit, but I’m starting to understand why I like you.” He was honest, and that was something I liked about him. I valued honesty very much.

“Yeah?” I may have been fishing for more information on where we stood.

He rolled his eyes, obviously seeing through my attempt to get him to go into his statement more.