Page 152 of The Heart You Kept

“Yeah.” I shrug.

“He’s so weird.” Thomas frowns. “Like really fucking weird.”

“I know,” I scoff. “So everybody in my life at the moment is fucking weird.”

“Except me.” Thomas widens his eyes.

“You’re the weirdest, have you checked out your job lately.”

He chuckles and pinches his fingers as if to say little bit.

“Oh my god.” Helene’s eyes widen.

“What?”

“Look.” She points up at the television and we all turn to see a picture of the hospital, the subtitles read.

In breaking news..

Monaco Councilor Pascal Deschanel has been found unconscious in the parking lot of the council chambers.

He had been savagely beaten and has multiple broken ribs.

The cameras of the parking lot had been disabled and this appears to be a targeted attack.

“Oh my god,” Helene whispers as her eyes come to me. “You don’t think….”

“No….” I put my hand over my mouth. “He wouldn’t.”

“Of course he did,” Thomas snaps. “Nobody fucks with Prescott and gets away with it. Everybody knows that.”

“No, surely not.” I glance between the two of them. “You don’t think.”

“But honestly.” Helene smiles, all gooey-eyed. “How is he so fucking hot?”

“Beating my ex-boyfriend is not hot.”

“He was tracking you,” Thomas gasps. “Do not blame Prescott for this, I would have done the same.” He sips his drink with a shrug. “Probably not as well, though, but it would have at least been a split lip.”

Helene and I giggle.

“God,” I murmur, wide-eyed. “It’s all so dramatic.”

“I know, right?” Helene whispers. “What I wouldn’t give to trade places with you right now.”

“But.” I hold my glass of wine up to them. “Has he called me to talk about anything…. That’s a big fat no.”

“Because he was too busy beating people to a pulp for you,” Thomas replies. “Give the man a chance.”

“He wouldn’t have done it himself, he would have had one of his goons do it.”

“I don’t know about that.” Thomas twists his lips as if thinking. “He definitely has the psycho gene.”

“How do you know?” I scoff.

“I can see it in his eyes. You seem to forget that he was plotting my death on Saturday night and I was scared for my fucking life.”

“Wimp.”