Page 202 of Scarlet Wars
Emile’s brows furrowed harder. He looked so lost I was starting to pity him.
“This is not happening,” Jackson muttered under his breath, rubbing his temples. “This is probably the most cringe conversation I’ve ever had.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Rocco leaned toward Emile, whispering something in his ear.
Emile’s eyes widened. The light of realization dawned across his face as his cheeks flushed almost as red as the water I was referring to.
“Oooooh,” he breathed. “You mean she’s…menstruating?” His voice pitched upward at the end, like he couldn’t quite believe he was saying it out loud. “Why didn’t you just say so?”
My expression didn’t even flicker. “I really, really did.”
Rocco laughed at his best friend, then immediately cut it off when his girlfriend arrived, the only person in this room more dangerous than Caden Colt on a bad day.
My soul-twin.
“Baby!” I yelled out, slightly encouraged by the alcohol. “You’re just in time for cocktail hour!”
She plopped down on the couch and translated herself a beer with a flick of her wrist. “I’m fine drinking the soft stuff.”
I smiled at my best friend. “How are you, my love?”
She took a sip from her beer, then shifted slightly—subtle, but noticeable—leaning just a little away from Rocco.
“I’m fine,” she said, flashing a half-smile. “Been working on that lovely assignment you dumped on me.”
I sat up straighter. “Tell me you found something on that first warrant.”
Saoirse sighed and set her bottle down on the coffee table in front of her. “I figured out how to access the US system. Not easy. Took me some time, but I finally managed to pull every warrant issued in the last year.”
My stomach dipped. “And?”
Her expression tightened. “The only one I found, was the presidential one. The one Rachel already gave you.”
My brow furrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” she said, glancing briefly at Rocco before looking back at me, “whatever warrant they had when they showed up at your parents’ house, it doesn’t exist anymore. Not in any database I could access.”
My mouth went dry. “You’re saying it was deleted?”
“Scrubbed,” she corrected. “No record. No digital footprint. Like it never existed.”
“Maybe it didn’t?” Rocco suggested gently.
Silence pressed in around us, thick and heavy.
“I saw it,” I whispered finally. “I swear I saw it. They showed up at the door and showed my parents the warrant.”
“I believe you,” Saoirse said softly. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m saying whatever warrant they were holding, it wasn’t issued by the US”
I exhaled slowly, the weight of it settling deep in my chest. “Which means,” I said, my voice quieter now, “everything I thought was true…is. Someone else is after me and is pretending to be the government.”
The room faded around me as my thoughts spun out.
Somewhere in the background, I heard the nex start to fracture, soft goodbyes murmured one by one, voices dropping out gently. A flicker of awareness told me they were disconnecting, slipping away from the shared space without pressing.
I barely noticed. Plus, I must’ve gone pale, because Sean leaned into view and wordlessly pressed a bottle of water into my hands.
