Page 27 of You Were Warned: Part One

How dare he think I like that musical idiot?! There is no way in hell! I would rather cover myself in honey and sit on an ant’s nest than ever consider liking that fool. If I were going to catch feelings for anyone, it would be Rue. On paper, he is everything you could want in a man: strong, reliable, and actually gives a shit about other people’s feelings. But he is as emotionally closed off as I am—it’s why it works between us.

Jensen’s comment has pissed me off, so when Valli offers to show him the ropes, I accept. If the Jester wants to do something around Valli, then he will have one pissed-off scarecrow to deal with, and we all know Cave is the most unhinged person on the island. He acts on pure impulse when it comes to what is his.

After I convince Jensen that he is safe with Valli, I head to the camera room and take a seat beside Crow. I don’t mind working with him, since he is quiet and doesn’t talk much. The only person he really interacts with is Rue.

He doesn’t comment on the fact that I follow Jensen and the Jester on the cameras for most of the day. By the time lunch rolls around, Jensen finds me outside the bar, holding two coffees where I told him to meet me. In a different life, he would be the type of guy I’d be interested in. He’s not as stuffy and stuck-up as the men my mother would have wanted, but polished enough that she would’ve tolerated him, depending on the balance of his bank account and if the watch on his wrist tells me he comes from money.

“Valli’s nice,” he says, handing me one of the coffees.

“She is. It’s sickening, really.”

Jensen laughs. “She told me the island has a way of keeping people.”

“Few people who come here to work and live actually leave. We are one big unconventional family.”

“How so?” he asks as we take a seat out the front of the bar.

“Take Vero, for example. I cannot stand him and would not be sad if he fell off the face of the planet. But if an outsider came for him, I wouldn’t hesitate to end them.”

Jensen opens his mouth, then closes it, and a small crease forms between his eyes. It makes me laugh. “Don’t overthink it, a lot here won’t make sense.”

“Would you really kill someone?”

I shrug. “If I had to, though I don’t particularly want to spend the rest of my life in prison. Not sure orange is my color.”

“So how did you end up here?” he asks.

“Long story,” I say, since it is not one many people know. Nixie is one of them, and Rue the other—and he only knows because the first time we tried to have sex, I freaked out on him a little, and he deserved an explanation. “How did you end up sourcing things on the black market? I wouldn’t advertise that here either, by the way.”

I sip my coffee, and he smirks. “Nice way to change the subject off yourself. My father got me into it. When he found out I was good with computers, he used that to his advantage.”

“How?” I ask, finding myself curious about how a father gets their child into that kind of work. Then again, I could say the same about my mother, and how she fixed me up with a man like Thomas Morningside the Third and is okay with arranged marriages and her daughter being abused.

“Small things at first. Finding information, accessing things he shouldn’t have had access to. I was twelve, and he was my dad, so I thought it was normal. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood what we were actually doing.”

“When did you figure it out?”

“Fifteen, maybe,” he says, sitting back in his chair. “When I actually understood what he was using the information for, I kept doing it for a while. It says a lot about me, but I just try not to think about it.”

“It says you were a child who loved his father.”

He gazes up at me. “Yeah, exactly that. I left the first chance I got after I turned eighteen, but it turns out the skill set transfers really well to working independently when you need money after being cut off. It was good until . . .”

“The flash drive,” I guess.

He nods. “Yep, I should have just delivered it. That one wrong move changed my life.”

“I know how that feels,” I say without realizing, opening up more to this stranger than to people I have known a lot longer.

He looks over at me quizzically. “Does it get easier? Making the call that costs you everything?”

I think about that night. While I don’t regret stabbing that asshole in the balls, I still carry the guilt of leaving my dad and brother behind, though my mom and sister can bite me.

“No, but you stop expecting it to.” He nods and stares at me. “What?”

“Nothing, you’re just . . . very straightforward.”

“Is that a problem?”