Run Girl Run: A Riveting Mystery (A Dominique St. Clair Mystery Book 3) by Skylar Finn

Author:Skylar Finn [Finn , Skylar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Hidden Secrets

“How did it—” Michael started to ask.

“Quiet,” Jack snapped as he threw the van into gear. Silence reigned. Daniel rubbed his forehead as if he was developing a massive migraine. I said a silent thanks to him as he did. I wouldn’t have expected a sudden act of valor on his part, but he had proved me wrong. Maybe he wasn’t all bad.

As soon as we reached the house, I went straight inside without looking at or talking to any of the others. Natalie Dean, ever the pleaser, would be filled with self-loathing for failing to honor Jack’s request. She would wait in her room to be punished accordingly.

Based on his reaction at the courthouse, I didn’t think he would do anything. There was a possibility he’d come to my room and ask me to leave or maybe even to dispose of me in a more permanent fashion, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case. He hadn’t been the one to stop me from opening the box, but he’d reached me so soon after Daniel had that it was clear he’d been in the process of doing so. Not to mention letting me off the hook for failing to execute his orders exactly as given.

I lay awake, stretched out on the narrow twin bed as I listened to the rise and fall of murmured voices in the next room. I waited for Jack to come, but he never did. It was two hours later, the first seams of gray light seeping through the blinds as my eyes fell shut, before the door creaked open, guided by an unseen hand.

I felt a slight indentation sink into the edge of the bed by my feet and opened my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said.

“Curiosity often gets the better of the best of us,” he said. “The important thing is, you proved you were willing.”

“But I disobeyed you,” I said.

“To be honest with you, that’s part of the test,” he said. “I value it if someone is obedient, of course. Following me unquestioningly is proof of a certain kind of loyalty. But disobedience—the open exercising of one’s own free will, the ability to defy rather than to follow blindly—is something I value far more. It’s indicative of a higher form of character.

“What was in the box?” I asked. “Was it something dangerous?”

“No,” he said. I stared at him; certain he was lying. He interpreted my dubious expression. “I wanted you to believe there was, in order to see how you’d react. Danny thought there was. But I switched the boxes before we left the house. I would never put your life at risk. Someday, I may ask you to take a risk like that for me. But never unknowingly.”

His answer surprised me. Just when I was sure that I had him figured out, he revealed a previously hidden and unexpected layer beneath his apparent depravity. It didn’t change the fact that he was a monster. But like many monsters, he was not without his own peculiar code of honor.

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