Jace started to get up, but I shot him a look which stopped him in his tracks. This was his fault, and he should have realised that. Of course Danny was going to be confused. He knew full well that Angie was my mate, and he also knew that my interest in men could generally be classed as 'little to none.'
"He is my mate," I told Danny. "I found him last week — when I first came onto the territory. I know this must be a shock."
The whole time I was speaking, I was forcing a smile onto my lips, but my eyes were telling him something very different — accept it, don't think too much about it, and most importantly, stop asking questions. I knew Danny understood that message, because he threw a heavy glance towards Jace and then gave me a tiny nod.
"Emma," he said, his voice tight and wary. "What the hell is going on?
"Later," I hissed back. "Right now, I need you on board with this. And fast."
He made a face in Jace's direction. "He's delusional. Seriously now — where's Angie?"
I just looked at him. I didn't know how to say it. And when I tried to fill the silence, to say anything at all, it was like all the air had vanished from my lungs. I could open my mouth, but that was all. And so the silence got longer ... and longer ... and longer.
Danny's face began to change. His forehead creased, and his lips thinned. The longer the silence went on, the more I started to feel it from him — the growing understanding, creeping across the link, and all the horror and dread that came with it.
"Angie—" I managed to say in a hoarse, pathetic voice. But I didn't get any further than that for a long while. "She, um—"
"Our prisoner needs something to drink and some medical attention." Jace had directed those words outside the cell. He waited for Zoe to dart away before he continued. "Find me his file, would you, Luke? If they've even started one..."
That would give me two minutes at least. Two minutes to explain this strange, strange situation and get Danny on board with it. Two minutes to tell him what had happened to my soulmate. Jace could have given me a lot longer than that, if he had wanted.
"Is she okay?" he asked me now, and he was no longer bothering to whisper. "Just tell me that much. You don't have to say anything more, if you don't want..."
"She's not okay," I said. And he was right — I didn't want to say anything more than that.
Danny's face fell, and I watched him struggling to swallow. "Goddess, Em. I'm so sorry. I never imagined they would've hurt her. She was innocent in all of it."
"So was I. So were you," I murmured. "But they weren't ... they didn't try to hurt her."
Luke was already back. He handed me a sheaf of papers through the bars, and then a clipboard to go with them. I passed them over to Jace after stealing the briefest of glances. There weren't any big, scary words on his sheet yet, but I had no doubt they would come up with some before long. I remembered perfectly what Bradley and Ryan had accused me of. Trespassing with 'intent.' Resisting arrest. Grievous bodily harm. Conspiring with wanted criminals.
Jace spent a while studying the papers. His forehead was creased, and his fingers were tapping against the bed frame in a steady rhythm. Danny and I watched in relative silence, aware that Luke was standing closer than before and even whispering was off the table.
"It says you weren't carrying a knife," Jace said, looking up from the papers at long last.
"No," Danny agreed. "Of course I wasn't. I came to talk — nothing more."
YOU ARE READING
The Wolves and the Vipers
Manusia SerigalaJace needs a Luna. Emma needs a way out of her cell. He makes her an offer she can't refuse: freedom for a union defying the natural order. But the pack falling into Emma's lap is ridden with obstacles, putting her happily-ever-after firmly out of r...