Page 113 of The Pawn

“Yes, sir,” the soldier says. They speak to Jet with a different respect since the battle.

He returns his attention back out the window and I take him in. Jethro Blackstone. Cassian’s brother, even if not by blood. I see the mark healing just above his right ear. A bullet grazed him. It’ll leave a scar, but he was lucky. He’ll be more handsome for it. For that and the patch of gray in his hair.

“What?” he asks. He must feel my eyes on him.

“Nothing.” I shift my gaze back out the window. “Do you think I’m a sociopath?”

“What?” he asks, clearly surprised by my odd question. He knocks my arm, which is in a sling between us, and I hiss at the sharp pain.

“What the fuck kind of question is that?” he asks, not apologizing.

I shrug my shoulder and turn back to the two out in the graveyard behind the church. Technically I don’t think you’re supposed to bury any more bodies, but, well, he does have a cemetery in his backyard.

“I just don’t really feel anything for him. Enzo, I mean. Or Angelo. Or Malek.”

He shifts his gaze out the window and it’s his turn to shrug. “You’re not a sociopath, Allegra. Angelo’s the onlyone out of that bunch I’d give the time of day to and barely. Never did like or trust Enzo. And Malek, he was just a fucking asshole.”

The priest makes the sign of the cross and Angelo and Cassian turn to walk back into the house. I see how Cassian holds onto Angelo’s arm.

“Yeah, he was.” I turn to look at Jet. “I’ve been doing some research.”

He looks at me, eyebrows raised. “Research?”

“Huntington’s disease. If you don’t have the gene, you can’t pass it on even if it’s in your family. He knows this, doesn’t he?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You want to have babies, Allegra?”

“Not yet, but eventually. I mean, imagine a tiny little one of those running around here.” I point to Cassian.

“Yikes.”

“Shut up. You’d love it. You’d be an uncle.”

I feel Jet’s eyes on me.

“I mean…” I watch Cassian. “I think he’d be a good dad, and I think, with all that’s happened, a child could bring joy to his life.”

Jet sets his hands on my shoulders and turns me to face him. “You’d be a good mom,” he says, and I feel my eyes well at the kind, unexpected words. “But he needs to mourn first. Seth… you know he isn’t going to make it, right?”

I nod. Seth is on life support. His brain is dead. “I wish I could have met him. Gotten to know him.”

“At least Cassian will keep his promise to him.”

“What promise.”

“Seth asked him, when he was diagnosed, before he gotreally bad, he told him he didn’t want to live like that. He asked his brother to help him end it when he got sick. When he was no longer there.”

“Oh my God.” My hand flies to my mouth. I just stare up at him, not quite believing what I’m hearing.

“He was desperate and scared, Allegra. Don’t judge Seth too harshly. He was a good man. What happened to him was shit.”

The door opens and I collect myself as best as I can. Cassian and Angelo walk inside. Cassian looks from me to Jet and back. Tomorrow, he and Vivi are going to take Seth off life support. Tomorrow, Cassian will keep his promise to his brother.

I clear my throat, unable to speak, because I understand the burden he’s been carrying, and I love him a little more for it.