Page 284 of Satan's Spawn
“Well, you really need to start figuring out how…’cause we both know that knife will have Fucker Felix’s blood on it somehow.”
“So, you’re just giving up on yourself? On us?”
Crayton sags his shoulders. “Of course not. But this is one hell of a gamble, and the chips aren’t stacked in my favor.”
“Micah said there’s a chance if this goes to trial. He said he can prove Alexis and her dad framed you for the murder.” I spread my arms wide. “Uhm, hello? The bitch disappeared back to Russia. Which happens to be a country with no means for extradition. It’s sus as fuck, and I don’t even have a fancy law degree.”
“How the fuck do you know about extradition?”
I throw my head back. “Because I actually listen, dummy. Micah’s got a plan in place.”
“One that I don’t like.”
I lift my chin. “It’s also one that can help you win.”
Something about what I said has Crayton withdrawing into himself. Looking as though a war is taking place in his mind.
“Hey,” I call out gently, resting a hand against his hardened cheek. “Where’d you go?”
Crayton’s eyes seem tired and dull, devoid of the fire always dancing in them. “Too many different places. None of ’em good.”
“It’ll be okay, Crayton, I promise.”
“You can’t promise something like that, Rebecca.” He turns his face away from my touch. “It’s like promising someone you’ll never die.”
“One of us needs to have hope, Crayton, because without it all is fucking lost.”
“This is what I mean.” His shoulders go rigid. “All that light of yours…it shouldn’t be wasted on me.”
Suddenly, I’m catapulted back to when I was a child. When Dad said such similar words to me in church that day.
He told me not to give away my light for just anyone, and I’m not. Because Crayton isn’t justanyone.
He’s everything.
My tormentor. My hero. My chaos. My peace.
And if there is any light in me left, it’s because he channels it into me. The same with my darkness.
“My light isn’t wasted, Crayton. It’s borrowed.”
Crayton takes his time to digest what I said before pulling me in for a strangled hug. “I’m sorry I got you caught up in this mess.”
“I’m not caught up, I have a choice.” I pause, adding, “But you have to let me make it.”
46
CRAYTON
“I’d do anything for you, Rebecca. But not that.”
I can’t agree to let her strip herself bare in front of the world to keep me out of a place we both know I belong. In fact, I can’t agree to let her wait around for me either.
There’s no fairness in stringing an innocent girl along for years as you ride out a prison sentence.
And I know Rebecca, she won’t hesitate to do it for me.
“I need you to make me a promise.” I frame her face to look up at me. “A real one this time.”
