Page 707 of One More Kiss

Miniscule windows of opportunity. They were rare and you had to be paying attention, but they cropped up, and if everything aligned just right, the perfect storm would erupt and vengeance would be mine.

“Well, Mr. Maxwell? Was that the right answer?” Sloan asked as she preened, waiting for me to pat her on the head like a good little kitten.

I slid my hands in my pockets and crossed my ankles, settling into a discussion I’d led countless times, knowing we’d never have the time to hash out every facet and that the spark of interest in them only came from the generic focus on a buzz word. “There is no one ‘right’ answer. It depends on who you ask and what you can prove. So, let’s break it down. Self-defense in public. Self-defense on your property. What are we talking about here? How are you going to prove self-defense if there are no witnesses? Because in order to claim self-defense, in order to take a life, you have to be able to prove that your life was in danger, or that serious harm was imminent. What if there are no witnesses? What if—”

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Lizette said with a smirk and an air of superiority common in her tone of voice. “It’s never right to take a life.”

“Are you sure about that?” I asked, making her smug glance falter.

“It’s in the Bible,” she deadpanned.

I pushed away from my desk and stopped in front of her seat. “I take it you never really read your Bible then?” I stared down at her, unblinking.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means if you had actually studied or read your Bible, instead of using it—improperly I might add—to justify your position, you would know the Bible doesn’t take a unified, hard line on taking life. It forbids unjustified killing of human life such as murder, abortion, and euthanasia, but it also provides exemptions for warfare, self-defense, and executions which brings us right back to the original question of when is killing justified? If you rely only on the Bible, it’s a circular argument.”

“The ends justify the means,” Mia said, her voice confident and unyielding, without casting a glance in our direction. She made no eye contact, yet commanded attention.

All eyes turned to her.

My blood pulsed hotter. My instincts to challenge the attention they gave and establish dominance thrumming through me.

I took a slow deep breath and perused her from the tips of her black boots to the crown of her dark, wavy hair.

“Now you just have to ask yourself if you still have your humanity if you’ve embraced that idea.”

Her eyes locked on mine, the seconds ticking by, neither of us willing to break contact first.

“By that logic we have to break it down by legal justification and morality,” Justin pointed out, forcing me to do my job and address him when I’d much rather establish dominance over the firebrand of the class.

A pity.

But another opportunity would arise. Plenty of semester remained.

“When it comes to crime and punishment, we only have to look at the legal justifications,” Rose said.

“Which are based on morals,” I reminded her.

Justin heaved a heavy sigh. “This is like a dog chasing its own tail.”

“It can be.” I paced along the front row and laughed. “Remember that law majors. This is what you’re signing up for day in and day out.”

Josh smacked his gum and clenched it between his teeth with a confident grin. “The money will make it worth the misery.”

“Will it? We could get into the value of happiness.”

Josh’s smile wiped away. “I’d rather rip my nails out one by one, thanks.”

“Legal justification…someone comes up to you, holds a gun to your head and demands your car. You get one precious opportunity to turn the tables and take his life to save your own. Justified, right?” I called out to the class.

A chorus of resounding yesses came back to me and I wanted to sigh with the monotony of it. Or shed blood.

That would be an interesting spin on my course.

“Okay, and how are you going to prove it?” I asked.

“He pulled a gun on me,” Lizette said after arguing that there was never a justification for taking a life. Amazing how she changed her mind so fast, but then, she’d proven herself highly susceptible to suggestion when she accepted what she’d been told about the Bible without question. Without research or a simple read through. Making her not Scorpio Society material.

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