On the Edge (The Edge #1)(31)
Author: Ilona Andrews

Declan gave her a probing look. "You’ve killed a person?"

"Twice. But only in self-defense. My father and grandfather did some killing to protect me, too. Nobody can get mad about that. Sure, relatives of people whom we killed hate us and will take pains to ruin my life if they get a chance, but public opinion is on my side. I was attacked, and anybody in my place would defend themselves. That’s reasonable, right?"

"For the sake of argument, I suppose so."

"Now let’s take Brad. I was only a kid. I thought I loved him. I came to him in the most difficult time of my life, hoping that he would be my shelter. My rock in the storm. And he tried to knock me out with a club and sell me to Rob’s dad. I hate him. I hate him so much that when he’s near, my hands curl into fists and I don’t even know it. When you beat him bloody today, it was glorious."

The hard line of his mouth relaxed slightly. "Glorious?" he said.

She nodded. "I’ll cherish the memory of him rolling around in his own puke for the rest of my life. But it cost me my job."

"I’ve heard," he said. "It wasn’t my intent to make you lose your employment."

Rose waved her hand. "No need to be so modest. You planned it all out brilliantly – getting me fired, cutting off my only source of income, all the while positioning yourself as my hero and savior."

Declan’s eyebrows came together. "That is brilliant. I wish I would’ve thought of it. Alas, I was simply being charitable to a fellow human being. Brad needed to talk. All I could do was lend him a willing ear."

Declan the Good Samaritan. She grinned. "You also generously lent him your fist."

"Well, you didn’t expect me to slap him with an open hand. One simply doesn’t." Declan smiled back. It was a genuine smile, and it transformed his face. Instead of a blueblood, in the space of a moment he became a man, a living breathing man, irresistibly handsome, and funny, and someone she wished she knew. The effect was shocking.

Rose looked at her feet, trying to hide her eyes before he saw her reaction. Which was the real Declan? That was the question.

"Back to Brad," she said. "When he hit me with a bat, I flashed at him. It was a low flash, and it didn’t kill him, but it hurt him very badly. I still hear him screaming in my sleep. As far as the Edge is concerned, that particular crime has been punished. Now you’ve opened a new can of worms."

"But it was a glorious can," he reminded her.

She laughed in spite of herself and looked up at him. "Quite. Brad got his ass handed to him, and the Simoen family retaliated by making my job disappear. I don’t blame you for it. Nobody could’ve predicted that my job would evaporate. But at the end of the day, I still have no way to feed my family."

"I’m sorry," he said.

"Thank you."

"It’s like a complex mathematical equation," Declan said. "The balance must always remain at zero."

"It doesn’t always. People get away with all sorts of things. But we do like to balance the books. People will give you a chance to settle things yourself, but if you go killing and maiming people left and right, pretty soon the entire town will pool its resources and take you down no matter how powerful you are. Let’s go back to Rob. He’s a worm, and propositioning me was a low thing to do. It was humiliating. I humiliated him in return. We’re even, and what’s best is Rob thinks that nobody knows about this but the three of us. He’ll remember it and you, and he’ll try to kick me if he gets an opportunity, but it’s not like he was beaten in public and became the laughingstock of the Edge. If you go after him and pummel him into pulp, he’ll have to retaliate. The Simoen family is large and wealthy. My family is very small. I shouldn’t probably be telling you this, but all I have are my brothers and my grandmother."

"I deduced that," he said. "I know that you love your brothers and wouldn’t rely on them for protection unless you had no choice."

"I think you understand now," she said. "I can’t compete with the Simoens. My flash is very hot. But if you beat up Rob, I might never get a chance to use it. The Simoens might just shoot me from some tree and nobody would blame them."

"That’s wrong," he said.

She shrugged. "It’s the way things are done here. I appreciate you making an effort to understand. I know that it must be very odd to you, seeing as the bluebloods are the ultimate authority in the Weird."

"That’s not strictly accurate. The law is the ultimate authority. We’re simply better trained and educated to enforce it than most other people, but we’re as bound by it as any other citizen."

"What does the law say about forcing a woman into marriage?" she asked.

"The law applies only to the citizens of the Weird, and you aren’t one."

Ouch. Always on the outside looking in. Rose got up and brushed off her jeans. "Well, it’s good then that you’ll lose and head back home empty-handed."

"I won’t lose," he said. "But from now on, I’ll attempt to keep the social rules of the Edge in mind."

She blinked, surprised. Declan had more twists and turns than Rough Butt Creek, which ran through East Laporte. First, he saved Jack. She could rationalize that – after all, if he intended to marry her, it was in his best interest not to stand idle while her brother was torn to pieces. But then he rescued Amy and her children, and followed her into the Broken, and now he conceded he was out of his depth, something she thought would’ve shattered his icy bearing. "Why did you save Amy?" she asked him.

"Why wouldn’t I? She was in trouble, and it was in my power to help her. That’s what any reasonable person would do. Why did you? You were ready to be bait to save a child of Leanne, who, by her own admission, tormented you in childhood."

"That’s different."

He leaned forward, interested. "How?"

Rose searched for words. She hadn’t really given any thought to why she had done it. She had reacted on instinct. "He’s just a boy," she said finally.

"And if it was Leanne in that room, trapped? Would you still have gone to save her?"

"Yes." How exactly did he turn the tables on her? She should be the one asking questions.

"Why?"

She pursed her lips. "Because nothing Leanne had done to me would be as awful as being torn apart alive by those creatures."

"It was brave of you," Declan said.

She didn’t care what he thought, she told herself. His opinion didn’t really matter.

"Let me stay with you," he said.

"Not in a million years." Declan, the blueblood, was dangerous. Declan, the human being, was ten times more so. "You really should stop trying to get into my bed, Declan. It won’t happen."