Free The Heart's Ashes by A. M. Hudson Page A

he?”
    I looked at
Eric and said “I don’t think he did” then looked away, biting my
teeth together in my mouth.
    “ You know, you fascinate me.” He shook his head, studying my
face; “You hate Jason for hurting you, yet David , who did the same to Jason’s
girl—you love? You love him unconditionally.”
    “ David is nothing like Jason.” I turned so my knees faced
slightly away from him.
    Eric breathed
out and shook his head, running his hands through his hair. “I just
don’t get you, girl. You make no sense. Councilman David—” he
leaned forward and dropped his voice as a couple passed on the
sidewalk, “—is the bad guy here. He ridiculed and tortured his own
brother his entire life. Rochelle was only one story.”
    “ Really?”
    “ Yeah. In the greater scheme of things, what Jason did was
justified.”
    “ Justified? Hurting me is justified?”
    Eric softened.
“I’m sorry. I think it is.”
    I looked away
again.
    “ Amara, you know nothing about our world—you know nothing
about David. You should get your facts straight before you make
assumptions,” he said as he slumped back in the chair.
    “ It’s not an assumption to think it’s wrong for someone to
kidnap and torture another.”
    “ But it was okay for David to do it?”
    “ I—” all my words dropped out onto the pavement in front of
me.
    “ See?”
    “ David didn’t torture Rochelle.”
    “ Didn’t he? Did Jason show you the whole story?”
    “ I don’t know.”
    “ Did you notice anything odd about the way she was
sitting?”
    “ Rochelle?”
    Eric nodded; I
wandered back through my mind, trying to find the memory Jason
shoved down my throat, but there was nothing. It was gone. “I don’t
remember.”
    “ What if he did? What if David tortured that poor girl so
badly she prayed for death?”
    “ Stop it. Don’t say that.”
    “ Amara. Tell me. What if he had? Would you still love him?
Would you think David justified to have revenge on Jason if it were
the other way around?” He waited for my answer, clutching closed
fingers around his knee. “Look, I’m sorry you were the entity of
one man’s revenge—you just got in the middle of the wrong feud, is
all, but Jason’s not the bad guy.”
    “ Or maybe they both are.”
    “ But you still love David. And you still haven’t gotten up and
walked away from the very same creature that they are.”
    I looked down
at my shoes. He’s right. I should leave. But I can’t. “People make
mistakes, Eric.”
    “ So you forgive Jason?”
    “ No.”
    “ David?”
    “ I love him.” I shrugged. “I can’t help how I
feel.”
    “ And Jason loved Rochelle.”
    “ So you’re siding with him?”
    “ I don’t take sides. You’ll learn that about me very quickly,
kiddo. Neutral is safe.”
    I wanted to
slap him, but the truth was...I needed him, so I smiled instead.
“Well, since you’re neutral, you’ll just have to be my informant
then.”
    “ Informant on what?”
    “ On what’s going on with...with these laws and
changes.”
    “ Hm.” He nodded. “Want me to keep an eye for David,
huh?”
    I twiddled my
fingers in my lap. “If you could.”
    “ Does that mean we get to hang out?”
    “ I guess so.”
    “ Then it’s a deal.”
    “ But only if it’s arranged—none of this stalking stuff.
Okay?”
    “ Shake on it?” He extended his hand. When I placed mine in
his, a small quiver of electricity charged our touch—making me
tingle from fingernails to elbow. I dropped my hand into my
lap.
    God, he makes
everything on me tingle—makes me forget everything I want or don’t
want, everything I like and dislike. I looked sideways at him,
trying not to smile at his smug grin, wondering if he might
possibly be reading my mind. “What?” I asked finally.
    “ I’m sorry, it’s just that—” he took a breath and swallowed,
“David said your eyes were amazing, but I never imagined they’d
look like the sun shining on the bluest ocean. It’s a