"No," my mom said. "Thegoonbroke her arm. Didn't you hear me?"
Ihadheard, but I didn't really believe it. And yet, I couldn’t help but recall Jax threatening such a thing when Tabitha had balked at leaving the party.
I turned back to Jax and asked, "Is that true?"
From behind me, my mom snapped, "Of course it's true. I just told you."
I was still looking at Jax. His expression was unreadable as he stared down at me.
I bit my lip. "Is it?"
He fixed me with a piercing gaze. "Is that a serious question?"
Was it?Obviously, I'd offended him just by asking. And yet, Ididneed an answer. "Well, it would be nice to know."
He looked at me for another long moment before saying in a tight voice, "Alright. The answer's no."
My shoulders sagged in relief.
But then, he added, "Sprained, maybe. But not broke."
I blinked. "What?"
From behind me, my mom said, "Yeah, but she still had to wear a sling."
I turned back to my mom. "So itwasn'tbroken?"
She straightened. "Actually, it was worse."
Huh?Unless the so-called goon had ripped off the arm entirely and beat Tabitha with it, I couldn’t imagine what my mom meant. I asked, "How could it be worse?"
"It wasalmostbroken," she said, "which meant she didn't even get a cast out of the deal."
Oh, for God's sake."But isn't that a good thing?"
"No, it's not good." She gave a snort of derision. "Seriously, who wants to sign a sling?" She shuddered. "It wassougly, too. She was totally screwed."
All I could do was stare.Was she serious? She looked serious.
"And then today," my mom continued, "Dominic was mugged right outside the penthouse, so Ican'tgo back. It's not safe."
"Wait a minute," I said, "soDominicwas robbed, not you?"
"Well, I waswithhim," she said. "It was terrifying. There we are, standing right outside the penthouse door, and these guys come out of nowhere and drag him off like he was nothing."
Okay,thatsounded pretty far-fetched. "You're kidding."
"No," she insisted. "He's yelling. I'm yelling. No one's helping at all. And fifteen minutes later, where do I find him? Bleeding in the bushes. He's in the hospital, you know."
"Yes," I said through clenched teeth. "I know. But did they catch the guys who did it?"
Her lips formed a pout. "No."
My gaze narrowed. "How many guys?"
"Two." Her voice picked up steam. "But maybe a lot more."
"Okaaaaaay." I reached up to rub the back of my neck. "These two guys, what did they look like?"
