Take Me (Take Me 1)

She took the eight-by-ten picture he presented and stared at it. Yes, she gasped, but she didn’t falter. She gazed steadily at the photo, then lifted those tawny eyes of hers to Jude.

“What’s her name?”

“Does it matter?” he edgily countered.

“I know you know it. So, yes. It matters.”

“You don’t ask arbitrary questions,” he mused in a brittle tone. “Right. I remember. Her name is…was…is Dawn. Dawn Stevens. Twenty-seven. Very beautiful in that really fragile sort of way. Like your friend Charlotte. The kind of fragility that makes you…want to…” He gave a harsher shake of his head.

“Protect her,” Kate offered. “Keep her safe. Provide her security. Shelter her.”

“Yes.”

“And the plaintiff—”

“Her husband, Kate.” Jude knew the look he gave her was a laser-sharp one. “He didn’t protect her. Keep her safe. Provide her security. Shelter her. Not because he didn’t want to…because he couldn’t. Everything about her work environment should have ensured Dawn made it home safe and sound that day—just like every other day. There’s no reasonable explanation, no blame to pin on anyone. Not even a big-ass manufacturing company that issued a faulty product. They didn’t. Seventy-two hours…” he mumbled. And turned away.

Kate stepped around him once more, facing him. “Seventy-two hours? Till what, Jude? For what?”

Staring into her glowing eyes, he said, “The piece of equipment that inadvertently, mysteriously failed, Kate, was inspected less than seventy-two hours before the explosion occurred. It passed the most rigorous of tests—all of the tests. There was nothing fucking wrong with this one valve that altered someone’s universe. That killed a woman. That destroyed a man.”

Jude’s gaze held Kate’s. Her eyes misted. But she neither blinked nor glanced away.

Jude said, “This horrific fucking thing happened. And now I’m the asshole who has to strip whatever shred of a life is left from this person I don’t even know. Yet… I do know him, Kate.” He stared more pointedly. “He’s me. Four years ago.”

“Jude—”

“I have no choice, right, Kate?” he challenged, his barbed tone speaking volumes.

“This isn’t the same scenario, Jude.” She didn’t break the eye contact as she took a fortifying sip from her wineglass. “What happened with Annalise… She stripped all choice from you, Jude. She left you with no decisions to make, with no opportunity to discuss or rectify or solve a tragedy in the making. This is similar to Mr. Stevens’ case, Jude. But not the same.”

“It is the fucking same, Kate.” He polished off his drink, whirled around and headed back to the bar. Cracking the seal on a fresh bottle of scotch, he said over his shoulder, “Annalise cheated on me because she felt it was just a matter of time before I did it to her—first.”

“That’s not entirely true, Jude. I read her journal, remember? She never fully understood or accepted how you felt about her. She was insecure by nature. Jealous to a fault when it came to you. Obsessed with whether you’d—”

“Betray her.” He whipped around and said, “I never once gave her a reason to doubt my affection, Kate. Not once.”

“I know that, Jude,” Kate contended in an even voice. “Annalise didn’t.”

He set aside his crystal tumbler. His wide stride had him crossing the room so fast, Kate leapt out of the way. Only not far enough.

Jude grabbed the photo from her and demanded, “Look at this, Kate. Not me. This.”

“I have looked at it, Jude. There’s a woman lying on the asphalt of a near-empty parking lot with a pool of blood surrounding her head.” Kate recited the details without taking her gaze from him. “You don’t see Dawn Stevens here, Jude. You see Annalise. Lying on your liv

ing room floor, a pool of blood around her head. Only it wasn’t shrapnel from an explosion that went through her temple. It was a bullet.”

Jude’s eyes squeezed shut.

“You caught her red-handed, cheating on you, Jude. Her infidelity was the result of her irrationally convincing herself that cheating on you first would make it easier to stomach the day she discovered you being unfaithful.”

He already knew this. But didn’t interrupt.

“She believed you’d be betray her, because she didn’t believe in herself enough to think she could hold your attention, your interest, your affection. And when you were devastated by her actions, you ended the engagement. She was devastated as well. So much so, Jude, she walked into your living room and before you could say a word or make a move—she put that gun to her head and pulled the trigger. Robbing you of every single choice you would have made going forward. Putting all the blame at your feet. Not giving you a moment’s opportunity to turn it all around.”

Jude’s lids snapped open. He stared at Kate. Her tone was raw, full of emotion and with a jaded infraction he’d never heard from her before.

Something moved and shifted inside of Jude.