Red Thorns (Thorns Duet 1)

“So helping people get justice leads nowhere?”

“Depends on your definition of justice.”

“There are more than one?”

“Of course. What do you think of when the word justice comes to mind?”

“That people should pay for what they’ve done.”

“That’s just simplistic.”

I hit his shoulder. “And what’s your non-simplistic view?”

“Justice is a system that’s been put in place so the powerful can get away with their wrongdoings under the blanket of righteousness. They legalized their barbaric ways and made laws to protect themselves from naive fools who still think that good will always win. Like all systems, justice is daily tampered with so that truths are twisted and the innocent are wrongly accused for no other reason than being a convenient scapegoat for the people who call the shots.”

“Wow. That’s such a cynical view of the world.”

He raises his brow, a small smile tugging on his lips. “You of all people ought to understand that since you’re sarcastic about everything.”

“Being sarcastic doesn’t make me cynical.”

“With your dark sense of humor, it does.”

“I don’t have a dark sense of humor.”

He lifts his hand and shows it to me. “See that?”

I frown. “What?”

“The black covering my hands when I accidentally touch your humor.”

“Not funny.” I fight a smile as I run my fingers over the script of his tattoo. “What does this mean?”

“My mind is my only cage.”

“That’s beautiful, especially coupled with the Japanese one. Did someone translate them for you?”

“No.”

“So you translated it yourself? That’s impressive. Usually people get all sorts of wrong stuff tattooed on them. I can speak for Japanese, but I heard it happens for Arabic, too.”

He raises a brow. “Is my Japanese correct?”

“Perfectly. When did you get them?”

“When I was eighteen.”

“I wish I was brave enough to get one.”

“We’ll go together and get matching tattoos.”

For some reason, that idea doesn’t seem so crazy to me. I snuggle into him as a chill travels down my spine. He’s so warm, and I don’t only mean physically.

There’s something about him that I’m slowly learning. He has a black and white view of the world but acts as if it’s gray. In a way, he’s emulating feelings he doesn’t have and I find that utterly fascinating.

Is it a defense or a coping mechanism? Or maybe he really is antisocial.

At any rate, all I want is to learn more about him, because apparently, I’ve been fooled by his image all this time.