Color Blind (43 page)

“He’s still—”

“Calm, calm. Yes, he’s still unconscious, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. They pumped his stomach, and he’s stable. They have him in ICU on constant watch just in case, but they think he’s gonna be fine.”

Ayana, Charley, Dad. All safe.

“Claudia?” she forced out.

Yancy didn’t answer. It was what she was afraid of.

“Tell me,” Jenna said.

“Claudia was, ah, gone by the time the cops got there,” Yancy admitted. “They’re searching for her, road blocks set up, everything. I think they’re, um, hoping you’ll be able to tell them more.”

Same old, same old. They’d never find her. Claudia’d find them all. One day.

“You, by the way, are going to make it, too. You have a pretty good concussion and a nice bullet to the leg, but, you know, nothing to amputate over.”

Yancy’s smile swam in her vision, and she couldn’t help but sleepily smile back. “Thank you, Yancy.”

“For what?” he asked, but his grin said he knew.

“Leaving me a gun, saving my dad, being here. Being you. Take your pick.”

He laughed, and he smoothed Jenna’s bangs back from her forehead. “You know, I do charge a pretty steep fee.”

She rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. You want to know your color.”

Yancy shrugged. “I’d settle for Claudia’s.”

Jenna pushed her head back against the pillows, hoping the pressure would ease the headache. Worse. She shifted again.

She’d never told anyone, including her family, what Claudia’s color was. Not the police, not Hank. No one.

But if anyone deserved to know, it was this man standing at her bedside.

Jenna locked eyes with Yancy. “She doesn’t have one.”

The words surprised Jenna as she said them, and just like that, the secret was out. It didn’t seem to linger in the air, though, like she’d always imagined it would. Instead, it was like the words moved straight from her to Yancy, no room in between them for the knowledge to be intercepted.

His eyes got bigger until they were full-on saucers, then his face relaxed. “Huh?”

Jenna closed her eyes. They were so heavy, and sleep threatened to pull her in. She fought to reopen them and drank in Yancy’s rugged features. She’d always known time was valuable, but Hank was gone in an instant, and now it seemed more pressing than ever. If something ever happened to her, she wanted someone to know how she’d figured Claudia out all those years ago.

Finally, after so long, someone she trusted.

“Claudia is the only person I’ve ever known that, well . . . been around that much . . . who didn’t have her own color. She simply blended . . . a chameleon . . . into whatever she needed to be. When it came to her, I might as well have been colorblind. It’s why I knew she wasn’t the same as everyone else.”

Yancy stared back at Jenna, unblinking.

“You should sleep, Jenna. You’ve had a rough day,” he said gently. Then his grin reappeared, stretched across the length of his face. “And for the record, I didn’t expect you to tell me Claudia’s color. In fact, I doubted you would. I’d already decided on a second request for my fee when you’d denied that one.”

Jenna let her eyes drift closed. “You’re welcome then. But . . . what was the second?”

Yancy’s voice was softer, closer. “I’d have settled for a kiss.”