Here's to Us (Blood Money #2)

Chapter 7 - What if?

Getting past one last sniff, I looked up from the handkerchief in my hands. Silas pinched his lips, raising both eyebrows in a question. Squeezing my eyes shut, I let out a guilty sigh. 

"Why have you been crying?" Silas eventually asked.

Opening my eyes, I rolled my eyeballs up to look at the whitewashed ceiling and puffed, "You don't wanna know."

When I looked down, he rolled his eyes, almost irritated.

With a slight shake of the head, I sighed, "They think I'm involved with Desmond."

Silas squinted his eyes a little bit. "Aren't you? I mean, you two work together for my case."

I tried to scare him off somewhat by widening my eyes a little. "Of course not. I mean, work; yes but affair; no."

"Oh. That's not what I had in mind," Silas threw in almost instantly, chewing on his lip.

I whistled inaudibly, "It's okay."

When he didn't speak, I chose to add, "I am going to miss a deadline with the 'I' project. Probably gonna be your bad luck more than a talisman."

But he didn't buy my 'I told you so' look and smiled, almost conning me to mirror him as he spoke, "I missed more than one deadline. You still don't have to panic."

Therefore, I smiled. At least that was what he wanted at this moment. I could maybe cheer him up with some news since all I had been doing was complaining and well... crying.

"I have news for you," I smirked, crossing my arms.

Taken aback at the sudden change of my mood, he raised eyebrows.

I couldn't resist opening up anymore. Giddy and grinning, I started, "The first order of 'Ellis Event' was much profitable. That means we can afford the upgrading of the prototypes."

"That's great," he smiled. "You should celebrate."

My grin faded to a faint smile but I didn't let it get past me. "Not without you."

Silas kept staring for a while before closing his eyes against both of his palms. At the sound of his sigh, I couldn't tell if this was my discouragement. But, I simply couldn't let it concern me. All kinds of options other than a positive testimony ran in my head. What if all these efforts wouldn't work out? Nevertheless, I told myself that they would.

"Silas?" I pressed my hand lightly over his wrist, gnawing at my lips violently.

"Hmm." He didn't stare.

"If..." I paused, waiting until he let his hands fall on the table and looked at me. At his attention, I continued, "Hypothetically speaking, if anything goes wrong with your cross-examination, what will you do?"

Cocking his head to one side, he wrinkled both eyebrows, green of his eyes darkening in the process. "You mean if I am proven guilty?" He didn't wait for my responses when he added, "I'll run."

What?

Blinking erratically, I tried to recover myself. Looking down, I noticed that I still had my hand on his wrist. So, I let it go, muttering in incredulity, "You'll break out of the prison?"

"Probably," he shrugged as if it was as simple as picking up a pencil and drawing me.

"You can do that?" I lowered my voice as I leaned forward.

He thrust his lip out and gave me a modest nod. Stunned, I shook my head, looking down at the plastered floor and contemplating whether to go on with the conversation or not.