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He sounds like he’s telling the truth. If nothing else, he’s looking about a foot to the right of me, like he’s seeing double and chose the wrong me to address.
“That better be right,” I say. “Or you’ll be puking up blood next.”
It’s amazing how quickly I can become the scary bad guy I used to be. In my old life, I’d already have kicked the shit out of this guy just for puking too close to me. I’m actually kinda I sorry I didn’t, because the stench is growing worse and worse.
“You think they fed us shit information about this job too?” Edge asks.
“I kinda hope so, don’t you?” I say, making sure to keep my voice as low as I can. “Because we’re not getting anywhere.”
He scoffs and gives me an outraged look. That always makes him appear cross-eyed.
“I’m thinking the only way we’re gonna find anything out is by getting them to tell us,” I say. “As in becoming besties again. With Joker too. I’ll work on him, see what he’s all about.”
“So that leave me stuck with the threesome?” he asks. “Again?”
“Or you could chat up Karma,” I say and get another cross-eyed, outraged look.
“Summer would kill me.”
I laugh. “Yeah, sounds about right.”
He grumbles and I head inside. It’s time to get to know Joker a little better. Though I’m sure I’ll just find the same kind of loser I always find in places like this. The same kind of loser I used to be.
12
Ariel
My arm had started to ache from all the shooting on the ride back home and I’m sure it’ll only get worse by tomorrow. But that’s a small worry. Because I feel more alive, more present, more in the now than I have since before my abduction. I’m just standing here watching Ruin ride away down the quiet street that runs past my home, the rumble of his bike echoing, the pull to call him back and go with him almost unbearable.
But before I can make the decision to do that, I hear the front door of my parents’ house open.
“Where have you been?” my mom shrieks and shuffles towards me, limping worse than ever. Dad is right behind her. “Are you all right? We’ve been worried sick.”
She reaches me and slides my hair off my face getting her fingers stuck in the tangles the wind caused. Then she hugs me tightly before I can reply to her frenzied questions.
“I’m fine,” I mumble into her shoulder. “I was with Ruin.”
I want to add that he took great care of me, just like he promised me he would when he calmed me down and took me away this morning.
“Veronica said you had an episode during the trapping event,” Dad says. “What happened?”
Mom’s finally released me and now they’re both looking at me, standing on the sidewalk in their slippers. I can feel all the neighbors looking on. With the number of happenings at our house in the past couple of years, we’re like the neighborhood soap opera.
“I got freaked out by a trapped cat,” I say quietly. “But it passed and I’m fine now. Let’s go in.”
Dad wraps his arm around my shoulders and leads me inside. I hear Mom text on her phone behind me, probably letting Veronica know I’m home safe. I feel bad for not calling or texting that I was fine. It didn’t occur to me. Especially not after Ruin promised to teach me how to defend myself, and certainly not while he was teaching me how to shoot.
None of that was something they needed to know. It was all just what I needed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t check in,” I say once we’re inside the living room. The bright lights are threatening to give me a migraine after the soft darkness I just came in from. “But I’m not a child anymore. You didn’t have to send out a search party after me right away.”
Dad grunts, but Mom looks at me sharply. “I know that Ariel, but after everything… “
She lets the rest hang in the air, because none of us like to mention the elephant in the room that is me and what happened to me. She walks over to the sofa and sits down with a sigh, rubbing her aching hip.
“Would you like some dinner?” Dad asks and I shake my head.
“Thanks, maybe later.”
