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So, before he could dismiss me like the child he thought I was, I went ahead and made up a reason to leave.
That’d been forty-five minutes ago.
Now I was freshly showered, had wet hair down to mid-back, and I was bored.
I’d sat down on the bed to upload a few videos to Instagram, but apparently not only was there no wi-fi at the house, but there was also no signal from the cell towers.
I’d tried to turn on the television, but had found out rather quickly that there was no television to be seen. Not in the room he’d tried to send me to or his own.
Which, might I add, was totally bare except for some shower accessories. Even the bed only had a sheet on it. No pillow or anything.
Which left me with nothing else to do but go down to the room I’d escaped from earlier.
I’d just made it to the first landing when low, deep male voices caught my attention.
I changed my course to where I could hear them—a room that was off the main room—when I heard my name mentioned.
I shouldn’t be eavesdropping.
I knew what happened when you snooped. You learned things you didn’t want to know.
Yet, I was, for all intents and purposes, being held against my will.
I needed to know what I’d gotten myself into, even if I didn’t like where I’d ended up.
Sneaking out of the room that Lynn had allowed me to use hadn’t been my intention, nor had coming down the stairs so quietly that they didn’t know that I was done with my shower. But his floors were brand new, and my feet had socks on them to keep the sound of my feet padding across the glossy concrete floors to a minimum.
Which then allowed me to walk right on up to the slightly open door without them tempering their voices in the least.
“I gotta be honest,” I heard Laric say. “You showing up with her at a function would’ve really waggled some tongues. It’s a good thing that you’re making that decision. Six is… out there.”
I felt my heart skip a beat at his words, and I waited for either Bruno or Lynn to defend my ‘out there’ but it never came.
“Her mother was like that, too,” Bruno said, breaking my heart just a little bit more. “It was like looking at a fairy princess. One that wasn’t of this world. She said and did things that you’d never, ever expect to come from a normal person’s mouth. I remember this one time that I walked Six home from school. Her mother was outside. Watering the lawn with a garden hose. She just sat there spraying it like one would a sprinkler. When I happened to ask why she didn’t just use a sprinkler, she said that she rather enjoyed watching the water spray.”
I remembered that, too. That was one of the very last memories that I had of her before she died.
That’d also been the very first time that Bruno had walked me home. I was kind of sad that he was talking ill of my dead mother, though.
There were a lot of things that I did that were exactly like her.
Which made my back stiffen.
“You sound like you cared for her.” Lynn’s deep voice startled me.
“I did,” Bruno agreed. “She was much nicer than her dad. But I could never really understand the connection they had. Not until I was older. An adult. She was very pretty and did what she was told very well. She didn’t have much of a mind of her own. Which apparently is what Ivan needed out of his wife.”
I felt sick to my stomach.
And I couldn’t listen to what they had to say anymore.
At least, I hadn’t planned on it.
Just as I turned to walk away, Laric chimed in.
“So is Six like that?” Laric asked. “Because she does seem a little wild and carefree.”
“Six is Six,” Bruno said. “She lives life to the beat of her own drum. Sometimes that means that she doesn’t use her common sense. I wouldn’t say she’s like her mother, though. At least Six is very much aware of the damage she can inflict when she does things. She just doesn’t care. She was a stupid kid, but she was sweet.”
It was good to know that Bruno felt that way when it came to me.
Stiffening my spine, I pushed through the door of what I assumed was Lynn’s office, taking in its occupants.
Lynn leaned against his desk holding a tumbler of amber liquid that was likely whiskey. He was now in jeans and a black t-shirt that fit him incredibly well, and he was wearing an all-black fitted hat that came down low over his eyes.
His head tilted and came to me.
God, he was breathtaking.
Laric and Bruno were both in the same clothes as earlier, both staring at the door in surprise.
