“Better to know than not,” Layla said, snagging a slice of the Italian sub. “I can’t even with them. They’re lucky they’re not here right now ’cause I legit might murder the both of them.” She shook her head. “Celia with all her little obligatory family dinners. What a fucking shitshow. I keep thinking about it, and Istillcan’t believe they lied to all of us. It’s just…” She shook her head some more until she finally gave up on trying to summarize the mess that was our lives and bit savagely into her sub.
“My dad never even existed,” Hunt added with a flick to the turquoise stone dangling from a silver hoop in his earlobe, the earring he so often wore. Supposedly, it had belonged to his deceased father. “Like, who the hell did this belong to, then?”
Layla snorted and popped a pita chip into her mouth. “Alexis probably bought it at a random stand on the rez.”
“You give her too much credit,” Griffin said. “She probably ordered it online.”
“True,” Brady said. “They even order the TP online. Everything gets shipped. Alexis for sure didn’t get it from anyplace special at all.”
Hunt sighed, drank from his beer before setting down the bottle, then unclasped the earring and tossed it onto the table. It slid to rest beside the bowl of olives. “To think that was one of my prized possessions.”
I harrumphed. “To think we were carried by surrogates.”
“At this point I’m glad,” Griffin said, and I looked over at him. He sat in the chair beside me. “I half expected one of them to tell us we were test tube babies, developed in some sort of incubator till we reached viability.”
I swallowed my bite of sharp cheddar cheese and it stuck a bit on the way down. “Well, I don’t think the disclosures are over, not by a long shot.”
“Agreed,” Hunt said. “But whatever Magnum’s told us so far, I think it’s been the truth.”
“Funny,” I said, “I’ve been thinking of him as ‘Chase.’ Didn’t want to give in to him by calling him what he wants.”
Hunt shrugged. “Pretty sure the guy’s got us by the balls regardless.”
My shoulders slumped and I bent over my food. “Yeah. He’s definitely trying to buy the shit out of us.” Even so, I couldn’t help but gaze admiringly at the living room beyond the dining room, each space more beautiful than the next.
“He’s succeeding,” Brady said, spearing a noodle from Layla’s plate. She growled at him and dragged her plate closer. “I’d practically give my left nut to live in a place like this. Did you see the garage?”
“Yeah, Brade,” Layla said, “we all saw it.”
I laughed. “Never thought I’d see the day when Brady Raffertyswooned.”
Unconcerned, Brady just reached for more tortilla chips and salsa. “I’m not ashamed to say it. I’ve found my price.” He looked around pointedly. “This, this is my price. Shit, he even got Lay and Hunt their own cars. And Mustangs too! Man’s a fucking manipulative boss. Sure, he’s a murderous asshole of the utmost degree, but he’s still a boss when it comes to knowing what to give us to keep us happy.” Munching on a bite, he grinned. “Now I get Bonnie all to myself. No more sharing with the stinky sister. Bonnie’s fucking thrilled.”
“Hey,” Layla protested. “She likes me too.”
“’Course she does. But shelovesme.”
I rolled my eyes, scarcely believing Brady and Layla were already back to going at it. “Guys, not that long ago, all of us but Griff were dead.”
My statement hung in the air like a smell too pungent to ignore.
Brady sobered instantly. “Yeah. I’ve died twice now. Never thought I’d be saying that shit, that’s for damn sure.”
“I never, and I do meannever,” Griffin said so vehemently that we all stared at him, “want to go through that again. Seeing them kill you all, not sure if you were gonna come back or not, it was the very worst moment of my life. Next to Brady dying the first time, the worst. Never …”
“Well, it’s not like we were fans either, Griff,” Layla said.
He shook his head once, sharply. “I would rather die a hundred times than have to stand by and watch and be able to do nothing to stop it from happening. You guys …” He grimaced. “I just … Ican’tdo that again.”
Layla reached across the table to squeeze his hand. But I just stared at him, remembering what it had felt like to hear Clyde’s tires sliding off the cliff, knowing Griffin was likely still inside the car.
“You won’t have to,” Layla assured him. “You won’t ever have to go through that again.”
“You can’t know that.”
It took me a long moment to realize the words came from me. But they were true. “Magnum is going overboard buttering us up. And we’ve already seen he’s got no qualms whatsoever about doing whatever he wants to us, whenever he wants. Who’s to say part of us being at this school of his doesn’t mean he thinks he’ll get to kill us again and again just to see what happens? I mean, he hasn’t exactly hidden his intentions. All he cares about is getting immortality for himself. This place is probably one big lab experiment to him.”
“It definitely is,” Hunt said. “No doubt about it. He all but admitted it already.”
