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Sure. I’ll be in studio.
The studio was really just a room at the back of the Y, with half a mirrored wall and a barre bolted awkwardly into the patches of drywall. But Quinn’s parents wouldn’t pay for dance lessons, and Quinn had been kicked off the school dance team.
Unlike Nick, she knew exactly who, what, and where she wanted to be.
She just couldn’t get there.
He hadn’t met her parents yet, but apparently her mother had been put on this earth with the sole purpose of torturing Quinn, and her dad had nothing better to do than stare at the television—when he wasn’t running his mouth about how amazing Quinn’s older brother was. Quinn had a younger brother, too. He stayed out of the line of fire by hiding behind headphones and video game controllers.
Tensions had been running high in Quinn’s house before a fire had burned the place down—part of a string of arson attacks started by another Elemental in town. But now her family was living in temporary housing, a cramped three-bedroom condo closer to Annapolis.
And Nick thought he had problems.
He didn’t hear the front door open, but the air told him when Michael was home.
It also told him that Chris and Becca were struggling to right themselves in the living room.
Nick smiled and entered the last invoice into the computer, then set aside the three where payments were missing.
Michael looked beat when he walked into the kitchen, and Nick was glad he’d gotten the paperwork done.
r scowled.
“If nothing else,” said his father, “say you used her for the lesson.”
“What about you?” Hunter snapped.
“Me?”
“Do you use Mom?”
“You keep saying the word use like it’s a bad thing. As if there’s nothing given in return. Your mother wanted security. A family. A husband who would take care of her. She got those things.”
Hunter snorted. “You make my whole existence sound like a barter transaction.”
“Good. Start thinking of every relationship in your life that way.”
“What fun.”
“You can think about it while we’re gone. I think you’ll figure it out.”
“Gone?” Hunter straightened in the chair. “You’re leaving?”
“We got another message about this family in Annapolis. It sounds suspicious. We’ve decided to go a few days early, get the lay of the land before they know we’re there. Jay’s packing the car now so we can beat traffic.”
Hunter looked out the window. “This is bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
Hunter flew out of his chair. “I said this is bullshit. I can do this. You know I can do this. I should get to go. You even said yourself—I could be a decoy. I could help. I could—”
“You’re not ready.”
“I am ready! Look at last night! Look at—”
His dad raised an eyebrow. “I am looking at last night, Hunter.”
Hunter flushed. “I don’t mean the . . . the using. I mean—”
