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Andrew shimmered back to life. “Could you perhaps not kill me this time?”
“Maybe you should play the game a bit and level up so you don’t get slaughtered when somebody steps on your toe.”
He drew his gleaming sword and brandished it. “Try that move now, hon.”
“I’ll kick your ass another day.” I snickered and sheathed my sword. “Do you honestly think Kristi could set her hatred of me aside in order to help us with this cure? And, if she’s a sociopath, why would she want to help us?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Because she can cover herself in glory. If she does indeed succeed in finding a cure, all sorts of doors will open for her, even bigger and better than Saberton. In other words, yes, she would gladly tolerate you lot for an opportunity of this magnitude.”
“Ugh. Okay.”
“I know. She’s a horrible excuse for a human being, but she’s a brilliant scientist.”
“Ugh. And she works for your mother. Double ugh.”
“I’m trying to change that. The board can vote a CEO out. I have a few members who would gladly cut the legs out from under my mother.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “Unfortunately, Charish currently holds sway, and it’s to her benefit to keep my mother as CEO. They have very similar visions for the future of the company.”
“Triple ugh!”
“I know. I’m working matters as carefully as I can.”
“Is everything going all right for you? Are you safe?”
“So far so good,” he said. His tone was light, but he couldn’t hide the ever-present stress that colored it.
“Your sister has been really worried about you.”
He was silent for several seconds. “I know. Thea has been giving me reports on her. And you. It’s how I knew you were coming back home.”
Huh. Interesting. And impressively sneaky if Naomi was unaware. “But it would be
too dangerous for you to try and make contact with her, since your mother would be expecting it.”
“Precisely. A bit less of a risk contacting you since I hate you and everyone knows it.”
I laughed. “Fair enough. Now then, how do I get in touch with you if I need to tell you something?”
“Hang something blue in your bathroom window. When you get a call from a telemarketer saying you’ve won a cruise to Argentina, that’s the signal I’m here and can talk.”
“A cruise to Argentina sounds awesome.”
“Then you should start saving your pennies, because telemarketer cruise wins are fiction.”
His character vanished, effectively ending the conversation. Though I was tempted to stick around and kill more beetle-dog-spider-things, I needed to get to bed.
There were real monsters to deal with tomorrow.
Chapter 21
In my previous life, I’d have taken a Xanax to help me sleep, but that option wasn’t available to me as a zombie. Instead, I was forced to do stuff like count my breaths and consciously relax. But relaxing was pretty tough to do with the world on fire, especially when I was the one who dropped the match.
Finally, sometime after 2 a.m., I managed to doze off.
Only to snap awake at six. Morning light glowed around the edges of the blackout curtains. In the distance, a rooster crowed. Miss Paisley’s, most likely. She lived near the end of the road and always gave away tons of eggs to family, friends, and neighbors. Except for us. We’d been a part of the egg krewe until three years ago when my dad—drunk—nearly ran her over while she was out walking her dog. That was bad enough, but when he got out of the truck and called her a dried-up stick, and her dog a mangy flea magnet, we were officially crossed off the free-eggs list for good. Which sucked, because yard eggs were a billion times better than store bought.
A text buzz from my phone cut my egg-musings short, and I snagged it from the nightstand. The number seemed vaguely familiar, but my frontal lobe wasn’t awake enough to release the info.
Kristi Fucking Charish. The text had come in at 6 a.m. on the nose, which was what woke me. Bitch. And a smiley face? I gave the phone my middle finger then dialed Marcus’s number. No way was I going to reply to Kristi before confirming this wasn’t a setup. I was ready and willing to help find a cure, but not if it meant getting locked in a cage and experimented on. Besides, if I had to be awake, then so did Marcus.
