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And for some unfathomable reason, also my father’s favorite mistress.
Charleigh approaches Dominika, and I silently hope she isn’t pulling any more shit today. I don’t think I could handle it.
Charleigh bends real close to my desk, and points at, from where I am standing, not much of anything.
“Dominika, looks like you missed a spot.”
Well, fuck me.
* * *
CHAPTERTWENTY
Charleigh
Why the hell is my sister calling me if she’s just down the hall?
Unless… she isn’t…
I swipe the call open. “Evie, can you just walk down to my room if you want to talk?” I start to hang up when I hear whimpering.
What the hell.
“Char, Char,” she says breathlessly, “I’m not… I’m not at the compound—”
I’m going to kill her. That’s it. I’m just going to kill this kid.
In the background, I hear a door shut and clothes hangers jingle. Is she in a closet?
“Char, I’m at home. Like,ourhome. Oh, Char, I’m scared. One of my friends just called to tell me the pawn shop burned down.”
What?
No.
Burned down? Like in flames?
No. God no.
“I’m on my way,” I growl. “Don’t move a fucking finger. Do you hear me?”
I’m silent as Kir speeds across town to what Evie refers to as ‘her real home.’ Actually, no one in the car makes a sound, including Vadik in the front passenger seat.
Inside the hermetically sealed thrum of Kir’s very expensive Mercedes, outside noise is reduced to the extent where I suspect we can all hear my heart thumping against my chest.
Is this going to be another arcade situation? Is this a set-up, one that my foolish sister agreed to, which strangely made sense to her developing teenage brain?
Am I putting Kir and Vadik in danger the way I did Frank, not to mention myself?
Dear God, please don’t let this be another trap. I just want to get my sister, drag her back to the compound, and lock her in her room until she’s a legal adult. Then she can do all the bone-headed things she wants to because there will be nothing I can do about it. And hopefully at that point, I won’t care anymore. I can only bring this kid along so far. If she wants to live her life like a little fool, and so far it’s looking like that, it’s her choice.
I can only lead her so far, and I can honestly say I’m close to throwing in the towel right now, even though the punk is still underage and is about as far from adulthood as a teenager can be.
I didn’t ask, because I was afraid to, but I’m hoping Kir drives past the pawn shop so I can see if it really burned. I know we don’t have time for that right now—the priority is Evie—but I just want toknow.
The truth is, however, I am almost positive Kir is actuallyavoidingdriving past the pawn shop until we get more information about what the hell is going on with it, and whether it’s even safe for us to approach it.
Then there’s the question of Pops. It’s eerie—heartbreaking, really—how when Evie called, she became my first priority, followed by the safety of the guys when they told me they’d take me to her. Pops only crossed my mind later, much later, when it occurred to me to wonder where the hell he was. My father didn’t even rank. Truth is, he doesn’t deserve to, and if that’s not tragic, I don’t know what is.
