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“Evie, what the hell? What the hell are you doing here?” he asks.
She rubs her nose with her sleeve. “I missed school. I missed my friends. I thought I could just live here with Pops again, and everything would go back to normal.”
“You know that’s not possible,” I say.
She wrings her hands. “I know. I mean, I guess I know. But I don’t want it to be that way. I want to go back to how things were. I don’t want to live on the compound with you and the guys, and have the housekeeper tutor me. It’s not normal. It’s weird. And creepy.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath for patience, but before I can scold her, Kir jumps in. He’s right to. First things first.
“Evie, we’ll get to how you managed to leave the compound undetected later, and believe me, we will be discussing this at length. But in the meantime, how did you get here and how did you hear about the pawn shop?” he asks.
“I… I got a ride from a friend who just got her license. I know we’re not supposed to ride with kids when there are no parents in the car, but we thought it would be okay just this once. She told me there was a rumor going around at school that the pawn shop was burning down. With me in it.” She bursts into tears again, I’m not sure whether more upset by the shop being gone or insulted by the kids who made up the rumor she went down with it.
“How do the kids at school know?” he asks.
He’s clearly been out of school too long. One person hears something orthinksthey hear something, and word spreads faster than wildfire.
She snuffles, and Vadik passes her a tissue he dug up somewhere in the apartment. “I think someone drove past it on the way to school. I’m not sure.”
“Did they say anything about Pops?” I ask cautiously.
I’ve been calling him since Evie first alerted me, but no answer. Same with Victoria. In spite of my feelings for my father, a lump builds in my throat when I think about what might have happened to him.
Vadik leaves the room to make a call, which I can hear bits and pieces of. I keep Evie talking because I don’t want her to hear him, but I do catch that he is sending some of his people over to the shop to investigate.
I don’t say anything in front of my sister, but I know it was Dimitri. I just know it. Whether it was retaliation for what I did to the second’s hand, or just a general desire to terrorize me and let the guys know they can’t do anything to stop it, I don’t know.
Does it really matter?
“Look, Evie,” Kir says, “I get that you want to be back at school with your friends. Hopefully, someday we can make that happen. But not today. If people are after your father’s shop,” —he pauses before he says too much— “they may also be after you. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee they are.”
Her eyes widen with fear. Are Kir’s words finally sinking in?
I pull Evie to her feet. “Got get a bag and gather up as much stuff as you can. We’re heading back to the compound. I’ll be getting some things too.”
She runs off to her room as Vadik returns. “It’s definitely arson.” He looks around to make sure Evie is out of earshot. “Your father didn’t make it, Charleigh. I’m sorry.”
I stifle a sob. As strange as it is, I wrack my brain for the last time I saw him, wondering whether I was cross with him or not.
I’m pretty sure I was.
And for all that he put me through, I still feel shitty. If I had known his days were numbered, would I have behaved differently?
Would he have?
I gulp. “Do you… do you know if he suffered?” I ask, my voice cracking.
Vadik comes over and puts his hands on either side of my face. “I know for a fact he didn’t suffer, darling. It looks like he was… shot before the fire was set.”
My legs collapse under me and I fall back onto the sofa, the sofa that has been in my family all my life, where I used to watch TV with my mother, where we would sit when opening our Christmas presents, and where I would nap on the days I stayed home from school sick. For a moment, I wonder what will happen to this faded sofa, whose cushions are compressed from a lifetime of sitting and whose arms are in tatters. I look around the room. The likelihood is, it will go to the dump. Everything will go to the dump.
A lifetime of memories, taken to the dump.
How perfectly appropriate.
“C’mon, Charleigh,” Vadik says, helping me to my feet. “Let’s pack up some things and head back to the compound.”
I nod and let him lead me toward the bedrooms, but then stop. “I’m worried about Victoria. Did they say a woman was found in the store, by chance?”
