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I get to my feet slowly so that I don’t startle Lev. “Buddy, it’s late. You should get to bed.”
“Should I wake Polly?”
“No, leave her. She looks comfortable.”
“Can I sleep in your bed?”
“Yes,” I agree distractedly without putting up a fight. I have another fight to gear up for.
The moment Lev is inside my bedroom, I storm into my office and hack into the console downstairs in order to access any and all conversations that Alyssa might have had in the last few weeks.
Scrolling doesn’t do me any good, though. Every conversation box has been cleared. She’s deleted everything. This’ll take more technical expertise than I have available to dig up the records.
I slam my fist against the table. “Goddammit!”
I fly out of my chair and storm downstairs towards the basement.I fucking trusted her. That’s the only thing running through my head as I burst into the basement, causing Alyssa to jerk upright in bed.
She’s wearing that thin slip again and her hair is disheveled. “What’s going on?” she gasps. “Is it Lev? Is Polly okay?”
The fact that her first thought is for them makes me even angrier. She doesn’tgetto be concerned for them. They’re not her fucking family. And she’s not ours.
“They are none of your concern,” I growl.
Her eyes widen as the sleep drains off her face. “Listen, it wasn’t a big deal, okay?” she says cautiously as she gets out of the bed. “I only went up for a couple of hours and—”
“What?”
She stops short, clearly having assumed I know more than I do. “Um…”
“You came upstairs today?”
She sighs, her eyes darting from side to side. “I just needed some fresh air, Uri. It was no big deal. As you can see, I’m back in the basement prison.”
“Who did you use?”
Her eyes flash back at me. “I didn’t ‘use’ anyone. Polly and Lev—”
“Polly and Lev!”I explode. “You manipulated my brother and sister to get out of the damn basement?”
Now, she looks as pissed as I feel. “Theycame down to seeme. We decided to go upstairs together for a bit. And it was great! Lev and Polly got along, we laughed, we talked. It was amazing and I won’t let you make me feel guilty for that.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I spit. “You think we need you? You’re not the fucking Bugrov sibling whisperer.”
Her face screws up, jaw tight and eyes flashing. “I don’t claim to be anything like that. But I do know that those two kids seek me out for a reason.”
“They’re bored—that’s all it is. They seek you out because they’re bored. Just like I do.”
Her entire body tenses. Then she grabs a pillow and flings it at me. “Get out! Get out of my basement!”
I probably should listen to her. I’m entirely too stressed and too pissed off for this argument. But I’m not about to let her win, either.
I stalk over to the gaming area, rip the Xbox out of the socket, and turn to her with the wires dangling to the ground like severed arteries. “How long hasthisbeen going on?”
Her face ripples with awareness. She knows exactly what I’m talking about.
“Answer me.”
She flinches, her entire body recoiling like someone electrocuted her. “It was innocent, okay?”
