AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She snatches the bottle from my hand and slams it down on the counter. “This is not for you! If you’re thirsty, you get water from the tap.”
From the tap? That’s cruel, Sun Yi. “Relax. I’m twenty-six, remember? I’m old enough.”
“You’re notgoodenough for that brand.”
Rather than piss me off with those words, she earns a new measure of respect from me. Not enough to make me behave, but enough to make me appreciate her toughness given the situation.
I look her square in the eye as I chug the glass of vodka.
All that earns me, it seems, is an eyeroll. I guess Sun Yi doesn’t place as much importance on toughness as I do.
“What are you doing here?” she asks.
It’s about damn time. I was beginning to think she didn’t care what my business was. “I’m on the run,” I say, shrugging and grabbing the bottle back from her. This time, I swig straight out of it before wiping my chin and letting out a belch. “My place got blown up, and I needed somewhere to stay until I could find a new home away from home.”
Her face turns an interesting shade of red. “Blown up?”
That’s a funny reaction. Not strange-funny, but ha-ha funny. I chuckle and take another sip. By this point, my dumb ass is just this side of blitzed. I shouldn’t have tried to show off by drinking the whole glass at once. Despite my bravado, I rarely drink anything stronger than beer, and the kimchi was all I’d eaten for hours. The vodka makes a beeline for my central nervous system, and I waver a bit in my seat. Stupid move, considering the danger I’m in. I should keep a level head.
When has that ever stopped me, though?
Her face takes on an expression bordering on concern, and for the first time since Keys came running to warn us of the breach, apprehension starts creeping in.
“Do they know where you are?”
I shake my head. “No one knows to even associate me with you. The person I was when I lived here died the same night Mark did. I haven’t gone by the name you gave me since I was sixteen. As far as anyone knows, my name is Bunny Kincaid. I have no official address, no solid ties to anyone on the grid. I’m a ghost in a sexy rabbit getup.”
She scoffs, and just like that, any maternal emotions I was vibing from her fade into oblivion. “You and those ears. Calling yourself ‘Bunny’ … Where did you ever get an idea like that?”
I stare into my empty glass, memories of trauma best forgotten rising to the surface. “I got the idea from your poor, departed husband. Mark always called me his little rabbit. Don’t you remember? You may not have known why, but that was his nickname for me from the start.” My hand squeezes the glass as the past comes flooding back. Tiny cracks splinter in the crystal, and some detached part of my consciousness thinks how proud Kendrick would be of my strength. A tiny, ironic smile lifts the corners of my lips. “He told me he called me that because of how I screamed like a dying bunny whenever he came after me.”
Once again, silence descends on the two of us, and I wait for Sun Yi to stalk off in a huff. She never took well to me bad-mouthing Mark, no matter how truthful it was. Denial is a funny thing, and I suppose that love, even a twisted love like she and Mark may have shared, is a powerful motivator for ignoring the brutal reality of life.
Imagine my surprise, then, when she walks not away from me buttowardsme, when she wraps her spindly arms around me, when she hugs me, really hugs me, for the first time in my memory.
“What are you—”
She cuts me off with a tender squeeze, and it takes all I have not to crumble into a blubbering mess.
My mother hugged me. She heard me, heard what he did to me, and instead of yelling at me or dismissing my words as total bullshit—again—she hugged me.
Stay strong, Bunny. This could be a trick. Don’t buy into it. Don’t let the Hallmark moment ruin a decade of healing. You don’t need her. You have Kendrick and Doc and Keys and Neil, all waiting for you to get your shit together and find them.
Thoughts of my own twisted loves, of the four men who stick with me no matter what, bring me out of my stupor and ground me in the now.
I can’t get distracted by a potential bond with my mom. Not now.
Okay, then … What’s next? I should start checking out our safehouses, looking for my guys, but between the vodka and the sleep deprivation of the past couple days, it might not be wise to head out just yet. I should take advantage of this heartfelt moment with Sun Yi by begging for a place to crash for the night, by resting up and recuperating. My shoulder still throbs, though the stitches seem intact, and as resourceful as most of my boyfriends are, they should be fine without me for a night. Hell, even Neil might be able to manage on his own if he got separated from the others. He doesn’t know where to go in an emergency like we’re in, but he’s not dumb. He’ll figure it out.
I decide to play up this moment in the hopes of gaining sympathy. “Mom, I’m scared. Can I stay here tonight? I promise I won’t cause trouble. I just need a good night’s sleep before I go looking for my friends. They might be hurt.”
I haven’t called Sun Yi “Mom” in … ever? I’m not sure if I did as a little kid, but certainly as the years went on and Mark’s abuse got worse, I made a conscious effort to distance myself from any relation to the person who brought that monster into my life, who ignored my suffering and accused me of lying.
She lets go with a shy smile, and I heave a sigh of relief as she nods agreement.
“You can stay as long as you like.”
With that settled, I follow Sun Yi around as she gathers pillows and blankets and towels and God knows what else to get me ready for the night. I don’t know why she’s doing this; if memory serves, Sun Yi always kept the guest room and spare bathroom stocked to the gills in the event we had company, and I doubt much about that has changed in the past ten years. Sure enough, the extra supplies prove to be overkill once she’s done. I have enough bed coverings for a nuclear winter, enough towels for the end of the universe, and enough shampoo to stock the next Burrow for a couple years.
