Page 62 of Trig

“And Cisco?” I ask.

“Volunteered. He’s already part of a bigger plan for the greater good. It’s too late to step out.”

I march forward and grab him by his shirt collar, but right as I do, I hear footsteps coming down the hallway. I quickly release him and step back. He takes a deep breath of air and begins to adjust his clothing as we stare each other down.

“What the hell happened here?” Mya says as she looks at all the broken pictures and several small holes in the walls. Her eyes shoot to the entryway table that is now damaged.

“Earthquake,” I say

“Mm-hmm. Earthquake,” Oscar confirms.

“Righhhhht. Okay. Well. It must have been one hell of an earthquake because both of you are bleeding.” She pauses. “Oscar, I see you met my dad.”

Oscar wipes the blood away from his eyebrow. I wipe the blood away from my pulsating bottom lip.

“Yeah. We were just getting acquainted. It is so nice to meet you. I’m sorry, what was your name?”

Oscar steps over broken glass and then leans into me with his hand out again. This time I accept it only because Mya is here. Even though she has seen glimpses, the father in me never wants her to see the full monster within me. I bottle the beast back up.

“You can call me Mr. Krackle,” I say through my teeth, squeezing his hand.

We’re now in a stare-off where no one is backing down.

“Dad! Let go! His hand,” Mya snaps.

I lighten my grip on him. Oscar yanks his hand away and turns toward Mya like nothing, as if we didn’t just try to quietly kill each other a minute ago.

“I like the dress. You look beautiful.”

She blushes. I have never in all these years seen this girl blush. She’s an icicle around guys. She gets nauseous when watching romance movies. She hates the idea of love and relationships. Here she is fiddling with her hair and grinning. She likes him. This is new, and because it’s him, I hate it.

“Are you hungry?” she asks.

He looks at her in the most inappropriate way.

“Starving,” he finally says, still eyeing her like she is prey.

I exhale in frustration.

“You got one more time and I swear to God, I’ll measure you to see if you’ll fit in my freezer.” I snap.

They both look down in embarrassment. I motion to the dining room. Mya starts to lead the way as he walks behind her. I follow behind him almost on the heels of his feet. I make a quick right and snatch him by the back of his neck into a guest room. Once inside, he pulls away, finally triggered.

“You have one more time to put your hands on me and I’ll stuff your ass in your own freezer. No measurements…sir.”

I’m not sure why adding sir at the end lightened the disrespect, but it did. I ignored it.

“What the fuck do you mean, Cisco’s part of a bigger plan?”

He looks at me and then looks away while rubbing the back of his neck.

“There’s a saying here. It goes…El poder no es ninguna bendición en sí mismo, excepto cuando se utiliza para proteger a los inocentes.”

“I don’t understand Spanish.”

“You should probably learn,” he says. “How else would you get by?”

“Death is silent. It speaks no language.”

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