Page 18 of Fire Fight

Cadence’s lips press hard together, her forehead wrinkling in a frown before she glances at me. Pity hangs in her eyes and a rush of fury burns through me, leaving me breathless.

I’m not the one who needs pity.

But she fires in a different direction. “I think I saw you swimming yesterday. You were in the bay opposite, but you didn’t make it to the platform.”

“There were jet skis.”

“Those things are a nuisance,” my father agrees, looking happy to have found a mutual enemy. “I tried to get an ordinance to keep them out of the bay altogether, but it didn’t pass.” He glowers at the memory, the first time I’ve seen obvious hints of my lineage in his face.

“If you want to go today, I could ask Gretchen,” Cadence says in a shy voice I’ve never heard her use before. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to lock the jet skis away if she knows you’ll be out there.”

“What’s this?” My father jumps at the subtext. “You’ve got an admirer?”

“Gretchen’s a vapid girl with a TikTok obsession and a body shaped like a twig.”

Cadence launches into a spirited defence, showing me the girl I knew at Alabaster High. “At least she’s friendly.”

“For now,” I scoff. “Wait a few weeks. Once the narcissistic slut gets what she’s after, she’ll drop you like a hot potato.”

“Blaine!”

My temper surges, red filming my vision. A drug dealer and a whore sit opposite me, butI’mthe one he has a problem with.

With steady breaths, I wrangle it into submission. My three-month stint at camp was a horror show as far as compassion or processing emotions, but it taught me a fantastic lesson on how to mask.

I force a placid smile onto my face. “Sorry. Just trying to warn you of the things I learned the hard way, but you’rewelcome to discover the horrors of the school hierarchy all by yourself.”

A statement that mollifies him. “There are ways to do that without resorting to insults.” Then his gaze returns to Cadence. “But I’m sure his heart is in the right place. Maybe you should be careful around this girl.”

“You’re right,” I say. The magic words that always bring a light to the old man’s face. “I should’ve found a better way to word it.”

“There you go.” He checks the clock on the far wall. “But I need to run.”

Raelene frowns in surprise. “I thought you were spending the day with us?”

He pecks her on the lips, then cups her face, letting it stretch for an uncomfortably long time before straightening. “I said I have the day away from the office. There’re still things I need to do, but I’ll be back this afternoon.”

Her expression clears and I won’t be the one to tell her when he returns, it’ll just be to disappear into his home office, catching up on his work from there.

“I’ll see you later.” He gives my shoulder a firm squeeze on the way past, the closest he ever gets to a father-son moment.

Cadence rises to give her mother a one-armed hug. “Did you take your meds?”

“Oh. They’re in…” Raelene waves vaguely at a cupboard, and I sit back, watching as Cadence takes them out, handing today’s allocation to her, then using an organiser to sort out her dosage for the week.

Finished, she collects her empty cup from the table and glances around, looking for a place to put it.

“Just leave it on the side.” I move beside her, banging mine down on the bench as a demonstration. “The housekeeper will clean it away.”

“Okay.” She gives her mum a cautious glance, then whispers, “Can I… Can I talk to you, privately?”

Finally. Some sign of recognition for last night’s efforts. “Sure. I’m going down to the beach. We can talk there.”

Her face drains of colour, possibly thinking of the steep climb. “Not the beach.”

“Then, no.”

She follows me up the stairs, regardless. From the top, I spin and lunge towards her, laughing as she gives a half scream and nearly falls, gripping the railing for dear life.

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