Page 15 of Charity's Torment

“Let’s go in calm. If he doesn’t cooperate, then we come back at night. Sound good?”

“Deal.”

My phone chimed. I groaned. “I gotta take this. Say nothing; I don’t want to explain away your voice.” I swiped the green button. “Hi, Mom.”

“Have you heard from him yet?”

“I talked to him on the phone.” I tapped. “He said that he and his friend got into a tiff. He’s fine.”

Adding one more lie to the mix was easy for me to justify. I couldn’t risk her involving Dad now. If this got bloody—which it will—I don’t want to be admittedly out searching for him. It could immediately implicate me.

My mother sighed, then chuckled nervously. “That’s a relief. I knew you could get to the bottom of it, Dear. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Max looked at me and frowned. He didn’t understand why I was lying.

“How did it go with Christopher?”

It was my turn to frown. “Awful. Where do you find these men, Mom? He’s a vagabond.”

“Oh, hush now. He is a sweet man with good morals.” I rolled my eyes. As if she knew that I needed men in my life with morals, much less good ones. “I talked to him, he said you forgot to give him your number, so I gave it to him.” I took my phone from my ear, screamed silently, and put it back up so I could hear the ridiculousness come from her mouth. “That sounds nice, right?”

“What does?”

“Aren’t you listening? He wants to take you to the carnival in a few weeks.”

I banged my head on the headrest until I felt my brain bounce against my skull. “Mom. You know I detest clowns. Why would you agree to that?” Clowns were scarier than the dark demons that danced through my head daily.

Max glared out the window, visibly annoyed.

“Oh, I forgot. Well, now that he has your number, you two can set the date and time,” she said.

“Yep, that’s perfect, Mom,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” I hung up and tossed my phone to the floor.

“You’re afraid of clowns?” Max laughed.

I ran my hands through my hair and messed it up. “If you breathe a word of it, I’m going to hurt you.”

“Promises. Promises,” he said.

I smirked, letting his humor put a crack in my irritation. “She’s fucking controlling my life, and I haven’t lived under her roof for years!”

“We might just have to do something about that.”

“What is that supposed to mean, Max? My family is off-limits.” Why would he dare to threaten them?

“That’s not what I meant. I’ll talk to Nico.”

Adrenaline and resentment coursed through my veins. I was ready to hurt someone. It wasn’t fun feeling like you didn’t have control over your life. I came to accept the lack of control with Luca and his family. But how do I tell my mom to respectfully fuck off?

Chapter 5

“Let me go in alone. Hehasto know who you are. I don’t want to spook him.”

Max ran his tattooed fingers through his cropped hair and blew out a breath, mulling over my idea. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It is. You know I can handle myself. Luca is just being weirdly protective.”

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