Page 70 of Getting It Twisted

I squeeze my hand into my back pocket and fish up the tightly packed roll of bills.

Joshua’s hollow-set eyes light up when I pack them into his palm. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? I started thinking you were gonna dupe me again.”

“Dupe you how?” I ask in an innocent tone, already bored of the situation.

Joshua shrugs as he counts the money. “I don’t know. Disappear again. Ride off into the sunset with your boy toy Hastings.”

Daniel crosses his arms. “Are we done here?”

Joshua gives me a look, not quite a smile. “Now that the nasty business is out of the way, why don’t you guys stay for a bit?”

“Here?” I glance around the room. My eyes fix on the sunken leather couch, where a girl is snorting coke off an ancient-looking porn mag. She looks barely legal. Beside her sits one of the bikers, maybe even the president. A gun glimmers on the table in front of him. “No, thanks.”

“Well, if you ever wanna party, you know where to go,” Joshua says. “Or if you’re just looking to make some friends.”

I know exactly what he means by “friends.” Can see it all play out like a movie in my mind. Instead of the girl, it’s me on that couch, drunk and high out of my mind, kneeling between someone’s legs, sucking dick for another fix. If Daniel hadn’t been part of my life, that’s probably where I would’ve ended up.

Bleak, but I’ve been through worse.

Daniel puts a hand on the small of my back. “We’re not interested.”

Joshua walks up to me, brushes a strand of hair from my neck, and smirks as he reveals my hickey.

“Don’t touch him,” Daniel growls.

Joshua backs away. “Do you know yet?”

“Know what?”

Joshua nods to me. “About the skeletons he’s hiding in the closet.”

A chill runs down my spine.

“Would explain a lot, wouldn’t it?” Joshua continues. “Who knows what went on out there?”

Daniel steps in front of me, fists clenched. “What are you saying?”

I’d find the edge to his voice hot as fuck if my heart weren’t pounding so damn hard. Joshua doesn’t know . . . does he? No, there’s no way, but he’ll give Daniel ideas, and that’s bad enough.

“Daniel, let’s go,” I say, grabbing his arm.

Joshua’s ugly laugh echoes behind us. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

As we pass the hallway and into the main room, Daniel hisses into my ear, “What was that about?”

“What?” My pulse is still through the roof, but I work to keep my voice steady and my face a mask of arrogance.

“That stuff he said. About skeletons or whatever.”

I swallow against the knot in my throat. The noises from the party are suddenly overwhelming. “You’ve heard about the rumors, right? That my grandpa is also my pa.”

“Is that what he meant?”

“Meth heads, man,” I say with a stiff shrug. “Be spinning all sorts of tales. Don’t read into it too much.”

“Is it true?”

“Come on, I thought I told you. Grandpa used to slap my mom around, sure, but he never did anything like that. She got knocked up in LA.”

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