Page 38 of Soul Bound

Pruitt grins. “I lucked out on that one. I had a ghost do it for me. Now your mother can’t blame me for it breaking into a million pieces.” She pats his shoulder. “I already ordered a new one.”

“Which I will be giving you money for,” Winslow promises.

“You don’t have to do that,” Pruitt assures her.

Winslow waves her off. “I just stole millions of dollars from my parents, paying for a new light fixture that is only broken because I showed up here, it’s not a big deal.”

“How did you steal millions of dollars?” Ryker looks at her warily, like she’s not only an intruder in his house but now also a bank robber.

“Well,Ididn’t do it. I have a hacker friend. He did it. Don’t worry, we’ve done this before, he’s impossible to catch.” She shrugs off his concern. “We always donate a ton of it to charities. Specifically, organizations that help with homeless youth. They helped us when we needed them, and we want to make it possible to help more kids who are living on the streets. And it’s a big fuck you to my parents, so that always makes it more fun.”

“You were homeless?” Ransom asks, the dopey smile that had been on his face fades.

“Trust me when I say I was safer living in shelters and with friends in New York than I was when I was living at home.” She doesn’t explain further, none of us push for answers.

“Pru says you went to meet with Esme today, did she help you find any answers?” Ryker asks.

I nod, “You could say that. We learned a lot more than I thought we were going to. I brought her to Esme to see if she could help us find the baby, but also to see if she could give us answers as to why Winslow can see spirits…” I trail off. “Turns out, she’s Esme’s niece.”

The room falls deathly silent and every head in the room turns to look at Winslow. She shifts in her boots, uncomfortable with all the attention on her.

“Esme’s niece?” Remi repeats.

“How do we know this? Did we confirm it?” Ryker questions. Again, with his damn trust issues.

“Yeah she did the witch equivalent of a23 and MeDNA test,” Winslow says. “On top of everything, I’m also a witch so that’sfun.” The tone of her voice says it’s anything but fun.

“Dude, you fucked up Esme’s niece.” Ransom looks to Ryker, “You’re in so much trouble. She might turn you into a toad.”

* * *

I’m pacingback and forth in front of the fireplace the next morning. I can’t seem to sit still. Ransom sits on the couch in front of me eating his second bowl of cereal and Ryker is working on his laptop going through some information Sawyer had sent over about a possible rogue sighting in Wyoming. The two of them never stop working, I swear. Ryker barely made it through his honeymoon without working, I heard Pru threatened to break his laptop in half if he didn’t put it away.

“Why are you pacing?” Ransom asks, his mouth full of food still.

“I don’t know.”

“What’s wrong with you lately? You’re acting all kinds of weird. I mean, since when do you attack your brother? I get that Ryker was hurting her, but you’re usually the first one to try and have a rational conversation before throwing down. Is it because you’ve been doing shifter fight club? Have you turned into a violent rage monster?”

That gets Ryker’s attention. His head snaps up from looking at his screen and his eyes pierce into me, “Fight club?”

“Pru didn’t tell you he’s been going to Canada and kicking ass in underground shifter street fighting?Well…I don’t know about kicking ass so much since he did show up here last night with the shit kicked out ofhim.”

I glare at my twin. “That didn’t happen during a fight. I was ambushed in the parking lot and hit repeatedly with a baseball bat.”

“How is that any better?” Ryker snaps.

I shrug. “It’s not. Just wanted to make it clear that I won the fight. Made like eight hundred bucks too.”

“You’re a fucking idiot, I can get behind you moving out of Mom and Dad’s place. I can even understand why you’re taking time off college, but I can’t support you fighting for money. You don’t even need the money. So why do it?”

It’s true, I don’t need the money. My grandfather had been a huge investor in oil and cattle and made a massive fortune. He left his money to my siblings and me when he died. I don't need a degree, I will never have to work a day in my life if I don't want to. Before the incident with Thalia, I had been determined to get a degree and get a real job, but now? I can’t find the energy to give a shit about any of that.

I ignore him and look at the time on my phone for the fifth time and check to see if Winslow has responded to my message yet. But there’s still nothing from her.

Remington and Pruitt had volunteered to take her to the mall a couple of towns over so she can get some real clothes and belongings. She was running to the PO box her hacker friend had set up for her beforehand so she could access the money she had ‘liberated’from her parents.

I had offered to take her myself, but my sister and Pru had insisted they were going to take her. Since learning she’s Esme’s niece, they are determined to become friends with her. Which is exactly what I thought was going to happen, but I’m still not thrilled Winslow chose to go with them rather than go with me.

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