Page 161 of Desperate Actions

Her eyes widen in horror.

“No! We are not talking about my brother’seggplant emoji. No way. No how. Absolutely not ever.”

She’s making gagging noises, waving her hands in front of her face like she’s physically repelling the thought. I burst into hysterical laughter, grabbing my purse and following her to the front door.

But the second I open it, the laughter dies in my throat.

Santos is standing there.

Waiting.

“Oh hey, I was going to drive—” Andrea starts, but Santos cuts her off.

“Mr. Ramirez asked me to escort you ladies,” he says smoothly, his smile even, his posture relaxed. “So you don’t have to worry about parking or sticking to a one-drink rule.”

Andrea shrugs, distracted. “Yeah, my brother can be annoyingly right at times. Fine, you can drive.”

She’s checking her phone, half-paying attention, so she doesn’t see the way my shoulders stiffen.

Something feels off.

I can’t pinpoint why, but a strange unease curls around my spine.

Still, I shake it off and slide into the SUV after Andrea.

She’s busy typing away, her screen lighting up her face, while I absently play with the strap of my purse.

“Good news,” she says a few minutes later. “Shelly and Ono are in town at that Jamaican restaurant meeting his cousin, and they’re going to join us for dessert.”

I force a smile. “Ooh, okay.”

But my stomach twists.

The car is moving. The partition is up, blocking us from Santos.

And then—I feel it.

A wrongness.

A subtle, creeping danger curling its fingers around me.

Like my body is aware we’re not headed the right way before my brain can figure it out.

I look out the window and I frown.

I’ve never been to this place before, but when Andrea rattled off the name, I looked it up. Because I’m that girl.

The one who likes to understand things.

Because for so long I thought I was incapable of learning, of reading.

But I know better now. And my curiosity is great.

So yeah, I am the girl who likes to look things up.

The one who enjoys learning new things. Even if it’s just how to get to a bar from my new home.

So, when Andrea mentioned where we were going, I used one of the newest additions to ReadEase—my dev team’s latest prototype—a dyslexia-friendly maps app with high-contrast visuals and real-time voice navigation.

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