Page 59 of Seducer

“Why? You’re seriously asking me why?” I tried to tell myself that he was just a kid, especially when he grabbed the milk carton from the refrigerator, not bothering with a glass. Only he wasn’t. He was a grown man about to turn twenty-two. His big sister couldn’t protect him any longer like I used to be able to do.

“Yeah, why?”

“Because I had to spend my night off in a police station surrounded by criminals, forced to call a bail bondsmen so I could bail you out of jail because you and your buddy got caught doing something… outrageous.” I could barely spit out the words, I was so furious with him.

“You’re overreacting just like you always do. It was harmless.” He returned to the pittance of what I called a dining room, staring down at the collection of bills.

“Yeah? Is that why Mr. Jarvis decided to press charges? Is that why he tossed you out of school? What if he doesn’t let you back in? Have you thought of that? Three months until graduation and you maybe fucked it all up. My God. Do you know what that will mean for you?”

He barely glanced in my direction and shrugged. “So what? I’ll get a job. What’s this shit?” He held up a portion of the stack of mail and I almost snapped right then and there.

“Bills. What do you think? Oh, right. You don’t pay them. I do. You don’t have a job. I do. Two of them.” God, I’d never been so mean to him in my life. But the hospital was threatening to take me to court. I already had so many dings on my credit record I’d never be able to buy a car or a house. Yeah, right. A house. In my dreams.

“Like I said, I’ll get a job. I’ll help you pay this stuff.”

This stuff. When he’d almost needed his leg amputated because of a hockey injury of all things, I’d managed to contact the best orthopedic surgeon in the business, convincing him to take a look at Kyle’s leg. I’d whittled down the amount, but with shitty insurance at the time, things had quickly gotten out of hand.

I was close to tears and fisted my hands against my eyes to keep from exploding. I was tired from life, not just the incident the night before or the sleepless nights I’d gotten for two years after our parents were… after they’d died. He’d taken the brunt of the horrible time in our lives, turning his sadness inward when I’d had to try to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table.

I was so used to working two jobs so he could have a chance at a normal life I didn’t know any other way.

“A job? You’ll get a job? Just like that?” I asked, breathless from attempting to control my emotions.

“Yep. Why not? It’s easy.” He left the milk on the table, grabbing an apple from the bowl. I’d tried so hard to make the little apartment special, but I just couldn’t do it any longer.

Easy.

The single word hit me harder than any nasty retort he’d issued over the years, worse than what any man had said to me at the club. It was as if my own brother, the kid I’d kept from going into foster care by lying about my age, even forging documents and running as far away from our lives as possible didn’t care. At all.

He grabbed my notebook and it was all I could do not to slap the kid and I’d never laid a hand on him. That wasn’t me.

“The Obsidian Society?” he asked.

“What about it? That’s my private stuff.”

“Whew. You’re interested?”

His eyes held concern. “Yes. No. Maybe. Why do you care?”

“That’s dangerous shit. Have you played Dark Nights?”

“Not really, have you?”

“Sure, lots of times,” Kyle admitted.

“How do you know about the Obsidian Society?” I folded my arms, trying to allow my anger to slide into nonexistence.

He shrugged as he did half the time we had a conversation. “A buddy of mine. His dad applied as a contestant. I guess men and woman can apply. My buddy said the shit was brutal and he’s not supposed to be talking about it. Like they chased his dad naked through a forest and shit. That kind of crap. They had masks on too. You know, the glow in the dark kind you see at Halloween?” He was laughing, acting as if his buddy was nuts.

I was intrigued.

“What? That’s not possible,” I told him. Suddenly, all my thoughts about masks reared back into the forefront of my mind.

“I dunno. My buddy doesn’t lie. I guess his dad was pretty freaked. Needless to say, he didn’t win the competition. I hope you’re not considering that shit. You’ll never make it past the first test. Hell, I can’t get there. Too brutal, sis. Anyway, I’ll get a job and get these bills paid within a couple months.” He left the milk right where it was and headed to his room.

Rage tore through me as it had never done before. I slammed my fist against the wall with enough force that a picture was pitched to the floor.

Shocked, he spun around, completely unused to seeing me this way. I was the quiet one, the voice of reason. I’d been the one to listen to his rants over the years, nightmares that had plagued him to the point I’d fought to get him into seeing a psychiatrist.Another reason I needed my job at the Blackwell Group. The fucking insurance.

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