Page 56 of Uncontrolled

“Fuck off, Quinn!” Keeley stumbles over the swear as if not quite used to it and judging from the surprise on Quinn’s face, I’m right.

“Kiss your mother with that mouth?” he says.

Keeley pales, save for those bright, burning spots on her cheeks. Her gaze falls to the slushie she’s holding as the spoon slowly lowers into the cup. Beside me on the bench, Nico isn’t scribbling in her notebook anymore. Instead, she’s staring at Quinn in horror. I see the moment he catches her reaction.

“Oh, Keeley, damn it,” he says. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t—I didn’t—”

Zen shifts from her position, leaning against the fence along the river. Even she looks stunned.

What the hell happened to Keeley’s mom? I wonder. Those wounds are still fresh enough that I don’t dare ask. Instead, I shoot Zen a questioning glance. If anyone’s going to fill me in, I figure it’ll be her, but her attention’s caught on what’s transpiring between Keeley and Quinn.

Keeley lifts her forced smile to him. “It’s fine,” she says, squinting against the sun. “It’s just a saying.”

Quinn shakes his head. “I didn’t—”

“I know you didn’t.” Her attention dips pointedly in my direction and then drops to her cup again. “Can we forget it, please?”

We’re all pretending we don’t see her tears. Everyone settles into an awkward silence. I wait for one of them to break it, say something, anything, while Nico and Quinn shoot each other increasingly horrified looks. No one moves.

Standing, I sling an arm around Keeley and tug her against me in a side hug. For a long moment, my chin rests against the crown of her head, the only comfort I know how to offer. Finally, I give her a hard double pat with my palm. “You good?” I ask as I dig into my snow cone again.

She heaves a cleansing sigh. “Yeah,” she says.

Her voice breaks on the single word. It’s enough that I decide to do what she asked and move everyone on to a different topic.

“So,” I say as I spin toward Nico. I’m hoping Quinn’s faux pas with whatever happened to Keeley’s mom will lower their guards. “The dude you all sold? Sounds like there was significant money paid for him.” If I can learn anything about the buyer, it’ll help me track down Jason Jourdain. Give me somewhere to start, I think. Tell me the whole story, who bought him, where they took him. I pause as if considering what I just said. “Do you have a way to reach him for a round two?”

Nico balks. “Why did you ask that?”

She turns toward Keeley, who already has her hands thrown into the air to declare her innocence.

I’m not sure what I’ve stumbled onto here. “I might be interested in a side hustle,” I say, trying to sound casual.

Nico draws a breath and then her attention shifts.

When I follow her sightline, her brother, East, is making his way toward us. He’s carrying two of the same snow cone cups, one for him and one for Nico. She takes it without comment and dives in.

East gives me a once over where I’m standing, my arm encircling Keeley. “Still around, eh?” he says.

He’s the only one of the five still treating me with open hostility. I grin as if his attitude is a joke I’m in on. No use making enemies.

“Down, Brother Mine,” Nico says, and I can’t help my cringe.

I don’t get these two. Maybe it’s a twin thing. They’re infinitely more unnerving together. Nico alone is a tolerable powerhouse of questions. Her brother is a meathead. Half the time I think with Nico’s nod of approval he’d beat the same answers from me that she’s carefully extracting. The brains and muscle cliché doesn’t settle right.

East raises his lip in a barely-veiled sneer that shifts from me to Keeley, and I feel her tense at my side. I tighten my grip and give her a friendly jostle just to piss him off a little extra before I release her. At least the threatening tears seem to have disappeared.

“So the side hustle,” I say, picking up the conversation I was leading Nico into before her brother showed. “Who did you sell the resurrectionist to?”

“Did you find out anything about the boy?” Keeley asks. “The one Talia was with when they picked up Allie the other night and left you behind?”

I’m not sure if Keeley called me out on purpose, but the damage is done. I could take a risk, feed them lies, and hope they don’t discover them before I sniff out the location of the missing resurrectionist.

I watch them as I feign confusion. From East’s expression he wants to knock some sense into me. The others don’t react in any real way.

Damn it.

“We were talking about your scientist guy having more than a single source for the blood,” I push.

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