Page 42 of Wandering in Darkness
He looks pained, and I see the way his hand tightens on the car door. “I can’t.”
“Then I’m never speaking to you again.”
“I understand,” he says.
Which pisses me off.
Whatever it is that’s going on, he’s obviously trying to protect me from it. It’s the only reason he’d willingly agree to never speak to me again. He’d sacrifice his ass for me, but I don’t need a knight to come save me. I’ve only ever needed myself. Since I was old enough to walk, I quickly learned that I was the only one who would make sure I could keep moving forward.
The photograph of Devon Jefferson tells me why he’s here.
There’s something about what happened a year and a half ago that he doesn’t want me to know about. Something that has to deal with Ned and his little operation.
And I’m going to find out what.
EIGHT
FELIX
“So… what are your thoughts on letting us go?” I ask Ned, who is still sitting behind his desk. After spending some time alone in a room, we’ve been brought back into his office for some reason… I’m not quite sure why just yet, but I’ll get to the bottom of it.
“Don’t have any of those thoughts,” Ned admits.
“None at all? You sure? I’ve heard that I can be quite persuasive. And if you don’t like a persuasive kind of guy, I’ve heard that I can be quite annoying. And if you don’t like an annoying?—”
“What is its name?” he asks.
“This is Lane,” I say, well aware he wasn’t speaking about Lane.
The man glowers at me. “No. The pig.”
“Ohhhhh. Let me tell you the grand story about how I acquired the mini Brigadier Oinksalot, also known as Brigs. There I was, abducted by this Croc man as the woman he workedfor stalked toward us in her mighty pajamas, and in her hands was the great and powerful Brigadier Oinksalot.”
“She was carrying this thing around?” he asks, more than a little impressed, which I think is a bit harsh.
“It grew significantly since then,” Lane says.
I glower at him. “Notsignificantly. Just a little. He’s still a baby.”
“Fuck. I’d hate to see how big he’ll be when he’s full grown, then,” Ned says.
“Both of you are ruining my story,” I decide.
“What I got out of your story is that this isn’t the first time you’ve been held hostage and that you stole the pig and have some odd misconception that he’s supposed to be small.” Ned stares at Brigs before reaching back and grabbing an apple. He bites off a piece and holds it out to Brigs, who hurries over to accept it.
“How much you want for him?”
“You could never—” I start.
“I’d sell him for like a thousand bucks,” Lane says.
“A bit steep,” Ned muses.
“NO! Lane! We’ve talked about this! The only person in our family we’re willing to trade for money is you, and that’s only when I get to watch you dance in your thong and I pay for it,” I remind him.
Ned is staring at me, and I can’t quite tell whether it’s a “That’s a fantastic idea” stare or a “What the absolute fuck” stare. Really, I just need to keep making him feel like I’m not concerning in the slightest.
“You want to see a neat trick I taught him?”
