Page 36 of Liar & Champion
She leaned her head against my shoulder. My arm was as good as it was going to get. We should settle down in Vegas so she could start classes and I could get to work. The season was coming, and I’d been shut down for months that I had to make up. But I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to leave this little oasis of simplicity and face the rest of the world. But the season was starting soon. Next week. How had our time here gone by so quickly?
“Do you want to go tomorrow?” I asked.
Her breath caught for a moment. She’d really gotten to feel safe here. Good. She looked up at me, and for a second I saw the haunting fear before it was eclipsed by her smile. “That’s probably a good thing. I’ll need to have my aunt send me my stuff. I don’t have supplies for longer than a few weeks.”
“I don’t think you should be in contact with your aunt for awhile.”
“I have to tell her where I am,” she said, sitting up to look at me, the firelight playing over her beautiful face. So beautiful without the slightest touch of cosmetics.
“Of course, but I can get you whatever you need.”
She smiled slightly. “I’m sentimental. If I’m going to live in Las Vegas at your house for any amount of time, I’ll need my teddy bears and crocheted doilies.”
“Seriously?” I wasn’t going to keep her from her only family, even if it was dangerous, but I didn’t like it.
She poked me with her forefinger. “I have things I keep with me. Besides that, she will send care packages while I’m away, like she did while I was at boarding school. Her care packages were the envy of everyone on my floor. Don’t worry about her being traced. She’s very resourceful when it comes to that kind of thing.”
And if Dupre did find her, I’d be right there to enjoy the encounter. “I’m glad to hear it. You must take after her. What happened to your parents?”
She was quiet for a long time. “My mom died when I was too young to remember, and my dad died when I was fifteen. There was a fire in his lab. He got all the patients out, but he didn’t make it. My mom was in a car accident.” Her voice was blank when she said that. She didn’t cry, didn’t smile, but said it like she was talking about a newspaper article she’d read recently. Pain. She’d clearly never gotten over either death.
I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry. You don’t like to talk about it.” Had I ever said something so obvious?
She finally looked at me with a crooked smile that I wanted to kiss. I’d wanted to kiss her often in the last few days, but that smile was the most tempting, so I could make her forget her bad memories, protect her from them.
“Your turn. What happened to your parents to make you run away and change your last name? Wasn’t there a scandal about your dad the senator and a secretary?”
What could I tell her that would help her understand what she was getting into without scaring her away? “The senator isn’t my birth father. I always wondered why Howard was so polite to me, like I was one of his constituents, but then I met my birth dad, and that cleared things up. My mother had the connections to get Harold where he wanted to be, and I suppose that’s all he wanted. Their marriage was civilized enough until he stopped keeping his philandering behind closed doors. He taught me how to fish, and he’s a pleasant enough person, but he never tried to be a father to me, and my mother raised me to be the next great manipulator of politicians and judges. I know so many different ways to subtly blackmail someone. I find it slipping into my work sometimes, manipulation just to make things easier, to keep everyone getting along, but I hate it. I don’t want any part of that world. I hope that you don’t want a senator for a husband, because I’m not that guy.” Was that clear enough?
She stared at me, lips parted, eyes brilliant in the dancing firelight. “Wow. So you left and proved your virtue by getting a super-villain name.” Her lips curved in a smile and she put her hand in my arm. “The more I get to know you, the more I like you. I do not want to be a senator’s anything. I had one hit on me once when I was fourteen. That was creepy. No, I like you much better in home health care and running self-defense classes onthe side. Hm. You should have a third job, though, just to fit the three-job college role.”
“I also run a group of…” What could I call the fighters and racers plus all the tech people if she really didn’t know? “It’s hard to explain.” Particularly if I left out the violent parts.
“You have a crew? Are you a gang?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Dancers?”
“No. Trix is a mechanic. Jezebel does animal handling. Dirk is the tech guy who sets up shows, and Pinkie is the secretary.”
She smiled. “You’re like extras, backstage crews for shows? What kind of shows do you do? Circus? Magic?”
“A little bit of everything.”
“A little bit of everything? Well that does narrow it down. How exciting. Do you get discounted tickets?”
“Yes. I do get free tickets to the shows I put on.” Because they were mine.
“That’s so cool. Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t know me. I could be a psycho killer for all you know.”
I took a deep breath and leaned over to gaze into her eyes. “Are you a psycho killer?”
She gave me a reluctant smile and traced my eyebrows. “Yes.”
“And so honest. Can I kiss you?”
A look of surprised delight washed over her face, but she hesitated, pursing her lips like she was thinking about it. I’d put the possibility out of my head ever since the shower, but if we were leaving tomorrow, this would be my last chance to really enjoy her here before the rest of the world intruded. How long could we be in Vegas before the truth about me came out? Hopefully she’d deal with it well enough. Maybe she’d even appreciate my position the better to protect her.
