Page 22 of Violet Spark
Maybe he was bluffing. He had to be bluffing. That made more sense. Scare the stupid freezie girl into giving up the only piece of evidence proving that their gloves were dangerous and total crap.
And okay, yeah, he had me scared. But I wasn’t stupid.
I shrugged again. Lips sealed. Gloves mine. At least until I got some sort of check.
He sighed, fished around an inside pocket of his suit, produced a card, and held it out to me.
I took it. Printed on the crisp white cardstock was the name Raymon Dane and a phone number. No company name.
“Where did you say you were from again?” I asked. Because I think I’d made some assumptions. And everyone knew that assumptions made anassout of, well, just me apparently.
“I didn’t say,” he told me. “When you’re ready to talk, and I hope it’s soon, give me a call.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
WAITING JUST LONG ENOUGHfor his sleek black sedan to pull into traffic, I rushed back inside the Desert Freeze to grab my bag. “I’m going home sick. Rique, you’re on.”
I had to find out if I’d been robbed. And if Mom was okay. Maybe not in that order.
I didn’t wait for an answer, and Iwasfeeling sick again. My heart was racing, my skin damp and clammy. The back of my hand tingled. Obviously, the purple stuff that had made me so green before wasn’t completely out of my system. Oh God, I didn’t want to hurl anymore.
On the drive home, my mind kept going over the questions BSG—the oh so cryptic and craptastic Raymon Dane—had asked me. He wanted the explodey glove. He thought Brayden had souped it up somehow. And that stuff about Brayden’s place being ransacked…?
Why the focus on Brayden…unless he wasn’tjusta nerdy tech drone?
Wanted in connection with another matter?What did that even mean? Maybe Brayden was extra smart and worked with extra cool stuff?
Good for him, but Braydenhadn’tdone any enhancements to my gloves. That much I knew.
Although…Brayden had been acting funny. Maybe, possibly, his drama wasn’t, you know, about me. Maybe he had some evil corporation asshole threatening him too.
Bursting back into my house, I shouted for my mom…just as she came around the corner from the kitchen. “Imogen?”
I skidded to a stop. “You okay?”
She was dressed in jeans and a blouse that matched her cute peach lipstick…so a good day. At least so far. PT did that for her.
“Feeling fine. What’s the matter with you?”
I swallowed hard as I thought fast. She seemed fine. The house looked fine, needed more dusting, but definitely not looted. Maybe Dane had been bluffing.
“I, uh, forgot my phone,” I said. “I just came back to grab it. I’m on my break.”
“You’ve been avoiding me lately.” She took a step toward me, reaching out. “Honey, I’m worried. What’s going on?”
I avoided her grasp. “I’m okay, Mom. Don’t worry so much.” But because Dane had scared the crap out of me, I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as I passed by her to get to my room.
And then went cold and sick again.
All my gaming stuffwasgone. Cords, headset, everything. Dane had been in and out like a ghost. He’d left the scorch hole on the wall and the ceiling though.
I glanced sidelong at my bed but didn’t look under the mattress to see if the gloves were there. Was there some kind of creepy surveillance hidden in my room? Was he watching me right now?
Paranoid much? Yeah, much.
I should just give the gloves to him. This level of fear was not worth calling his bluff. Not after he’d broken into my house. I had my mom to think about.
If I gave him the gloves, he’d forget about me, the stupid freezie girl. Like, I wasn’t worth the effort of offing me, right? I was nobody. No voice. No powerful friends.
