Page 39 of Violet Spark
Looked like a spy, walked like a spy…prolly a spy.
“I know I’ve made some mistakes,” Mom said. “But I just want you to have more opportunities than I had.”
“Oh, I’m making all new mistakes.” Except in the real world I didn’t have multiple lives. Just this one. And only one mom.
I had to protect her.
So I had to decide who to trust. Jacksalot was too far away, might be in on it, and even if he wasn’t, he probably wouldn’t believe me. Fuuuuuck. I needed a local, upper-level mage to help me, and it seemed like I had only two options: Dane, who I’d found at the site of Brayden’s murder and who was a grade-A asshole, or Daddy Alling, who had cookies and wanted to give me a job.
I don’t like nice people. I don’t trust their toothy smiles.
That left me with the asshole.
But what if Dane wanted to cart me away to be dissected in his Langley shadow division’s basement?
“Of course you’re going to make mistakes,” Mom said in her tough-love voice. “You’re going to fall down sometimes. It’s my job to make sure that you keep getting up. Next semester you go back.”
“Sure,” I said. But even if she could walk around the block on her own by then, I had this other little purple problem. There was no going back. Not ever.
“Promise me.”
“I will go back to school for the fall semester.” It was my first real lie, and it sounded like it. I wasn’t trying that hard.
“Or I’m kicking you out of the house.”
Yeah, it had sounded like a lie to her too.
I didn’t say anything. All the words inside me were mean—and scared.
Here I was trying to protect her, but she was living in fantasyland, while I was in the real world. Of the two of us, she was the one unplugged from reality.
The sidewalk ahead split, and another man—no dog, no sport bag—sauntered up to intersect with my sidewalk. He wore a leather jacket, under which I could easily imagine a holster and a gun. We passed each other at the X in the sidewalk.
Maybe Dane had sent someone to protect me, or maybe he was waiting at my house right now fingering a bullet with my name on it.
I clutched my mom tighter. “Time to go.”
We might be fighting, but she belonged to me. They couldn’t have her.
By the time we got home, my car was running on fumes. And Dane wasn’t there.
Mom planted a kiss on my head. “Thanks for the walk and talk. Love you, honey.”
“Yeah,” I said, going to the front window to wait.
After she went to bed, I tried to cuddle Gwump for comfort. My chin got three angry, stinging scratches.
At least my blood was boring ol’ red, so yay.
A big, black SUV pulled up down the block a bit. I held my breath, but the driver never got out. I fisted my left hand in the glove. Yeah, I was definitely being watched.
Pulling out the second phone I’d grabbed from the dirt next to Brayden’s car, I tried to unlock it. Password protected, ugh.Nowhe was careful about security? I didn’t want to force it and get locked out permanently, so I tucked the phone away again.
3 a.m. Still no Dane. I reread his texts. Anybody who was that pissed over my driving couldn’t be truly evil.
Very slowly, a new fear dawned in my brain. Whoever had killed Brayden might’ve gotten to Dane too.
He’d said not to experiment. He’d also said he’d be here.
