Page 75 of Violet Spark
“Ms. Taylor, she managed to get you out of the basement.”
“She couldn’t even stand afterward!”
“That didn’t stop her from killing three people.”
My breath hitched. Of course I knew Alling was dead. Nobody leaked that much pomegranate syrup and lived. But hearing it in Dane’s chill accent made it real.
Mom crossed her arms over her chest. At some point, she’d swapped out her blood-stained shirt for clean scrubs. “Istabbed one man. Told him to keep the pressure on. If he didn’t, that was his fault. And Imogen didn’t kill the other one. He shot himself with his own bullet.”
“Ms. Taylor, if you expect me to believe—”
“The gun never left his hand. You can swab Imogen for gunshot residue, but you won’t find anything. So if you go after anyone, it’s me you want, not her.”
With no sound of footsteps, Dane was suddenly looming over my little book-club, peach-lippy mama, glaring down at her. “The third person had acraterin his chest.”
Mom kept her thick-soled shoes right where they were. “What do you think happened? Shethrewthe bullet at him really hard?”
My mom was so freaking badass. Going toe to toe with secret agent man with his fiddly crew cut and bad-mood black suit, gun at his side. And my mom was schooling him.Andtechnically telling the truth.
I couldn’t help but snicker.
“She’s awake,” Dane observed, transferring his ominous stare to me.
“You talk too loud,” I said.
Mom hustled over to put a hand to my head. “Baby, how are you feeling?”
“Hungry.” The word didn’t even come close. If they didn’t get me a pizza, stat, I might even go zombie and start eating people.
Mom petted my hair. “Maybe a little soup?”
“Maybe a whole cow,” I returned. “Like now. Pretty please.”
“You’ve been very ill.”
“And donuts.” My vision swam at the thought. “All the donuts.” When she still hesitated, I put my hand over hers on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Mom. I’m okay.”
Her gaze drifted to my hand. My left hand. The faint white line of a cat scratch was bisected by another white slash. No purple, but X still marked the spot. Did that mean my purple power was gone?
“I’ll be right back.” Mom glared at Dane for a sec and then left the room. When she opened the door, I spotted the original Carlo out there, standing guard for me.
Mom was limping. Even though I’d been unconscious, I knew she’d never left my side. I hoped someone had gotten her some meds to help with the pain. She needed it. She needed someone to take care of her, and here she was going off to find me donuts.
I wouldn’t have let her leave if it hadn’t been necessary. I had to speak to Dane alone.
“Imogen,” Dane began.
“Ms. Taylor to you,” I told him. “At least when my mom’s not here busting your ass.”
“Ms. Taylor—”
“I wanna cut a new deal.” Summoning all that remained of my energy, I lifted my hand…and grabbed the little controller to lift the hospital bed into a sitting position.
Lips pursed like he was squeezing back a bad word, Dane waited while the wimpy motor finally got me upright. Then he inhaled as his brow furrowed. “Go on.”
“If you were going to kill me, you would have already.”
“Thank you,” he said.
