Page 48 of Amethyst Flame
Pulling up the chair across from me, he sat. After taking a deep breath, he reached across the table, snagged my fork, and took a mouthful of omelet. “So tell me about your day.”
He used my fork? What kind of monster?
I got myself another fork and returned to the table. No way was I putting my lips where his had been.
I gave him a recap—I might’ve lingered a bit too long on the part where Rahm hogged the cinnamon cream cheese during the bagel break—but Dane never interrupted.
He nodded when I told him about William Teller calling me babochka and its probable translation to butterfly.
“There’re some anomalies on his internship application,” he said. “We’re digging deeper.”
“Everybody lies on their resumes,” I pointed out. “I mean, I certainly did.”
“These aren’t just exaggerations or even fabrications. I’m investigating anomalies in William Teller’s movements this past year. It seems he used to be a party-going troublemaker, but a predictable one. Now his behavior seems to have become erratic.”
Well, that would certainly explain why he’d asked me out. I sighed. “There’s worse.”
“Of course there is.” Dane took another bite. “This is pretty good though.”
I stared at him for a moment. Had he…complimented me? Too weird.
I shook off my shock. “When my intern team took our tour of the deepest janitorial closet, my moths mapped the electrical layout, and the surge seemed…weird, like, way more complicated than necessary…unless they were hiding something. And then on the way up in the elevator, I was leaning against the back wall”—I wasn’t going to tell him about the intermittent panic attacks I’d been staving off—“and felt a blockage—or containment—like the one I found in the lobby of your super secret compound outside Palm Springs.”
He grimaced like he’d just bit into metal shavings in the eggs. “The same?”
I tilted my head, considering. “Not exactly, I don’t think. But had the same effect on keeping me out. And you know those elevator keyholes where you can lock the cabin or access other levels? It had a block on it too. I think”—also wasn’t going to tell him that this thinky bit was partly based on my vast experience in Legendelirium—“the back of the elevator would’ve opened into another level.” He drew a sharp breath, gray eyes widening in alarm, and I held up my fork to stop him. “But don’t worry. I didn’t try to sneak in there or anything.” I sighed. “By then I was too hungry to care.”
His crooked smile wasn’t as wide as Jacob’s smirk or Will’s fake grin, but it seemed more real. “I’ll make sure to stock some cinnamon cream cheese, as disgusting as it sounds.”
“Don’t forget the caramel crunch bagels to go with it.”
“I won’t forget.” An odd inflection to his voice made me pause my next mouthful.
I’d just been joking. Well, not joking exactly since I don’t joke about bagels any more than I lie about pretzels. But somehow I thought he wouldn’t forget.
Today, I’d sincerely apologized to my mother, found a secret dungeon, bonded (carbs counted as bonding!) with a half-sibling, and forged a tentative working relationship with my enigmatic handler. And I hadn’t even blown anything up.
Maybe I was finally, finally figuring out my life.
CHAPTERTEN
Or,you know, not.
When I pulled up outside my house, I found a car squatting in my parking place. Which would be irritating on its own. What kind of asshole parks in the family spaces? The fact that the car was a sleek black Lexus ruined my very good day.
Doctors drove cars like that.
My mom must’ve been watching for me because the front door opened and she stepped outside, but I put my foot on the gas and kept right on driving.
After all we’d been through, she would letthat maninto our house and trap me into meeting him? I understood that Bri was missing and that he wanted to shut her back into the cage of her life. But I’d already talked to the brat like they’d wanted. I’d told my mom she was fine.
There was no way in hell I was going to meethim. I didn’t have to do that.
For once, he’d have to live with the repercussions of his actions. Looked like he’d losttwodaughters.
My phone rang, the wordMomglaring on the screen.
Nope nope nope. I turned onto Manzanita.
