Page 71 of Amethyst Flame
But I had to hand it to Adley. She was trying to give me as much power over my fate as she could. No one had done anything remotely like this for me. Not Dane, Mr. Secrets, and not Jacob, looking for any way to get in on the action.
If I wanted to take control of my future, then, yeah, knowing who was going to learn all about me and my moths was important.
As much as I hated it—and I did—I got down to work.
Adley checked in a couple hours later. I told her I didn’t like Hopkins or Schmidt, and she promised that they wouldn’t be on my team. “Take the weekend to decide who you want to interview, and we’ll schedule them for next week.” She touched my arm again. “Wait, what am I saying? Take the weekend off! Sometimes I forget that work/life balance is a real thing.” And she breezed out again on a self-deprecating laugh.
Just like that.
I left work hoping that she was being honest with me. Hoping that I could trust her. That Icouldhave a future that made the most of everything I was, not just my butterflies.
Or was I drinking her Kool-Aid?
In my mildly hot—not oven-scorching—car, I headed to Swann’s house for our mani/pedi night. I was merging onto the 101 when my phone lit up, and shit, I’d forgotten to text Jacob-Dane before leaving.
During the stop-and-go of rush hour traffic, I managed a short,Sorry headed to Swann will call when I get there
I was already salivating at the thought of the pizzas that Swann would have waiting. She was thoughtful like that.
The Singh residence was tucked behind a grove of orange trees with a lot of other enormous, custom houses. It had a circle drive leading to and away from the front door, which for me was the key indicator of a nice house. Like, a Nice House. Waterfall pool with a hot tub in the back. Basically, heaven, especially because Swann lived there.
I parked, but before I got out, I put in a quick call to Dane. He picked up right away.
“Hey,” I said. “So everything with Adley, I mean Ruskin, is all good. No poking or show-and-tell today. We went over projects and personnel. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“I’m sure there was more to it.”
“Yeah, but it can wait until I get home.”
“And William Teller?”
Swann, looking amazing in a floral and plaid jumpsuit, stepped out onto the front steps of her house, slice of pizza in her hands. Cheese stretched from the bite she’d taken to her clenched teeth.
Aw yeah. I opened the car door and got out.
“Imogen?”
“Yeah, yeah. He has little friends of his own. Actually, they’re more like enemies to him, though, on the inside.” Hint hint.
Dane paused long enough that I slammed my car door and started toward the pizza. “You need to return immediately to discuss this new development. I need to know everything he told you.”
Yeah, Dane had understood: Will had bugs of his own, and they were bad. “I’ll tell you tonight. Swann has a pizza with my name on it, so unless you got a better offer?”
“Ms. Taylor, this is urgent—”
“Okay then, byeeee.” I ended the call, pocketed my phone, and took hold of the pizza. “Hello, lover,” I said to it and took a big, cheesy bite.
“I’ve got us set up in the basement,” Swann told me. “Can you sleep over?”
Bri came out behind Swann. She still had that raccoon thing going, but her eyebrows were groomed to perfection. “Lookin’ good, brat,” I said to her and back to Swann, “Dane would have an aneurysm if I did.” Which made me consider staying…but no. I wanted to talk over the Will thing too.
“Is that Imogen?” Mrs. Singh called from inside.
I pushed by Swann to enter the house. “It’s me! Your long-lost second daughter!”
I got a mom hug—which I so needed—and I waved to her little brother Jimmy, who’d wandered out to see what the commotion was about. We chatted for a minute and I lied shamelessly about everything. No way was I going to bring any trouble to this house.
Anymoretrouble anyway.
