Page 28 of Amethyst Flame
I was so disoriented by this revelation that when Jacob came in and said something to me, I laughed even though I had no idea what he was talking about. And Dane and Jacob both looked at me weird.
I covered my goof by calling them both “Assholes” and taking my seat again.
Dane had the new dragon MoTH configuration back up and showed it to Jacob. And then Dane tried to instruct me on how to act professionally at the internship.
I let him know that he was too late. I’d already cast myself as the brilliant wild card of my group.
A lot ofblah blah blahlater—who knew the spy life was so boring?—and I was driving Jacob back to my house.
“So why’d you take off like that with him?” Jacob asked.
“Turns out I have a sister.” I turned onto Cholla. “She called me out of the blue today, and Dane was checking to make sure it was really her. Not some scam artist.”
“Oh god.”
“Yeah,” I said. “By the way, Dane is on to you. You gotta stop trying to be so clever and just do what he needs you to do.”
“But I want him to hire me. I want him to know I’m worth being on his team.”
“Dude. It took me two minutes in that house to realize wearehis team.”
Jacob was quiet for the rest of the drive home. Yeah, crunch on that. The more I thought about it, the more terrified I became. Dane was supposedly worried about what Jacob was up to. Well, what the hell wasDaneup to?
I parked next to my mom’s car, so it looked like she was hanging at home tonight and not out with Mr. Morales.
“Not a word about my sister,” I said to Jacob.
He looked startled—my tone had been murderous—but then shook his head as if he wouldn’t have said anything anyway. Good.
When I stepped inside, I called, “Hey, Mom! I’m home.”
She came around the corner from the kitchen, dishtowel in her hands. The space between her eyebrows had the reverse frown parentheses of worry. And they were deep.
“Are you hurting?” I asked.
Her new physical therapist had done wonders for her, but her back wasn’t going to magically heal or anything. I knew sooner or later she’d have another fall, or get bumped in a store, or worse, be in a car wreck, and then she’d be in real pain again.
“No, sweetheart. I’m okay.”
“Well, what’s the matter then?” Because those frown lines were deep enough to have been there for a while today. I decided all over again not to bring up the fact that my sister had called. I didn’t want to hurt her with the knowledge that my sperm donor had gone off and made himself a nice little family…without us.
My mom glanced at Jacob. “Just give us ten minutes, and then dinner will be ready.”
And she pulled me into her room and shut the door.
“Did you break up with Mr. Morales?” I whispered. Things had been going so well! She deserved to be happy.
“No, no, sweetheart. Everything is good with Joe.” She chewed her lip for a moment and then took a breath. “It’s your father. He needs to speak with you about your sister.”
CHAPTERSEVEN
Shit,what was the point of being a magi-tech spy if people could just call each other and reveal everything I was trying to keep secret?
Mom frowned at me. “You already knew this,” she accused. “You talked to him already.”
“No,” I protested quickly. “Haven’t talked to him at all.”
She pounced. “So youdidtalk to your sister?”
