Page 42 of Amethyst Flame
“I gotta go.” I pushed out of the passenger door, reached down into the footwell to grab the stilettos by the heels, and started barefoot to the house. “Go away.”
He waited until I walked up the drive and opened the door, but I didn’t look back.
My phone was still off so I couldn’t check the time, but judging by the dark silence all around, it was 2 or 3 a.m. To my surprise, Jacob was crashed out on the couch, snoring away.
Had he been worried about me, waiting up for me? How sweet.
My gaze locked on his laptop, the screensaver a pale glow. Don’t mind if I do.
Jacob’s laptop in my grip, I sneaked into my bedroom, curiosity on fire. Everyone wanted to use me for whatevertheywanted? Well, my damn turn.
The moths I’d sent piggybacking on Dane had returned to me with some interesting new hacking techniques and shared it with all their friends. I set a flurry free on the laptop while I stripped out of my borrowed clothes and wiped off the makeup with some of the real nice skincare stuff Swann had given me last Christmas.
By the time I was all me again, my moths had gone through the laptop, unlocking the files. They probably understood more than I did, but from what I could tell, Jacob had been hard at work for Dane: decrypting info on Banta’s projects as well as his MIT pal St. Croix’s efforts, following a lead to the Palm Springs facilities, which must’ve been what triggered our mad rush over there, and outlining something called “the Artemisia Protocol” which sounded more like it came from Legendelirium than real life.
Probably the girl infested with microscopic robots shouldn’t judge what real life should be like.
I copied everything I could find to a thumb drive, then I waltzed my way over to the Maricopa County juvenile corrections department and accessed Brianna’s record. What had the spoiled brat done?
Nothing so terrible. A bit of shoplifting—mostly from Hot Topic. Really, Bri? A couple of graffiti incidents, which made me let out a proud sniff, actually. Oops, she took the family car for a midnight joyride and ended up in a ditch with a not-yet-opened six-pack of beer, but she hadn’t killed anyone or anything. Which was more than her big half-sis could claim…
Apparently having a momanda dad was no guarantee of a perfect life, but I wasn’t seeing any warning signs of a future hellscape for the little troublemaker either. She probably just needed people off her back for a while. No wonder she’d run away.
With an aggrieved grunt, I logged out of everything, and the moths backtracked the same way Dane had inadvertently taught them when he signed out of his tinkering at the Palm Springs facility.
As I sneaked Jacob’s laptop back to the living room, he snuffled and started to roll toward me. I froze for a second then nudged his shoulder. “Hey. You’re gonna get a crick in your neck, sleeping like that.”
He blinked up at me. With his blond hair all mussed, he looked like a kid himself—an innocent one, I’d think, if I hadn’t known better. “You’re home?”
“Obviously.”
“What happened in Palm Springs?”
“Nothing.” Nothing that he was insinuating. “Dane will tell you about it in the morning. Or maybe he won’t. Whatever. Go to bed.”
Mumbling, he tucked the computer under his arm like a teddy bear and trundled off, unsuspecting.
I sat in the dark, flipping my phone in my hand. Powering it back on, I thumbed through to “Vishing Scam” and changed it to “Brianna.” She was probably lying low at a friend’s house. It was what I had done back in the day when I fought with my mom. No need to send out the National Guard. On impulse, I texted:You up
No answer came back. Well, she wouldn’t have read receipts on.
Bleh. What was I doing? I kept typing.Everybody’s telling you what to do, what they think is important for you. It doesn’t get any better. Think about what *you* want and what you need to do to get there. You’re on your own.
The ellipsis of a response being typed in followed, but no message came through. Whatever she’d started to say, she deleted it before sending.
Fair enough. I went back to bed.
Sometimes I could take my own good advice.
* * *
When I gotup the next morning, I found a note from Mom on the kitchen counter.Out for a walk with Joe.
NoLove youorHave a good day! :)Damn, she was really pissed at me. Like it wasmy faultthe kid was missing? Whatever.
I stopped at the Freeze on my way to Banta. Had to admit, the place looked pretty good. Amanda even smiled at me. I ordered the most annoying, complicated smoothie from Rique.
“Extra protein, please,” I called in a singsong voice.
