Page 74 of Amethyst Flame
I had to get out of here before he showed up because we all agreed I’d probably make things worse if/when I called him a rat bastard bio-bum. Also, Jacob-Dane were gonna set my phone on fire if I didn’t report back soon.
Bri stopped me when I was about to walk out the front door. “Do you really think it’s going to be okay?” She chewed at her lower lip, pink now where the pepperoni grease had emulsified her black lipstick.
And I was honest. “I don’t know. He’s a dick who’s walked out on agreements before. He might pull something. But you have us.” And I had my purple powers. “We won’t give you up now that we found you.”
The panda hugged me. Tight. She squeezed me so hard my eyeballs itched. And then of course Swann wanted in, so we did a three-way sister superhug that made my second mom get teary across the room while Jimmy scrounged the last dregs of pizza and paneer.
I hoped Mrs. Singh would call my mom-mom and tell her I was fine and trying to do the right thing. Because I was. I wished there was some way we could negotiate a way through our mess.
“Enough!” I said, breaking free. “I’ve got to go.” I’d promised my moths a dozen donuts, so I had to stop at a different BoSa’s on the way home.
Their buttermilk and old-fashioneds would get me through the tedium of Dane’s upcoming interrogation.
I bought two dozen because I was feeling generous on my victory high. I’d share. That was some personal growth right there. Everything was just going so…well.
Except that Will was dying. That sucked. But it was nice to know there was someone like me. And if it turned out we were on the same side, then maybe I could help him with his megabot effects.
Jacob opened the door as I approached Dane’s rental house. He mouthed,Everything okay?
Yeah, why?I mouthed back.
Jacob’s gaze slid to the side to indicate Dane. Something was up with Dane.
Oh yeah, he’d left suddenly last night. Was that it?
I stepped inside, grateful for the warning. “I brought donuts,” I called in wary singsong.
Dane approached. He had his collar open, sleeves rolled up, forearms nicely bulging. His eyes were shadowed, and his hair stuck up a bit in the back as if he’d been running his hands through it.
“Sup, spyboss?” I asked.
He took the pastry boxes from me and set them on the entry’s table.
I followed them with my gaze.But, but…?
But Dane was already dragging me into the yeehaw front sitting room and then pushing me toward the brown leather sofa.
I took a seat, shooting aWhat the fuck?look toward Jacob.
Who shrugged and shook his head.
Dane sat opposite me, leaned forward, elbows to knees, and looked me in the eyes. “There’s something you need to know. I should’ve told you long before now, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it—and there still isn’t—but in light of your conversation with William Teller today, I must.”
I glanced at the pink and white pastry boxes on the entry’s table and then back. “Okay…?”
Dane ran his hands through his hair again. “Your comment about his little friends being enemies on the inside?”
Uh oh.“Yeah…?”
“Did you mean that he told you they’re degenerative? That they’re slowly killing him?”
As a matter of fact… “Why are you asking?”
“Because it’s been happening to you too.”
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
I frozeas if all the freon in Arizona had been injected directly into my bloodstream. “Wha…what do you mean?”
