Page 367 of Vicious Saint
The gun to my head must’ve done something, because the mention of Dante asking June tofindHendrix puts out the hellfire immediately, replacing it with an intense panic choking me harder than his hand did thirty seconds ago.
“What do you mean,find her?” I jump to my feet. “Didn’t she come down here?”
Confusion lines all three of their faces, but step-mommy speaks first. “No, Saint, we figured she was with you.”
“Youjustfinished saying you were honoring her request for space.”
“Yes…with you.”
Son of a fucking bitch.
This is what I get for smoking a blunt before I sleep.
And sleeping naked.
“Shewaswith me.” I grit through my teeth. “But after finding out I knew the truth too she ran out of the room.”
My father’s eyes pierce Theory, and hers widen in defense. “W-well, I didn’t see her, I w-was sleeping.”
“So you’re telling me none of you have seen her since she came to find me?” When I’m met with nothing but shaking heads, my insides start to heat again. “Is there any way she got out of the mansion?”
“Absolutely not, son. Ever since Theory’s stunt the night of Archer Beaumont’s party, I made sure it’s sneak out proof.” My father pins Theory with a glare. “Right, baby girl?”
“Of c-course!” Theory bursts. “Of course there’s no w-way to sneak out.”
“She must be hiding then,” June suggests.
I may have a post high-slash-panic-slash-raging excuse not to be thinking clearly, but it’s obvious how tone deaf she is when it comes to her daughter.
Hendrix doesn’t hide.
She fights.
And if she doesn’t win the fight, she runs until she can get even.
Frantic conversation takes off between my dad, June, and Theory, mostly about places she could hide and who will look where.
As for me, I know better, and surprisingly, even this motherfucker Dante does too. Because the moment after we share a similar look, he’s on his phone, and I’m already reaching for mine.
“Why, why, why?!” June cries in the back of my Rover over the steady siren blaring from her phone. “Why would Hendrix turn on the panic mode?”
“Juniper, for fucks sake! Pull your shit together!” The sister screams even louder, snatching the phone out of June’s hand and tossing it to my dad next to me in the passenger seat.
“Vic, you give me my phone back right this second!”
“Juniper, honey,” my father responds tightly when he kills the alarm, “like I said fifteen times already, refusing to turn off the alarm will not change the fact Hendrix locked herself in her provisional.”
“What if she’s hurt?! Her phone is still tracking at the school.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” the sister responds a bit calmer. “She probably just needs a damn minute away from all of us.”
“You were sleeping, Poppy! You didn’t see how this went down! I’ve never seen Hendrix so heartbroken before.”
“Can you blame her, June? I mean, c’mon. The kid just found out she’s been lied to about who she is her entire life, by every single person in this car who claims to love her.”
“You know why I did it!”
“Of course I fucking do! I was there! I helped you raise her!”
