Page 7 of All Roads Lead Home

My nose scrunched. I hated that nickname. It was childish, and it reminded me of when he rejected me. I mean, I get it. He had been in his twenties, and I was a teenager. There was no other option.

“Why is she here?” he asked the detective, and then his head snapped my way. “What do you mean you’re not a prostitute?”

I opened my mouth to finally try and explain this whole mess of a situation. “Why were you talking about my sister?”

This was me not explaining the situation, but I wanted to know just how she was “handled.” I know I said I hated her, but wishing death on your sibling was freaking dark.

Broken Nose Guy started laughing. I was going to get whiplash by the way I kept going back and forth between all of them.

“You’re Bethany’s little sister,” he teased, but his eyes were on Clark.

Motherfucker, he knew.

If there was ever a time to curse, it was now. My face felt hot. Hotter than eating a bag of hot Cheetos with zero water.

I looked at the detective, who seemed clueless. “You have my consent to shoot me…in the head, preferably. Make it fast.”

The detective's lips twitched, but he didn’t seem appalled by my flair for dramatics.

“I feel like I’m missing something,” he expressed while looking at Clark and Broken Nose Guy.

“Your gun between my eyes,” I mumbled.

“Oreo,” Clark said as he began to get closer to me.

Instinctively, I took a step back.

“Can you tell us what happened tonight?”

That question was all it took to remind me of the predicament I had found myself in. I breathed heavily, trying to think how this would work out.

What would my job say? What about Lucas? He was two, but he was a judgey little thing. The other day, he had complained because my Mickey ear pancakes were uneven.

Would my job fire me because of tonight? Had I blown my cover with Mayor Skeevy? Would rumors run amok in this town that the adulterer's daughter had followed in his footsteps? Shit, between my sister and me, they would think we were doing our old man proud. Would they get this Freya chick to “take care of” me too?

It was getting hard to breathe once more.

The only reason I was able to focus was from the electric force I felt running through my whole body. All my nerve endings were focused on my chin. There was a hand touching me that most definitely did not belong to me.

“Breathe.”

I was so caught off-guard that my head jerked, and my glasses fell to the floor with a loud thud. My heart started to beat faster when I noticed the burgundy blur kneeling down. Since I couldn’t see much without my glasses, I couldn’t see what was taking so long. Then my heart stopped completely as the glasses slid onto my head once more.

Okay, wow. I could see way better than before.

This was not good because I could see Clark in all his Carson glory as he stood right in front of me. He wasn’t full-on smiling, but his lips were tipped, giving him a playful look.

“They still smell like beer, but at least this way, you can see better.” He winked at me, and I hated myself for the way my stomach dropped.

I was no longer sixteen. I had no excuse for the way I was making a fool out of myself.

God damn it, Oriana, pull yourself together. How do you expect to make it big if an interaction like this makes you nervous?

“Oreo…” Clark took a step back as he spoke.

“Oriana,” I barked back, because Oreo sounded lame and it reminded me of that day.

His tipped lips turned into a crooked smile.

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