Page 123 of Spark

Damn him; a business associate was a logical option. Family or business associate? I had eight questions left, and I needed to make each one count.

“I doubt you trust your business associates as much as you do your family,” I said agitatedly.

Darren made no move to confirm or deny. Damn him.

“Family,” I finally gritted out, waiting for him to confirm.

He nodded. “Very good. Now, which family member?”

I turned my eyes back to the road, considering my options. He only had two younger brothers that I knew of, and his parents were gone, but what about cousins? Uncles? Aunts?

After a moment of consideration, I decided to go with the obvious.

“Is it one of your brothers?” I asked, my voice almost hopeful.

“Yes,” he replied. “But which one?”

Fuck, six questions left. If I got this one wrong, I’d be down to five, and I needed to conserve them as best I could. I still needed to determine a location and reason for our attendance. Fuck, how had this backfired on me already? It was my idea!

Okay, so who was more likely to host an event? The younger brother or middle brother? From what I could remember, the younger brother was younger than I was, while the middle was slightly older and married. But what if the younger brother was having a big stupid pool party or something? Couples tended to throw parties more often and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

“We’re going to your middle brother’s house,” I said confidently, hoping like fuck I was right.

“How do you know it’s not my middle brother’s in-law’s house?”

My brows furrowed in frustration. “The simple fact that you are asking me that question tells me you are trying to lead me astray, and I do not appreciate your desperate and slimy tactics of diversion. Now, answer my question.”

Darren chuckled again. “Your deductive reasoning is impressive.”

“I was a law student at one point,” I mentioned sourly.

Darren nodded, his demeanor almost proud. “You were correct in your question.”

Goddamn right.

But five questions left. I had the who and the where, but now, I needed the why.

“Will there be more than fifty people there?”

“Yes.”

Okay, that was kind of a lot of people. I supposed I should get the obvious question out of the way.

“Is it just a simple get-together?”

“No. It is not a simple get-together. You need to be more specific than that. You have three chances left.”

“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath.

“Watch it,” Darren warned, his grip tightening on the wheel.

Okay, so everyone was gathering for a specific reason. What reason got people together? The holidays were over so maybe it was more personal?

“Birthday?”

“No.”

Fuck, two.

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