Page 85 of Orion Ruined

Him helping me screams red flags for miles.

Now Maisy interjects. “That’s a good idea.” What the fuck? It’s my house!

“Okay, we’ll talk, sure,” I concede.

I help Maisy up and see where she was sat is a damp patch in the shape of her cunt. Fuck. That’s the first time I’ve ever wanted to lick something off a chair. They’ll see it too. Fuck! This is actually my fault.

I pull a handkerchief from my breast pocket and wipe the chair.

“She got a little sick,” I say, by way of explanation.

On the drive home, while I’m fighting with reason, Maisy falls asleep with her head in my lap. Who gave her the patch? Has someone been in my house? Surely not, or I’d have seen them. Has she been out? She knows better. Whatever the case, something tells me this little angel’s been lying to us. Again.

But what was I expecting? Of course she has, she’s a genius. None of us stand a chance against her but right now, she’s in too deep. I won’t give her up, even if she’s my prisoner for life. I pull her chin to my face and kiss her hot, feverous lips. She must be going through hell with this drug.

“I’ll keep you for myself, darling,” I whisper to her, “and no one will find you, not ever.”

CHAPTER 14

LOGAN

I pace angrily back and forth in the living room. Kai’s brow, dipped with concern, is adding to my stress. I filled in the details for him and told him about Maisy’s little trip, and what could’ve actually happened had I not been there. And the whole chain reaction afterward. Although I’m not sorry for that. What I omit to mention is, dammit, that she has a sister. I can’t get myself to say it because it’s one thing for her to blindly chase what’s stopping her from becoming a teacher, and another thing for us to know that she looked in our eyes and lied to us at the very start. She’s doing all this for her sister. Her fucking sister. She’s ruined everything.

Kai’s hurting more than his wounds do, and he’s only aware of half of what I am. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. In a really stupid–and smitten–and selfish way, I’m not prepared to lose her. They’d shoot her the moment they found out.

Let’s just see this video and then peel back the mysterious layers of Maisy’s life. How did Orion miss this? A fucking sister! She could’ve told us, stupid, stupid Maisy!

The front door opening tells us it’s judgment time. We glance at each other and head into the hall. Orion’s there, waiting.

He’s holding Maisy in his arms, and she’s sleeping. An angel in disguise. We exchange somber looks, and as if she can see us together, she moans, so sweetly.

She is so precious, and at the same time, so deceptive and cunning and so many other things that I don’t know which Maisy is the real one.

“Let me take her to her room.” Orion disappears with her up the stairs, not waiting on our response.

Kai and I head into the kitchen, and stand awkwardly like teenagers who’ve been stood up for prom. The foreboding silence is what gets me. I dread Orion learning the news and I know Kai does too.

“How’re you feeling?” I ask him.

“Better.” That’s all I get from him. Although, I can read his thoughts, which consist of killing everyone and everything in his way once he’s good enough to get back to work. And Maisy’s just adding to his misery.

Orion runs back down the stairs with loud thumps, enters the kitchen in big strides, and walks straight up to me. His face is red with anger, and fire spews from his eyes. He grabs me by the collar and pulls me to his face. “Where the fuck did she find the banned stickers, you dickhead?” he snarls through his teeth.

I’m not sorry for much in my life; in fact, I celebrate just about everything I’ve done, but this part, this stupid drug, for that, I’m sorry. And there’s no going back. I invented the patches when I was studying medicine, all to please my father, and of course he was ecstatic. He loved it. He got my research and with it the patches were easily reproduced. I hated it and I hated myself for it. When he died, we stopped using them. I was fucking promised we weren’t using them anymore. And I believed it.

I instinctively pull my blade from my pocket and press it against Orion’s neck. “First tell me how the fuck she managed to leave your house, asshole!” I roar back.

He leans into the blade, knowing perfectly well it’ll draw blood if he gets any closer. “She didn’t!”

I ease off and put the blade back in my pocket. “Oh, but she did. She came to my club, entered through the back door, nearly did a scene with ten frat boys in the film studio, and fought like hell, enough to be given two doses of the banned patches. Had I not been there and seen her, this would’ve been a very different conversation.”

Orion looks bewildered. He pulls out his cell and opens his security camera app. He then goes through his notifications for the day, one by one. He stops at a video where Maisy enters a car and watches it on repeat a few times before he says anything.

“I can’t believe it. I thought Lisa forgot something. I didn’t even look.”

“And when she came back? How come you missed that, Orion?” Kai’s accusatory words are biting.

Orion fast-forwards to the next notification on the cell and we see the postman outside, smoking. After a few minutes, Maisy is shown returning in the same car. He stares at the screen, then raises his eyes to mine, furious. “Why would she go to yours?”

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