Page 43 of Heresy

My attention is drawn back to Ames at her question. Excitement lines her words because she’d actually enjoyed the night Myth blew up into chaos over the fight.

“I hope not. And they’re not my people.”

She grins as her head angles down to ensure she’s buttoning the front of her corset just right. “They’re your people. Why else would you be at a party with them at the governor’s mansion?”

“I wasn’t invited to the party, Ames. I was only there to drop off the flash drive.”

“Same difference.” Her words are said with a shrug as she snaps the last button into place.

Looking up at me, she shakes her blue hair out so that it falls down her back in developing waves now that it’s drying naturally.

“Plus,” I add because she refuses to stop asking this question every few nights, “I’m glad they haven’t shown up at the club again. We could have been killed that night.”

Confusion twists her expression. “The twin has shown up.”

“What?”

The one-word question volleys from my throat with too much surprise for my liking.

“You’re joking. I haven’t seen him.”

Hopping up and down as she pulls her tight pants into place, Ames laughs.

“Why would I joke about that? But how would you know? On the nights you have stayed for a few hours, you’re always too busy in a back booth somewhere with your nose in one book or another. You wouldn’t notice Jesus himself walking through the club, even if he was raising the dead and turning water into wine.”

“Probably not.”

Attempting a feeble argument, I lean back on my elbows. “But that’s the bartender’s job. He makes the drinks. Why should I pay attention?”

More laughter from her as she runs into the bathroom to do her makeup. Thankfully, she has the process down to a science, and I won’t be sitting here much longer.

Her voice filters out to the bedroom, slightly muffled by the hum of the bathroom fan. “That’s bullshit, and you know it, Brin. You need to look out at the world around you more. Pay attention to your surroundings. Enjoy and live in the present and all that.”

What she’s saying is the actual bullshit.

I do pay attention to my surroundings.

A little too much, in fact.

Not that it’s my fault. I was raised to constantly be on alert for what could be the next threat. As if at any given moment some person is going to jump out at me to slit my throat, mug me or worse.

If you ask my father, the entire world is a powder keg of misfortune and violence waiting to explode, each person carrying around the barely stifled capability of attacking and injuring someone else.

It’s just a matter of time with everyone, according to him.

Sometimes I wonder why he ever let me leave home at all.

Not that I can hold it against him. My mother died as a result of a car crash when I was twelve, and his business partner died of what Dad deems mysterious circumstances. The police reported it as a simple auto accident, but Dad truly believes there was more to it.

He’s never mentioned why he thinks that or who he thinks was involved. Just that he thinks it.

I haven’t pressed him for more information. The less I know the better when it comes to his former business.

But there are still the rules he must have been whispering to me since I was a baby in the crib, the first of which is to trust nobody but myself.

So regardless of what Ames thinks, I do pay attention to my surroundings. Just instead of looking for cute boys like she does, I’m looking for the next disaster waiting to happen.

It’s not an easy way of living, but I assume it’s kept me alive this long.

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