Page 80 of Girl Anonymous

“Did you never wonder if we’re half brothers?”

“My mother was his cousin!”

Dante sprayed him with the hose. “Get real.”

Connor wiped his face, smearing plaster and blood. “Thanks for putting that disgusting thought into my head.”

Dante used the hose like a shower on himself. “He loved hurting people, especially people who couldn’t fight back. Especially family. Especially women.”

Connor took the hose back and did the same. “If you insist on having Maarja, she’s going to cause trouble forever.”

“The family will damned well learn to deal. I’m done swearing off her. She ran into an explosion to save my mother. She cried when Mère died. She was a virgin.” Dante shouldn’t have confided that last, but Connor had been his friend forever and—

Connor seemed unfazed. “You only liked her for like fifteen minutes, then you went into that deadly silent cold-eyed glare you’ve perfected.”

“I thought she was involved with the theft of the bottle. Then she told me she’d been the one who detonated the bomb. I’m a dickhead. It’s required, especially now.”

Connor did a belated double take. “She—”

Exasperated, Dante said, “Don’t say she killed my father again.”

“She was a virgin?” Connor’s voice rose.

Crap. Dante should have remembered Connor’s slow reactions. “Could you be any fucking louder?” He glanced toward the house, twisted the sprayer to jet, and hit Connor in the face again. “Don’t tell her I told you!”

Undeterred, Connor questioned, “A virgin? You found a… You slept with the last remaining member of the Daire familyand she was a virgin?” He raised his hand to protect his face. “No. No way. She fooled you.”

“How? Tell me, oh, enlightened one. Explain—”

“Plastic surgery. Something… I don’t know! That’s too much—”

“Don’t say it!”

“Like fate.”

“Itoldyou not to say it.”

“Tell me you used a condom.”

Dante stared at Connor. Let him take the hose. Spray him in the face.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Connor shouted. “What the fuck were you—”

“I wasn’t thinking. I was… It had been a tough day and she… I… She cried. And I’d been waiting for her all my life and…” Dante wiped at his eyes. “Oh, just spray me again.”

Connor let the hose dangle, too horrified to even take advantage. “Is she pregnant?”

“I’m an enlightened being. A product of the twenty-first century. I’m not superstitious. It was one time.”

“Onetime?”

“Yes!” Dante remembered that morning in the parking garage. “Except this morning.”

“What the hell?” Connor shouted again.

“Probably the wrong time of the month.” Dante was aware he was babbling. “Sheshouldn’tbe pregnant.”

Connor sprayed him in the crotch. “That’s no answer!”

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