Page 300 of The Reluctant Hero

“Still talking to some girl about a vase that looks glued together. It’s like someone used duct tape and prayer to keep it standing.”

Oh shit. It’s the stupid priceless vase I knocked over when I was struggling. I did my best to fix it and failed miserably. Not that Gabriel complained.

My face pales. Dad’s eyes narrow on me.

“Don’t tell me. I need deniability.”

I nod with a tense, guilty smile.

“You know you’ve created the perfect storm here, right?” He raises an eyebrow and begins to look smug. When he drops an arm over my shoulders, I know I’m in trouble.

“What do you mean?” My tone turns cautious. Whatever he’s about to say, I’m not going to like.

“There’s five of them,” his smile becomes demonic with pleasure.

I look at the guys and back to him before it sinks in.

“Oh, no,” I mutter weakly.

“Oh, yeah. I’m not going to hear a lecture formonthsafter this.” He sounds like he’s basking in the daydream of it already.

“Damnit,” I whine.

“Language. Pick out which one you like the least. We can throw him at her as a distraction. You can be happy with four, right?”

“Dad,” I glare at him.

“All we have to do is keep tripping people.We’llmake it, at least. There are windows right there.”

“May I ask who we’re being sacrificed to?” Gabe raises a haughty brow. As if my dad would be cowed by his frosted over act.

Dad raises an eyebrow back and smirks. “Just wait, kid. If you think Amanda is hardheaded, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

“Damn it, Dad,” I grit out. He could at least lie and say I’m a kind and caring person. No one would believe it, but it’s the thought that counts.

“Language, Amanda Jane,” Mom mutters without any of the usual disapproval my cursing earns. She’s just as short as I am, with ample hips that sway. Her brown eyes, a clone of mine,sparkle as she takes everything in. With her blond hair knotted at the back of her head, the light makeup, and her soft flower-covered dress, she looks harmless.

What a lie that is.

She stares around the space with awe. “Am I allowed to touch anything?”

“Yes, Mom,” I sigh in exasperation. It sounds a lot like Dad’s. My words snap her out of her dreamy haze. Her eyes narrow on me and her arms cross over her chest.

“Did you break that vase in the hall, Amanda Jane Jefferson?”

My shoulders tense while Dad looks at me in fake surprise.

“Amanda!Did you do that?”

He’s laying it on a little thick, but I have been gone for a while. He’s paying me back for all the lectures he’s endured without being able to throw me under the bus as a distraction.

“It was an accident,” I tell them both through gritted teeth.

“I knew I recognized that glue job. You’d think you would be better at it by now,” Mom shakes her head. “Did you apologize?”

“Didyou?” Dad taunts. I throw an elbow into his side. Enough is enough.

“Yes, I did.”

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