Page 51 of Devil
“Of course. Anything else?”
Devil glanced at Darius, who shook his head. “Not right now, thanks. We’re pretty sure the embassy party is going to be a key factor in the plan, so we want to focus on that. Once Darius and I are cleared by Stella’s people, we’ll hit the ground and see if we can find out any more details. In the meantime, I’m going to ask Franklin to arrange for tickets to the dinner. Could someone buy a dress for me and a tux for Darius and have them delivered to the townhouse?”
“On it!” Six jumped in, leaving Cyn grumbling about getting stuck with all the not-fun stuff. No surprise, Nora stayed silent; it wasn’t that she didn’t like shopping, but, well, she didn’t like shopping.
A few seconds later, they hung up and Devil turned on her favorite playlist, a mix of eighties, nineties, and early 2000s songs. Darius shot her a look, one eyebrow raised, but smart man that he was, he refrained from commenting.
She bopped along to her music as they made their way toward the New Jersey border. Then, out of nowhere, Darius asked, “What are your parents like?”
Devil stopped singing and drew back at the question. “What do you mean?” she asked tentatively.
He lifted a shoulder. “You know all about my family. I talked about them for most of our first dinner. I know little bits and pieces about yours, but not the whole picture. I’m curious.”
Devil frowned. “There’s not much to tell, and I’m not saying that to avoid answering the question. I mean there’s literally not much I can tell you about them. I can tell you what they do for a living. I can tell you their assistants’ names and what designers my mother prefers to wear, but I don’t actually know my parents. I don’t think they even know each other, not as individual people.” She paused, a thought flickering in her mind. “Then again, maybe there’s not much there to know.”
“What do you mean?”
Her brow furrowed as she considered his question and her own comment. “I’m not entirely sure I know what I mean. But, for example, I don’t know if my parents even consider things like what they like and what they don’t. Everything they do is, by their words, for the family, so their personal interests, if they have any, aren’t relevant. And if they don’t have any personal interests, there’s not much to know about them, is there?” And wasn’t that a kind of sad thought?
“What about when they decided to get married?” he asked, sounding confused. “Surely there was something about the other that they were attracted to?”
Devil laughed. She couldn’t help it. And it wasn’t a delicate little laugh either, but a soul-deep one. “Oh, that’s funny that you think my parents knew each other before marriage, let alone got to know each other well enough to decide to marry.”
It was Darius’s turn to frown. “They had an arranged marriage?”
Devil inclined her head. “Everyone in my family has. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do have an uncle and two cousins who rebelled against that, and they are by far my favorite relatives. But for the most part, marriages in our family are strictly business arrangements. Once I was old enough to learn about artificial insemination I often wondered if that’s how my mother conceived me and my brother.”
“I take it your parents aren’t…affectionate?”
“My parents are rarely in the same place at the same time. And I never remember them sharing a bedroom, let alone any sort of affection. I can’t explain it more than that. They truly are little more than business associates who happen to have two biological children together. Although that was done for duty as well, of course.”
Darius remained silent, and Devil knew she’d shocked him. She’d sort of shocked herself, too, sharing what she had. No one other than Cyn, Six, and Nora really understood what her childhood had been like. It had all seemed normal to her. No personal interests, no individual thoughts, no emotions, and nofriends. Until she’d gone to St. Josue.
It hadn’t been easy to accept that everything she’d known until then might not be the best, or right, way to move through life. And she obviously still wasn’t quite there yet. But as Darius had pointed out, she was still learning and, more to the point, still wantingtolearn.
Unlike her parents, she’d grown to value people for who they were, warts and all, rather than what they did. Sure, there were people in her life who were there to perform a specific function. But unlike when she’d been a child, she now recognized that they also had alifeoutside of that function. She didn’t need to know about it or be a part of it, but it had become important to her to remember that everyone had facets.
At her age, this seemed like a simple thing to know. But prior to attending St. Josue, she’d been taught that the only value people had was in what they could do for her and the family. Every interaction, from a simple conversation to a business deal, was a barter—what would the family get in exchange for what they’d have to give up.
To say she was more than grateful her parents had consented to send her to St. Josue was an understatement. They might have done it for the honor it bestowed on their family, but whatever the reason, Devil was quite certain it had saved her life.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Thanks to traffic,it was close to eleven-thirty when they arrived at the safe house that Lily’s friend Stella had arranged for them. The first thing they did after walking in the door was draw each other’s blood, seal the samples inside a padded plastic bag, and place the bag in the mailbox. A few minutes later, they heard someone opening the box, but by the time Darius peeked out the window, all he saw was a shadow moving down the street.
Neither of them had started experiencing any symptoms, which he took for a good—if not a sure—thing, and he’d be happy to have the test results as soon as possible. In the meantime, he opened a bottle of wine left for them and poured two glasses. It was getting late, but if Lily was as keyed up as he was, a glass of wine before bed was definitely in order.
“Are you hungry?” Lily asked, taking the glass he held out for her. Not wanting to risk infecting anyone, they hadn’t even considered stopping for fast food or takeout. They’d also filled up Lily’s gas tank before reaching the farm, so hadn’t had to stop for gas, either.
He nodded and opened the refrigerator to see what their options were. “There’s lasagna, a baked chicken, and what looks like a noodle salad with chicken.”
“Noodle salad, please,” she responded as she grabbed her computer from her bag. She took a seat at the round table in the dining area off the kitchen as he pulled the bowl from the fridge.
“What are you looking into?” he asked. His gaze landed on the notebook he’d taken from Jennifer’s house as he reached for two plates in an upper cabinet. It was still sealed in a plastic bag and sitting on the counter. He desperately wanted to open it, but Lily had forbidden him from touching it for at least twenty-four hours.
Lily sat back in her chair and drummed her fingers on the table as her computer booted up. “I’m going to start combing through Tina and Amy Lam’s credit card accounts and movements. If the virus transmits like the smallpox virus, it would be most effective if inhaled. I want to see if they bought anything like a spritz bottle or spray gun.”
She leaned forward and started typing. By the time he set a plate down in front of her, she appeared to be pulling up credit card statements. “Are you looking at Amy’s or Tina’s statements?” he asked.
