Page 58 of Liar Byrd
The house is silent.
Makhi’s bike is missing from the garage, so he’s probably out riding somewhere, and I don’t want to admit to myself that a bike ride has become one of my newest secret daydreams. I don’t know where Nash is. I rarely see him, but I have to find him to ask about my first paycheck.
Nance is busy working in the kitchen most days, leaving the cleaning to me since I prefer it. I catch Lydia on her phone the rare times I see her, and I try never to see Kit because all the gardener does is stare and remind me of the date he wants to take me on.
It’s just us in the front of the house.
As Vonn walks down the stairs, his eyes don’t stray from mine. Can he hear the way my heart is crashing into my chest? Does he have any idea how much it’s costing me to stay where I am and not run?
My eyes naturally settle on his tattoos again. I keep using them to ground me like an insane person.
“You never stop.”
My gaze shoots to his face.
He’s stopped three steps up from the bottom. Not so close I want to retreat a step. But a little too close for me to be completely relaxed.
“What?”
He gestures to the bucket on the floor beside my feet. “Cleaning.”
I shrug. “There’s a lot to do.”
He cocks his head. “Not so much that you can’t take a break every now and again.”
I do. It usually involves eyeing the piano I lovingly polish until it’s gleaming, my fingers itching to know how it sounds. I have never played a grand piano before, and it is a thing of beauty. “I take breaks. And I like to keep busy.”
“You do a good job.”
I look away, trying not to feel pleased with his praise. “I’m just doing what I’m paid to do.”
“You take pride in it. Not everyone does.” He walks down the last three steps, and moves around me, giving me space instead of crowding me. “I’ll leave you to get back to it.”
He’s heading toward Nash’s office when I clear my throat.
He pauses and turns his head around. “Jessica?”
I twist the cloth in my hand. “Thank you.” I wave my cloth around. “For… for town and Nance. I haven’t seen you before to thank you.”
Mostly because I’m too chicken to go looking.
His eyes soften. “Anything you need, let me know.”
I twist the cloth even harder, then I make myself stop before I tear the cotton. “Would you have used it?”
He cocks his head, confused.
I lower my voice, unsure if this is supposed to be a secret. “The gun. I saw it tucked into your pants.”
The confusion melts away. “If I had to.”
I hesitate before asking a question that’s been eating me alive. “And have you had to before?”
Someone killed in this house. No one will tell me more, and I’m too afraid of what I might find up on the roof that Nance warned me to stay away from. But my curiosity is growing. Maybe one day, it’ll chase me up there.
“Once.” He smiles again. “I'd better go now.”
I watch him open Nash’s office without knocking and slip inside, shutting the door firmly behind him. If Nash is in there, I don’t hear him speaking.
