Page 50 of Taken for Granite
“You don’t. They’re like the Illuminati on steroids,” Chloe said.
“I know,” Juniper replied.
“I always thought Mickey was crazy—but that shit was for real.”
“Language.”
“I had brains on me, Juniper. Actual human brains. I think I can say the word ‘shit’ now.”
Chloe gave her a flat look, daring her to argue, and it was so classically Chloe that Juniper had to laugh with relief. Her sister was fundamentally the same.
“Shit got real,” Juniper agreed. She stroked Chloe’s hair and gave her another bone-crushing hug. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
Chloe sobbed into Juniper’s shoulder, soaking her shirt but she didn’t care. She let her sister cry, rubbing her back and murmuring that she was safe now. She would never let Chloe go again.
When Chloe pulled away and wiped her eyes, Juniper drove to the motel. Chloe blabbed, spilling all the details about her captivity.
The story continued as they entered the room and Chloe took a seat on the edge of the bed. “But seriously, they were just like the Illuminati, complete with a secret lair. They even had a monster in the dungeon. A gargoyle. I guess now they have two, with the one you brought back. God, it looked rough. It looked like it was ready to fall off a building. Is that what happened to it?”
“He,” Juniper said, reflexively.
“How do you know? Did you see its ding-dong?”
“His name is Tas and he’s a person, not a monster,” she said, side-stepping the whole question of ding-dongs. “And he’s not a gargoyle.”
Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “But I saw it—”
“Tas is an alien. He’s not a gargoyle and he’s not a monster.” Juniper dug out the bag of new, non-cult clothes for Chloe.
“An alien?” She rolled her eyes, even digging through the new clothes.
“You’re totally sold on this Illuminati crap, but you can’t believe in an alien?”
“Because aliens aren’t real,” she said sarcastically, like it was obvious. For good measure, she added, “Duh.”
Yup. She got Chloe back.
“Since I’m not changing your mind, let me just say that Tas willingly exchanged himself for you. He didn’t have to do that and I certainly couldn’t have made him. Now, are you hungry? I got mostly junk here, but there’s a diner down the road.”
Chloe clutched the plastic carrier bag to her chest. “Oh my god, you like the gargoyle!”
“Actually, yes. I do.” A lot. More than she should. Juniper sat on the other bed, facing Chloe. “Is that okay?”
“Did you Netflix and chill? I’ve read the books you have on your Kindle. Monsters are your kink.”
“You read those?” Juniper frowned. Chloe was way too young to be reading those stories.
Chloe’s mouth dropped open. “Oh. My. God! You did!”
Juniper wanted to say it meant nothing; sex had been a physical release to get her out of her head or a way to pass the time. The truth was that her intimacy with Tas did mean something. She liked him. She enjoyed talking with him. She loved how he made her body feel. She hated that he willingly went back to that place, to be locked in a cage or tortured. Or both. Probably both.
Guilt rolled in her stomach, because how crappy of a sister was she that while Chloe was held hostage, Juniper was busy falling for Tas? Super crappy and she felt every bit of it.
She needed to get the focus off of her love life and back onto Chloe.
“Did they hurt you?” she asked and dreaded her next question even more. “Do we need to go to the pharmacy for an emergency pill? Or the hospital?”
Please say no. Please say no.
