Page 44 of Distortion
I nod, sighing as I watch his brow furrow a little. I know that look. My friend has an idea. Why am I dreading his next words?
‘She’s been here almost two weeks. You said she’d crack in two days. Maybe we should press our advantage. Wear her down a little faster.’ He glances at me pointedly. ‘Because once the pledges are done hazing, they won’t be keeping tabs on her anymore. We don’t have time to play babysitter, not if you want to keep to our timeline. And what about Sark? He’ll want his cut soon, and we aren’t ready.’
I nod. Mav’s right. This needs to go faster, or there will be a price to pay.
‘What are the latest results?’ I ask.
‘What we thought.’ He shrugs. ‘The problems are the ones we knew we’d have, but the inconsistencies are making tests take longer than I thought. Her taking up our time isn’t helping.’
He’s right about that, too.
I sit back, not taking my eyes off her. ‘What’s your idea with her?’
I grin as I glance at him, practically seeing the light bulbs going on in his head.
‘She’s going to be tired tomorrow. Maybe we capitalize on that, take her out with us for the day and make it a tiring one. Bring her to the club, or something, and, when we get back, make sure the guys are having a loud night downstairs so she can’t sleep?’
‘You want to make her ... tired?’
He scowls. ‘It’s a technique that’s literally used on prisoners of war to break them, Shade. You think it won’t work on her?’
I tilt my head. He does have a point. ‘Okay. I’ll get her up early and take her to my dad’s house. He’s in Europe again until Tuesday.’
‘What are you going to tell her?’
I roll my eyes. ‘I don’t fucking know, but we’ll be gone at least until the afternoon.’
He nods. ‘Okay. I’ll go to the lab with Blake and see if we can’t get a handle on some of the problems in the morning. We’ll take her out to the Point for some hiking, or something in the afternoon before we swing by the club, maybe. But I’ll confirm everything in the morning. I might come up with something even better. Regardless, she’ll be more than exhausted.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
He turns to leave.
‘Oh!’ he turns back. ‘The friend she was talking about. A couple of the guys saw them together. Some drama girl. Works at Grinder with her. Want me to get some of the guys to tell her to stay away from Daisy?’
‘She has a job?’ I mutter.
‘Apparently.’
I glance down at her, more than a little surprised. The decent boy she’d sit with when she was scared wars with who I am now. She looked so happy when she was mumbling about her makeover earlier, so excited to have a friend. God knows she didn’t have any when we were at school together.
‘No,’ I hear myself say. ‘Not yet. It won’t matter once we get her out of here and back where she belongs anyway.’
Mav nods and leaves, closing the door quietly behind him, and I look down at my sleeping stepsister.
‘I’m not a monster,’ I whisper.
But I’m beginning to wonder if that’s true. What would she say if she knew half the things I’ve done over the past few years? What would she do if she knew our plans ... and how far we’d go to get out from under the thumb of my father and his cronies?
She has no idea what the Novelles are actually into. Fortunately, all this is irrelevant. She’ll be gone before she ever finds out anything.
6
DAISY
My head is pounding. I groan, curling up into a ball and hiding my face when I crack my eyes open and the light from the window makes it ten times worse.
My stomach rolls and I hug my middle under the covers that feel rough against my skin.
