Page 12 of Distortion
‘We’ll just have to be careful and share the load,’ Shade replies. ‘Maybe we can make watching her part of pledge duties during hazing. That’ll give us a few weeks to fix this, but that’s the best I can think of. My father already threatened the lab if I don’t play nice. Let’s just keep him off our backs, okay?’
I roll my eyes. Fucking John Novelle. He’ll keep his claws in all of us forever if we let him.
‘Fuck,’ I mutter.
Shade glances around, and his expression shutters. ‘It’snot like we can put her in Gen Pop now. Jesus, Blake. What the fuck were you guys thinking with the welcome committee?’
I bristle. ‘I was thinking you said give her a greeting she’d remember, so we told everyone about the retard bitch without a dick who’s coming to live with us and how much she’dlovethem to say hi when she got here.’
I give him a look and his jaw clenches.
‘The stuff they said was on them,’ I continue. ‘We didn’t tell them to mention anything specific, and, anyway, I thought we didn’t want her here.’
‘We don’t,’ Shade mutters, ‘but I also don’t want my little sister, who just got out of an institution, fucked by some frat assholes because I didn’t make sure they knew her body was off-limits.’
I put my elbows on the table and steeple my fingers as I look at him. ‘C’mon, Shade, I saw the way you were watching her. You don’t think of her as yourlittle sister,’ I snort, ‘and if you do, your family is more fucked up than I realized.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he practically snarls, and I see Mav stifle a grin across the table.
‘So, she legit just got out of a psych ward today?’ Mav asks, taking a sip of his beer.
‘Yesterday.’ Shade sits back. ‘It’s not a psych ward, just a clinic. A nice one in England that my father put her in when she was thirteen to keep her safe.’
‘What he put her in there for?’
He hesitates, and I know at once he’s not going to give us the full story. Good thing I’ll be able to dredge it up on my own.
‘She’s autistic.’ He opens a beer. ‘She was different when she was a kid, though. She seems pretty normal now compared to how she was then. Would hardly talk, would freak out if she was touched, wouldn’t even show her momaffection. She’d scream and fight, have episodes where she would get upset when there was too much going on around her.’ He glances over at the stairs thoughtfully. ‘She seems like she’s better than she was, but I saw that same look in her eye today that I used to see back then. When the lights turned on and she saw everyone around her, she was very close to an episode.’
‘Anepisode? Jesus, Shade! What the fuck does that mean? Is this bitch going to slit our throats in our beds or something? Do I need to lock my door at night?’
Shade clears his throat and glances away.
My eyes narrow. Yeah, there’s definitely more to this than he’s saying.
‘She just gets upset. Yells. Screams. Throws shit. Lashes out.’ He shrugs. ‘A tantrum, basically.’
‘Like a little kid?’ I snort. ‘I’d have thought your dad woulda had someone beat it out of her if she was that bad.’
Shade chuckles. ‘Not really my father’s style. You know that. Anyway, I think we can make her lose it, preferably publicly. If we can, John will have her carted back to the clinic before you can say, ‘get that bitch out of here’. Then, we can keep to the plan without anyone being the wiser.’
I laugh at his idea. ‘I take it back. Maybe it’s not your family that’s fucked up. Maybe it’s you.’
Shade snorts. ‘No more than you guys.’
He frowns, looking pensive. ‘We still have those cams up in the spare room?’
‘You meanyour sister’sroom?’ I smirk at the look he gives me. ‘Yeah.’
‘Do they work?’
‘So you can spy on her, you sick fuck?’ I laugh. ‘Yeah, they work.’
Shade gets to his feet with a roll of his eyes. ‘Not like that. And we aren’t related. She’s my step.’ He clears his throat. ‘Not that I think of her ... like that. I don’t. But my father wants eyes on her.’
I laugh again. ‘Dude, whatever. I’ll make sure they’re updated and working along with the others in the house. We can use the system to keep an eye on the pledges at the same time.’
Mav grins. ‘We can really fuck with ’em if we can see everything they do.’
