Page 33 of Degradation
Freedom from you and your father.
‘Just that I am actually a little hungry,’ I lie.
He grins, disarmed like I knew he would be. I guess I’m getting to know my stepbrother again.
‘Mav will be here in five.’
I lean back against the headboard, pondering next steps.
Last night made me realize that things weren’t how I thought. I assumed I had autonomy while John wasn’t around, and Shade wasn’t paying attention. But it was an illusion. I have nothing but Novelle good graces and those aren’t something I can rely on, not even from Shade.
I can’t stay here.
I need to have a plan in place, an actual Plan B that I can implement if the worst happens. For that, I’ll need money.
That’s the problem. I don’t have any, and I have no means of getting any quickly enough that won’t draw attention.
But Mav, Blake, and Shade have something going on. They keep me on data gathering in the lab, hoping I won’t put the pieces together, I think. But once I knew the experiments were a drug, it was easy to see that there’s more than one. The formulas are similar enough that I doubt someone as half-assed as Marcus would have noticed, but there are differences. They were able to trick that asshole, but they haven’t tricked me.
They’ve been pretending there’s only one drug, the non-opioid. Why? What’s the second one for? And why are they working on it like their lives depend on it? I’d bet money it’s not for school even though Mav does freak out every time the numbers come back from their tests. It’s almost as if they need it to be done soon, like they’re on a deadline.
I glance at Shade. He’s looking at his phone and not paying attention to me. I consider everything I know about him. And about John. And about Andy, too. He’s at Harvard. John wanted that for both his sons. Andy did what he was told. Jack didn’t. He wants something different. John doesn’t like that. It was obvious the day of mom’s funeral. Andy is the apple of John’s eye. Jack isn’t.
That means that he’s only at Richmond U because John allows it. For now. He’s on borrowed time, just like I am.
He’s like me.
He needs money to escape. Mav and Blake don’t seem to have much of their own either.
My eyes widen a little.
The second drug is their Plan B.
That must be it. Why else would they be so all-in? Why keep it a secret otherwise? And, if it’s their Plan B, it needs to be my Plan B too.
The sluggish cogs in my mind are beginning to turn quickly. The formula is wrong. It must be close, but it isn’t right and they’re struggling.
What ifIcan make it right?
That would give me leverage.
They’d have to let me in, share the money they make.
I’d have a real Plan B.
Freedom.
I’m still thinking things through from every angle I can when Mav arrives with a paper bag in his hand.
‘How are you feeling, Tulip?’ he asks me with a grin as he hands me a box that I recognize from the movie night the house had.
I don’t even have to fake being hungry because, as soon as I smell the burger and fries, my stomach starts to rumble.
I sit up properly and open the box, grabbing the burger. I take a large bite and let out a moan.
Shade’s lips quirk as he picks up his own burger. ‘Hit the spot?’
‘I didn’t realize how hungry I was,’ I confess with a nod.
