Page 89 of Forged in Rain

“Rain, there’s so much at play, I don’t know where to start.”

“How about with Jagger? You fucked him. You fucked them both,” I mutter with a sour taste in my mouth.

“Yeah, well, while you were playing Laura Ingalls Wilder, I was surviving.”

“Is John even dead?” I huff.

“I don’t know.”

When I give her a disbelieving look, she chuffs. “I don’t. Believe it or not, the John shit had nothing to do with Mother.”

“Then why didn’t you tell her?”

“Because he would have killed me, or so he said.”

“Fuck.”

She nods, and I look out the window, disturbed. Iris was caught no matter what she did. No wonder she wanted him to die.

“What does your mom want?”

“I don’t fucking know.”

“Iris, your mother has a murderer forcing his son to work for her, and you don’t know?”

“No, I don’t.

“I still think we should just leave,” I say, rubbing my head.

“We can’t.” She glances at me before turning her gaze back to the road. “Rainy, I thought . . . we don’t know what happened to John.”

“So?”

“What if he comes home? What if he hurts Mom?”

“Maybe she knows about him” Clearly, she’s aware of John’s disgusting habits because the pictures don’t lie, but does Iris know her mom’s in on his dirty little secret? And does this extend to his relationship with Iris?

She looks away, her jaw ticking, and says, “Maybe.”

Iris’ indecision pulls at my heart, and I grind my teeth against the urge to scream. Pam’s actions are fucking reprehensible.

Glancing at Iris, I note her clenched jaw and sigh. Iris was fucked from the beginning.

“Do you think she knew about you?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“How could she not? I mean, she’s acting like a psychopath.”

She sighs. “It’s possible. But she hasn’t admitted anything.”

“What if we kill her?” I ask, then I slap my hands over my mouth. I can’t believe I even said it, but slowly I drop them because we’re surrounded by people who want to hurt us. This is extreme, but I’m past the point of logical thought and firmly in la-la land. I want to be free, and I’ve already conspired to kill one monkey fucker.

She shakes her head. “It’s too risky. She knows too much.”

“She didn’t know about our plans for John,” I say sourly. “Why not just make her disappear? Or we could disappear ourselves.”

“You don’t understand. Hell, I don’t understand. Besides, don’t you think it would be super suspicious for both of my parents to disappear?”

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