“Wh-what?” I stammered. Dane’s interests seemed limited to dry cleaning, buzz cuts, and scaring the shit out of innocent food service managers. Not really my thing. Oh, wait. My chest got tight thinking about Brayden. “Yeah, some. He was nice.”
“But he’s not nice to you anymore.”
“He ghosted me,” I told her. Over a lump in my throat. “Just disappeared.” I glanced over my shoulder again. Just couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was behind me. “Like, right off the face of the Earth.”
“So rude,” she said. “Did you have a fight or something?”
As I shrugged, a bit of truth jumped the lump in my throat. “He came to the Freeze this week, and I thought we might have something. But then after that he just disappeared.” And I tracked him down.
“But you really liked him?”
“Yeah, I think I could have.” Truth again. My mom had that effect.
I seriously had to be more careful or she was going to know something was up. Mom radar was the most sophisticated lie detecting, trouble sensing tech on the planet, and it was trained on me. And Dane had told me, twice, not to tell anyone. That meant Swann, whose call I’d silenced on the way home. And my mom. And I couldn’t trust Jacksalot. He’d pointed me in the direction of the murder site. Did that mean he was in on it? Had he set me up? Oh fuck, what ifhehad killed Brayden?
“Something’s seriously wrong with me,” I told her.
Truth again. I was infected with some kind of purple goo. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. Or who to turn to.
“Oh, hun, nothing’s wrong with you.” Her arm went around my waist, and I put mine around her shoulders. “He sounds immature. And besides, a long-distance relationship would be too hard when you go back to LA.” Her arm tightened around me. “You have to go back, Imogen. You have to keep chasing your dream.”
Had she been talking to Swann? The ache inside me hardened. “I told you I took the semester off.”
To take care of her. And now that job had gotten harder.
“Well, when does the next semester start?”
“September.” My first lie. The summer semester started in late May and ran through August, but a lot of students went home for the summer. I’d planned to. “In the meantime, I’m making some money.” Which would all go to medical bills.
“September is almost a year away!” She’d started pulling a little harder on my waist, which meant she was favoring her left leg.
September felt like ten years away to me, and I knew that even then I wouldn’t be going back.
But I wouldn’t abandon my mom. My father had done that. I wouldneverbe like him.
“You’re not sticking around because of this boy, are you? Don’t ever wait for a man.”
“That was your deal, not mine,” I muttered.
Cold, Mo,I heard Swann say in my head. As cold as poor Brayden.
Yeah, well, it was the truth. And I couldn’t seem to help myself around my mother.
Ahead an elongated shadow of a person speared toward us on the sidewalk. A moment later, the man appeared, backlit by the west parking lot’s lights, walking fast. Not a jogger, not a dog walker. A killer?
My adrenaline jacked up, heart thumping, sweat beading on the back of my neck even though my nose and ears were cold.
I tightened my hold on my mom’s shoulder, ready to push her out of the way. The urge to arm myself was strong, reinforced by hours upon hours of campaigns through Legendelirium.
No experimenting.
Well, shit. What alternative did I have? Go on the run?
Ha. First, I hated running. And how had running worked for Brayden anyway? And second, my mom needed consistent medical care. One bad fall, and we were done. No, Arbolito had her doctors and her physical therapist. And me.
Which gave me one option: I had to stay and hear Dane out.
The man strode by us, his gaze flicking quickly to meet mine and away as he passed. I turned my head and followed his progress until I lost him around the bend at the tennis courts.
