Don’t I?
Or does she just sound like every other woman I’ve annoyed in my life now that the terror is leaving her voice?
It’s still lingering—there’s some squeaking in her words—but she’s clearly getting a grip.
My eyes are stinging a little less, but they still burn.
I can still see.
“Who—you?” Fuck me, I need to quit coughing.
“Until you’re the one holding a cast-iron skillet, you’re not the one asking questions. Ever been a woman in this world? Staydown.”
A cast-iron skillet.
She socked me in the gut with a cast-iron skillet.
Wonder what size.
I wheeze and cough while my eyes water. “Decker—prank—me.”
“Decker pranked somebody,” she mutters. “Hey, Lucky. So sorry to bother you this late, but I was just falling asleep when, ah, this makeshift home security system that I set up went off? And there’s a guy here who says Decker said he could stay?”
Okay.
Definitely the newly discovered half sister. Lucky’s one of Decker’s two brothers, and the brother who’s most excited about meeting a new family member.
She’s on the phone with him.
And she’s not supposed to know that I know she’s going to be here, but it would’ve been nice if Decker could’ve told me she was the kind to booby-trap a house.
Also, she probably took the bedroom.
Goddammit.
I start to rise. My eyes are back to being on fire.
“Getdown,” she orders again, voice still high and tight and this side of shaky.
I cough out what I’m fucking determined to make my last cough of the night, and I squint through the fuzzy haze of my burning eyeballs. “What the fuck did you put in the liquid?”
“What’s your name?”
Despite the lingering fear in her voice, I’m starting to hate this woman. I hope she has deep, dark secrets that I can find and ruin her with.
And yes, I also have an unfortunate level of respect for this home security system she rigged.
Like, boner-level respect.
At least, I will in the morning.
If my eyeballs survive. And if a few hours is enough time for my pride to recover from being beaten so very thoroughly at my own game.
No onegets the jump on me like this.
Not physically.
Mentally and emotionally—shit.
