“I didn’t know your dog was paralyzed,” I force out, but it sounds wrong. Strangled and strange. The words hover in the air, which is suddenly thick and oppressive between us. It’s almost easier to talk to Wraith, snarky sarcastic bastard that he is.
“Yeah.” Leena nods. She stares out the living room window which overlooks the street as if there was something to see, but there isn’t. The street is totally silent. “There’s a lot that you don’t know.”
I sink down beside her, the sheets between us like the barrier we seem to need. I don’t blame Leena for being pissed off at me. For a fuckton of reasons.
“What were you doing in Tampa, Ami? You never told us anything. I mean, not really. Other than texts here and there to let us know you were still alive.”
I find the courage to turn and look Leena in the face. She doesn’t really look like Steph or me, but then again, we’re like polar opposites. She’s somewhere in the middle. Average height. Mahogany-hued hair that falls nearly to her waist. Big eyes, full lips, higher cheekbones—though not as sharp as Steph’s. She’s not exactly curvy, but she somehow manages to look womanly enough in her tight-fitting jeans and her plain black tank top.
I expect to find anger in her eyes. Bitterness even. Rage. Disgust. Distaste. Something. Not Leena, though. She’s always been nice, like Steph. I’m not sure why, given that her mother dumped her off at our father’s house when she was twelve and she was raised primarily by him, a guy who didn’t give a shit about any of his daughters, simply because they weren’t sons.
Her eyes are soft and placid as she waits for my response. I haven’t been honest with anyone in a long time, and I figure that I owe her the truth.
“The Riders pay for my apartment.” I manage, somehow, not to wince when I say it. “I work part time as a waitress and since I could afford it because my living costs were covered, I went to school. I took accounting, so that I can actually get a job. I’m actually just about finished. I mean, I am. I’m waiting for my marks, but I know I passed. Took a week off waitressing. I thought that now was as good a time as ever. Now that I’m able to provide for myself with a better job.”
“Really?” She actually does look surprised, and it makes me want to wince again.
“Yeah.”
“Accounting?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you manage that? It seems really boring and you were never…”
“That dedicated to anything?”
Leena flushes. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
I shrug, even though her words are pretty much a knife straight into the soft spot in my chest that I like to pretend doesn’t exist.If only she knew.Then again, she’ll never know. Just like the rest of my family. There’s a reason the term,personalhell, exists.
“It’s fine. I know what you mean. I was pretty wild in the past. It was one of the reasons our father decided to marry us off as a package. I guess I dragged you and Steph down withme, since I was such a thorn in his side and he figured you guys would turn out the same, even though Steph was following a different path and you lived under his roof and weren’t allowed to have any fun at all.”
“We survived. It was a good thing, in the end. Steph is ridiculously happy.”
“And you?”
That pretty flush is back, staining Leena’s cheeks a soft pink. Her eyes change, shining strangely, and that sickening love struck look that I noticed everyone else wearing at my nephew’s party is back.
Ugh.
“I’m happy,” she says softly, in that kind of voice that she probably usually reserves just for Wraith. “It hasn’t been easy, but what marriage is? We were strangers and we had a lot to learn about each other. It’s been good, though.”
“I can’t believe Steph is already a mom.”
“I can. She and Adam loved each other from the minute they saw each other. He’s a good man. Very nice. He looks at her like she’s his entire world and she thinks the same of him. It’s not really a surprise to me that they wanted a family right away. She’s already talking about giving Ethan a sibling soon, so I’m sure she’ll tell us all in a few months that they’re expecting again.”
“That’s crazy. I can’t believe it. I mean, it’s good for her, I just…”
“You haven’t been here.” It’s more of a statement than a judgment. “It would seem strange to you, since you weren’t here when she was pregnant. Dad’s been different too.”
I let out a hard gasp of disbelief that I wish I could have kept inside. “Dad? You’re calling himdadnow?”
Leena’s face reddens, but this time, for a completely different reason. “He’s been softer, ever since Leena and I… well, Tracker…” She shakes her head hard, like she doesn’t want to talk about it, and I get it. That bastard nearly ruined all of our lives with his vendetta against Steel Riders and my father. “He told me that he didn’t try and pawn us off to solidify things with The Riders. He wanted us to be happy. He didn’t want us to have to endure men like him. He wanted us safe and looked after. Cherished. He asked Steel to pick us good men. Men who needed us as badly as we needed them, even if none of us knew it at the time. He was genuinely sorry about the things he did in the past.”
I tuck that away to save it for later. I’m not going to analyze my father’s apparent change of heart and that new information at the moment. It would take weeks, maybe months, to process that properly. Leena’s statement is so incongruous with the man I knew a year ago.
“You mean, having like a million kids, all with different women, then discarding them like trash?”
