Page 12 of Pretty Nightmare

“Do you think Donovan knows?”

“He better not. I’ll kill that fucker with my bare hands if I find out he’s been keeping that secret.”

“But wouldn’t he have gotten all the files when he inherited the estate?”

I know the answer to this. It’s always bothered me too. But I don’t want Indie thinking about the past. I just want her focused on the future. So I change the subject. “What did Donovan want with McKay?”

“Oh.” She laughs a little, then squirms in my embrace and props her chin on my chest as she smiles at me. “He’s gonna flirt with him.”

“What?”

“And maybe kiss him. McKay is so… straight.”

I chuckle. “He really is.”

“But that’s just because he’s… I dunno. A little bit uptight. Don’t you think?”

“A little?”

“A lot.” She laughs again. “So I told Donovan he needed to get McKay used to the fact that he’s in this, whether he planned for it or not.”

“In… what?”

“Us, you dummy. Me. You. Donovan. And McKay. I’m tired of taking turns in everyone’s bed when nothing ever fucking happens. Well.” She pauses.

“Well what? Is something happening?”

She shrugs one shoulder. “Donovan and I mess around a little.”

“Hmm.”

“Are you jealous?”

“No. Of Donovan? No.”

“It’s been months. We’re settled in. Things have gone back to normal. We’re more normal than ever, if you think about it. It’s time to move on. Just… be who we’ve always known we are.”

“What are we?”

“A team.” She says this simply. And her voice is a little bit small. It’s easy to forget Indie is very young. She’s got an old soul, for sure, but twenty-four is practically a child. I think back to when I was twenty-four—we’d had Indie for just one year back then. And I had no idea what I was doing. Of course, at the time I thought I had it all figured out, didn’t I?

I bought a girl at a Company auction. With the express intent of using her as a weapon. With the express intent of not using her for sex. With the express intent of never getting another one. Of never turning into my father.

But look where I am right now. I have Indie. I have Maggie.

And that’s just where it starts.

I almost laugh. I only hold it in because Indie will ask me what’s funny and I’m never gonna admit this shit out loud to anyone, let alone her.

But I turned into him anyway, didn’t I?

I am my father’s son.

“We’re on the same side, Adam,” Indie says.

She’s so naïve and young. Always has been and always will be. Indie is never going to be normal. She will never grow up.

She will always be that little girl in that cage.