Toxic (Denazen #2)(88)

“I will always bring you to the ER if you get hurt.”

I sighed. “I mean, you’re my best friend, Kale. My partner in crime. It’s you and me against everything else, remember? There’s nothing about my life that I don’t want to share with you, and I want you to feel the same way. I know I didn’t tell you about the poison, and I realize now how dumb that was. I was trying to protect you, and that was stupid. Jade was right about that. You don’t need protection—but neither do I. I won’t hide anything from you from now on, but you have to promise the same.”

He didn’t look convinced. “I love the way you look at me. There’s purity in it, and I don’t want to ruin it.”

“You couldn’t ruin it. There’s nothing you could have done—or would do that could make me change what I see when I look at you.”

“I think you underestimate Denazen.”





33


“I have something for you,” Kale said as we made our way down the hall toward the living room.

We’d talked for a little while, but in the end, we were both too antsy and headed off to see if anyone else shared our insomnia.

He pulled Kiernan’s cell from his pocket and held it out. “She dropped this.”

“Wow. I totally forgot about it.” I remembered Kiernan dropping it but had lost track of it after that.

“Shouldn’t you two be asleep?” Dax said, stepping out from one of the rooms.

“Too jittery,” I said, wiggling the fingers on my left hand. When I’d fallen asleep, they’d started to tingle. Now I could barely feel them. It was kind of a blessing. If they were numb, then I couldn’t feel the pain.

He sighed and pointed down the hall. “Everyone else is in the kitchen. Kale, can you give us a minute?”

Kale hesitated. He liked Dax just fine, but sometimes when he looked at the guy, I could almost swear he was hearing the angry things that were said when Dax first found out I was Marshall Cross’s daughter. I couldn’t blame Dax. Denazen had stolen his twin nieces, and he would have done just about anything to get them back.

After a few seconds, Kale nodded and disappeared around the corner.

“I need to talk to you.” Dax leaned against the wall. “You might have noticed—”

“If this is about Mom, then no worries. You’re both adults.”

He nodded. “No. I know—but there’s a slight age difference. I didn’t want it to be weird for you or anything.”

“I dunno. Might be weird if I didn’t have a crap ton of other things to worry about.”

He folded his arms. “You were really going to turn yourself in, weren’t you?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Silence would confirm his suspicion as easily as talking would allow him to see my intentions. Lose-lose.

“Come on. We’ve already got a plan in the works. No one is going back to Denazen.”

When we entered the kitchen, I saw Kale and I weren’t the only ones who couldn’t sleep. Ginger was at the table between two younger guys—both with their shirts on for once. Mom was sitting at the center island, a Coke in one hand and a cigarette in the other, while Alex sat across from her twirling napkins in the air just above their heads.

Kale was standing in the doorway. “You’re okay?”

“Right as acid rain.”

His forehead furrowed, but he didn’t ask.

“Whatever the plan is,” I said, turning to the rest of them. “We need to do it soon.” I held out my arm and tried not to gag. The spidery black lines were now almost to my wrist. I’d looked in the mirror before leaving my room and saw they’d also passed my neck. Any minute now, they’d start creeping up the side.

“How fast can we rally the troops?” Mom asked. She was slightly pale.

“Call Cross,” Ginger said. “Arrange to meet him. Let him pick the place and time. He needs to think this is on his terms—that you’re desperate.”

I pulled out Kiernan’s phone and thumped it on the table. “I am desperate, so, not a stretch there.”

“Tell him your only stipulation is that he must bring Aubrey with him.”

“We’re a little short on manpower, Ginger.” Alex snapped his fingers and the napkins fluttered to the table. “Don’t you think Cross will bring back up?”

“Deznee is weak. He knows this. If she plays her part correctly, Cross will believe her to be scared and desperate. He won’t see this as a trap.”

Alex frowned. “That sounds a lot like underestimating the enemy.”

“We’ll bring everyone we can. Trust me, Alex. This will work out.”

Something in her voice sent chills down my spine. Like there was more to the sentence. This will work out—the way it was meant to. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, but I knew where her loyalties lay. To her gift and the weird code that went with it.

Still, I didn’t have a choice. I already had a backup plan if things went south. Picking up the phone, I scrolled through Kiernan’s contacts until I found Dad. Pushing send, I hoped—for a reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on—that it wasn’t really my dad that answered.

“Hello, Deznee.”