Sweet Reckoning(14)

“Yeah,” I whispered. “I wonder if you’ll meet someone in Spain.”

She grinned up at me. “We’ll see. I don’t want anything serious, but I’m counting on a lot of hotties in my near future.”

“I’ll miss you,” I said.

She patted my hand. “Don’t get sappy. No tears. Just think of me when you do your nails, ’kay? And for God’s sake, don’t bite them anymore.”

My poor nails were the least of my concerns.





CHAPTER FIVE





MARNA



I missed Kaidan like crazy. It’d only been five days since our video chat, but it felt so much longer. We were trying to stay cautious—to chat only when we knew it was safe, but it was hard.

I was tired of bouncing around to different hotels every day, hanging out in their gross bars sipping Cokes so that if whisperers came I could jump into action. I was only eighteen, but I had a fake ID to buy alcohol if necessary. I was bored, lonely, and impatient, waiting for Dad to give me the thumbs-up to leave for Virginia Tech.

I was surprised to see Ginger’s number calling me that afternoon as I sat in my hotel room, reading about a swoony alien guy. Books were about the only thing that could distract my anxious mind.

“Is she with you?” Ginger asked, sounding frantic. “She” was obviously Marna.

“No.”

“Shite! She snuck off when we got stateside.”

I set down my book and sat up. “Are you here?”

“No. I’m in Newark, the armpit of the bleedin’ world. Will you find out if she’s with your friend and call me straight away?”

“Okay.”

We hung up, and I called Jay. It rang so many times I thought voice mail would pick up, but then he answered.

“What’s up?”

“Is Marna with you?” I asked.

“Um . . .” He got quiet.

“That’s a yes.” I sighed. This was not good.

I heard Marna say in the background, “Argh! Just tell my sister I’ll be back in time for our morning flight!”

“She just wanted to know where you were,” I said.

“Well, she’s suffocating me. I don’t have to answer to her.”

“Dude,” Jay said. “How can you two hear each other when the phone’s at my ear?”

We both got quiet.

“I’ll tell her she’s okay,” I said, and then hung up.

Ginger answered immediately and I told her, “She’s fine. She’s working here tonight, but she’ll be back in time for your flight in the morning.”

“Ugh!” Ginger screamed into the phone, and disconnected.

Four hours later I was sitting on a stool in a bar, playing a game on my phone and ignoring the stares from two men when Ginger called again.

“We need to meet so you can take me to them,” she said. “This has to stop.”

“You’re here? I don’t think this is a good—”

“Just meet me.” She sounded desperate.

We met in front of the superstore in Cartersville. We both stepped out of our cars into the humidity, searching the skies and crossing our arms.

“Take me to her,” Ginger demanded.

I hesitated.

“I think Marna needs to get this out of her system,” I told her. “I’m worried that the more you try to stop her, the more she’ll cling to him.”

She appeared to be barely containing her anger. “I swear, Anna. I’ll chain her up if I have to, but she is not staying another night with him. I won’t let her endanger herself for some stupid human boy.”

I took a deep breath. These were touchy circumstances. If whisperers caught Marna hooking up with a boy, just for fun and not for the purpose of making him cheat, her father would have her killed. Worse yet, the Dukes would probably make a spectacle of her death as a lesson to the other Neph about the importance of working.

“If I take you to her, will you promise to try and stay calm?”

Ginger gave me a tight smile. “I’ll be calm.”

I so did not believe that, but while I couldn’t tell her how to deal with her sister, I could tell her how to deal with my best friend.

“I can’t have you yelling at Jay. He doesn’t understand.”

“Fine.”