Twisted (Never After #4)(37)

“Now.” Ali claps his hands together, moving back and staring at the two of us. “How about a wedding?”





“Tinashe, friend, tell me what the problem is,” I ask, leaning back in my desk chair, peering out over the skyline of Badour from the wall of windows in my office. The sun is just setting, oranges clashing with pinks until the view creates a stunning glow across the tops of the shiny skyscrapers.

“Julian,” Tinashe breathes out, sounding relieved. “Darryn is not happy that you’re coming into his territory and trying to steal the lost lamp out from under him.”

I grab a pen, tapping it on the desk, irritated that I have to deal with this situation at all. “Remind me again, old friend, why I pay you?”

There’s a long beat of silence before his deep voice comes over the line again. “I’m not a miracle worker, Julian. I can get you a lot of places and make friends with a lot of people, but I am no genie. I can’t wave my arms and suddenly make it okay for you to come in illegally and smuggle out relics from other countries.”

I scoff, tossing the pen in my hand down, watching as it rolls across my desk. “Darryn Anders couldn’t care less about smuggling relics. He practically coined the operation.”

Tinashe clicks his tongue. “But he does care about someone else trying to beat him to the lamp. He’s been there almost a decade looking for himself.”

Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “And that’s our problem how?”

“He wants you gone. Period. I’m just looking out for the people you have here on the ground. Darryn isn’t known to be gentle with his points.”

I shake my head, annoyance pouring over me like rubbing alcohol on wounds. The last thing I want to do is give in and reason with Darryn, but his resources there are much stronger and rooted in years of work, whereas ours is a newer venture. I need to be smart about this, treat it as a business deal instead of something I’m fighting against. Lull him into a false sense of comfort so that he doesn’t cause us more problems down the road. Once I have the lamp, it won’t matter. We’ll leave the area, and he can’t do anything else to get in my way.

“Does Jeannie know about this?”

Tinashe chuckles. “Jeannie knows about everything, Julian. That’s why she’s the lead.”

My fingers tighten around my phone, annoyed that she hasn’t said anything about Darryn Anders directly to me. Actually, I haven’t gotten a single email from her since she told me about the new spot she wanted to look the other day, and if she already knew about Darryn, it’s irritating she didn’t include that in her update.

“Let me see what I can manage,” I say.

Tinashe grunts and I hang up before he can say anything else. I bring up Ian’s number and send him a text.

Me: Do not do ANYTHING outside the compound until you hear from me. Take the boy there and stay put. I’ll be very annoyed if you get yourself killed. And talk to Jeannie, figure out where we stand with the search. Ask her about Darryn Anders and why she didn’t feel the need to tell us something so important.





Before I can even put my phone down, it vibrates again in my hand, and the bad mood that’s been coiling around my back cinches a little tighter.

Mamma flashes across the screen.

Indecision weighs down my shoulders. I run my tongue over the front of my teeth, my fingers tap, tap, tapping on my desk as I watch the call go to voicemail. Only then do I let out a breath, guilt swirling in my stomach at the fact that I didn’t pick up again.

I make a mental note to call her nurse, Jessica, and make sure she doesn’t need anything, which she shouldn’t. I put her up in a gorgeous four-thousand- square-foot home on the lake, giving her the best care money can buy.

And still, it’s not enough to get her off my back.

A voicemail notification pops up and I press Play on speaker, my mother’s voice filling the room.

“Vita mia, it’s mommy dearest.”

Her voice is low and soft, as though she can barely muster up the strength to whisper, which only further proves I made the right choice in not picking up the phone. There’s no escaping her doom and gloom when she wants to spread it to the world.

“Just trying to get ahold of you, you know? It’s lonely here all by myself.” She sighs. “Jessica says you’re a busy man, but what type of kid is too busy to call his mother? Anyway, I hope I get to talk to you soon, and I hope you’re not lying in a ditch somewhere, God forbid. Not that I’d ever be called if you were. It’s like I’m a stranger even though I gave you life, but you know, that must not mean as much these days as it did when I was growing up.”

Reaching over, I press a key on my computer keyboard to light up my screen, pulling up my emails as I listen to her drone on.

“I don’t know if you care, since you can’t even pick up the phone, but the doctors aren’t sure how much longer I have left. It could be any day now, so I pray I get to hear your sweet voice again before it’s too late. You’re the only thing that keeps me going.”

The need to check in on her surges through my chest, but it’s anger that burns my heart. For years, her words would bleed into my conscience, make me think that time was limited and she was going to die. But you can only cry wolf so many times before people stop believing.