Burn Before Reading(107)

“He mentioned it, but I didn’t think he’d really do it. Not to his own kids.”

“He’s trying. And he’s very serious about it.”

“Where are you guys gonna live? Do you have a place to go? You could stay here –”

“I’m not going to put anyone out like that,” He insists. “Jakob offered us a place to stay in exchange for helping him around the business.”

“The skydiving guy?”

He nods. The panic in my throat loosens.

“That’s good. That’s good, right? You guys will be okay, right? What about Lakecrest? Your dad practically owns the place –”

“They’ll be enrolling in public school nearby.”

“They? What about you? You don’t finish until next year.”

Burn stares into the guacamole. “I’m applying to jobs.”

“Burn, you can’t seriously drop out –”

“Someone has to,” Burn says. “And it should be me.”

“But – but there has to be another way –”

He puts a hand on my shoulder, a faint smile lifting his serious face.

“It’s what I have to do. To make up for some things.”

“Burn –”

“I can always go back to school,” He insists. “I’ll get a GED later. But right now, I need to secure a safe place for my brothers. I owe them that much.”

His bravery, his sacrifice. All of it looks so familiar. I tried to do a lot of things on my own, too.

“I won’t let you do this alone,” I steady my lip. “You have to let me help. If you guys need food, or clothes, or – god, did he let you keep anything of your own?”

“We brought only what we could carry,” He shakes his head. “Except Fitz has his computers, which is good. He tried to sell them, but I wouldn’t let him.”

“He’s acting like I can’t hack with a dinky old laptop,” Fitz’s voice resounds, and we turn to see him leaning against the doorway. “They pay good money to good hackers, you know. I’m looking into some leads.”

Burn makes a displeased grunt, and Fitz waves his hand.

“Don’t worry, it’s white-hat work. No police busting down our shabby little door, I promise.” He looks out the door to the living room, where Keri and Wolf still are. “Wolf’s trying to get a part-time job at a car garage, too. He’ll be good at it, if they just give him a chance.”

I’m quiet. Fitz pats me on the back.

“Don’t look so worried, Bee. We’ll be fine.”

“What if – what if your Dad won’t let Burn become your guardian?”

“It will be tough,” Burn says. “Getting the courts to agree with my side. But if I drop out and get a steady job once I turn eighteen, and with all the evidence of trying to get Wolf into one of those terrible ‘reorientation’ places, I’m hoping the courts will choose correctly.”

“And if they don’t?”

“They will,” Fitz says, his wink making the words no less ominous.

I watch Wolf from the doorway, his expression in deep concentration on the board game.

“I can’t let him get hurt,” I murmur. A hand ruffles my hair – Burn’s.

“I know. Me either.”

“Maybe stop worrying for half a second of your life,” Fitz drawls. “And try to have fun on your own damn birthday.” He’s been rummaging again, but this time he brings up a box of candles from a drawer. He empties it, one lone candle falling out. “This is seriously all you have? One candle?”

“It’ll be fine,” I assure him. “It’s just candles.”

“Oh no, absolutely not,” Fitz straightens, pulling Burn by the hand out of the kitchen. “We’re going to get you a full-ass set of candles if it’s the last thing I do on God’s green earth.”

“But –”

“We’ll be back soon,” Burn assures me. “Promise.”

“Keri!” Fitz screeches. “C’mon! We’re getting candles.”

“Candles?” She looks at me, confused. Her eyes slide over to an equally confused Wolf. “Uh, sure. Candles.”

And just like that they’re gone. Just like that, it’s me and Wolf and only me and Wolf in the house. My heart starts beating like crazy as I sit on the couch.

“Well that was a quick exit,” I say.

“I wanted to apologize,” Wolf murmurs. He’s staring at the Clue board like it’s the only thing that’s real in the world. “For what I said the other day.”

“Apologize?”

“You were under a lot of stress,” He continues. “And me adding to that…didn’t help.”

“Well, yeah. It kind of came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah.” He nods, his inhale sharp. “Well, you can go ahead, then.”

“And do what?”

“Tell me to fuck off?” He suggests. “Tell me I’m creepy? Something? Anything?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because what I said was….weird. And creepy. I wasn’t planning on telling you how I feel. Ever.”