I swear I could hear the air move. Venus froze, her hand in the air like sheâd been paused while conducting an orchestra. She was in stasisâa fly stuck forever in amber. Then I saw her pupils shrink and the tiny muscles around her mouth tighten. I felt a squeeze in my gut and a cold chill run down my spine. I was in it now. Licking my suddenly dry lips, I continued. âI donât care what beef you have with Duncan. Heâs off limits.â
I have a rule: I donât kill people who hang out in my kitchen. If I did that, no one would ever visit.
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DUNCAN is the closest thing Iâll ever have to a grandpa, and I hang on like hell to family. I never knew my dad, I lost my mom, and Iâm not losing anyone else. Even if I didnât care, Cade loves Duncan, and thatâs enough for me.
Cade was never close to his parents. From the stories he tells me, it sounds like he has what Lock calls pod-baby syndrome. Itâs like someone stole the baby his parents were supposed to have and left Cade in its place. They werenât evil, they just didnât get along with their kid. Still, they managed to go through the motions, until Cade met my mom. Cadeâs parents didnât like Lilia because they thought her parents were, and I quote, âneâer-do-wells.â (They werenât entirely wrongâLiliaâs parents were Coterie, so they certainly werenât up to any good most days, but I wouldnât say they never did well. A bit of an exaggeration there, I think.) Cadeâs parents forbade the friendship. Cade ignored them. The die was cast, so to speak.
By the time he turned sixteen, heâd packed a bag and decided to live in his carâa car bought with his own money. That lasted all of one week before Duncan found him camping out in the woods by Duncanâs cabin. After that, Cade lived with Duncan until he was old enough to get his own place. Cadeâs parents didnât seem to mind. They moved to Vermont shortly after their son walked out. He gets a card every year on Christmas. They sign it with their names, not âMom and Dadâ or anything. No mention of love or missing him or even best wishes. Just their names. I donât think they even know about me. Every year he gets the card, reads it out loud, and then, with much pomp and ceremony, turns it into a paper airplane that he throws and I incinerate midflight. Traditionâitâs important in a family.
Duncan always seemed to know when Cade heard from his parents. I guess it wasnât hard to gaugeâone card on his birthday and another on Christmas, but still. Weâd get the card, and then Duncan would show up. At Cadeâs birthday, heâd show up with a bottle of stout, and during the winter holidays heâd appear with mulled cider and whiskey. Then heâd sit by the fire and whittle, and Iâd make him tell stories about Cade as a teenager. Even though heâd run away from home, Cade really didnât get into much trouble when he was young. Well, unless my mother was involved.
Venus knew I wouldnât take this contract, with Duncan as the target. She had to. So why push me on this? She was usually more careful, which meant she wanted him bad enough to risk losing me as an asset, or it was a trick somehow. I kept turning it around in my head and couldnât figure out my angle.
âWhy him? Why now?â Everyone subtly moved back a few steps. Questioning Venus led to punishment unless she was in a good mood. Since she wasnât in a good mood until after she punished you, it was pretty much guaranteed.
Owen stayed where he was. Venus didnât scare him.
Venus looked at her nails, either admiring her manicure or wondering what damage her nails could do. It could have been either one. âI have reports that heâs building his own little army. Well-substantiated reports. I canât have that happening practically on my doorstep,
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