Tremble by Jus Accardo

cold tomato sauce the next morning. It was a good match-up. Denazen wouldn’t dare attack them—they’d be too afraid to get in the middle of their squabbling.
    When I turned back to the room, Mom glared at me. “Can I trust you—”
    “To behave?” I finished for her. “Not likely.”
    “Behave?” she balked. “The most I can hope for is that you exercise some amount of common sense.”
    As Mom settled into her new role in my life, it had become obvious we were a lot alike. I got my strength and stubbornness from her, as well as my gleaming sarcastic wit. “I’ll be careful,” I said.
    She nodded, but beside her, Dax didn’t look convinced. They left without another word, leaving Ginger and me alone.
    “Who are you forcing me to take? And if you say the kid who can read minds and smells like mothballs, deal’s off.”
    “You can go alone,” she said after a moment.
    “Can?”
    “I leave it up to you.”
    “Well, that’s stupid. You know I’m going to choose solo—but why? You made Alex take Jade.”
    She didn’t answer and I understood. Bait. She was using me as bait. “Kale is going to be there, isn’t he?”
    “It’s a possibility,” she responded, expression neutral.
    “And that’s code for yes—not that you’d actually tell me.”
    “It’s code for maybe. The chances of him being there are good. And no. If I knew for sure I wouldn’t tell you, but the truth is, I don’t know for sure.”
    I wasn’t sure I bought that. “So you’re on the fritz, then?”
    She looked insulted. “Most certainly not. You accuse me of knowing every little detail about your lives and keeping it a secret for my own personal gain, Deznee, but I don’t know how many times I can tell you that’s not the way it works.”
    I rolled my eyes. Here we go.
    “I don’t know what cereal you’re going to wake up and eat. I have no idea what garish outfit you’ll put on or what crazy color your hair will be from day to day. I only know the key points—the defining moments in your life. The things in between are hidden from me.”
    “And my going to check out this name isn’t one of them.”
    “No.”
    “But you still think there’s a chance Kale might show up?”
    “I believe it’s possible, yes.”
    “Why?”
    She hesitated, fidgeting with the handle of her cane before lifting her gaze to mine. “I knew you would go to Ashley’s last night.”
    “So last night was one of those defining moments?” I thought back to the woods. Nothing really stood out as epic.
    “It was. But not for you.”
    That’s when I understood. She hadn’t seen me there through my path—she’d seen me there through Kale’s. “So you’re using me as bait, then. Correct?”
    Ginger wasn’t one to apologize for her actions or the way she viewed the world—and that was fine with me. “Essentially. Is that a problem?”
    “It’s Kale. It’s no problem. And what’s the big, right? You just said this wasn’t one of those life-defining moments. That means I’m not gonna bite it, because that’s pretty defining in my opinion.” I waited for her to correct me, or at the very least, twitch, but I got nothing. “Plus, this makes you feel a little more human.”
    Her brows shot up, and for the first time since we’d met, she looked genuinely pissed off. “You think I don’t want to find my grandson? That I don’t care?”
    I made my way around the table and stopped for a moment in the doorway. She loved Kale in her own way, but Ginger was single-mindedly focused on ripping down Denazen. She believed that since her family was responsible for its creation, it was her job to see it destroyed. I had no delusions that all of us weren’t considered possible collateral damage.
    “I know you care, Ginger—but you don’t care nearly as much as I do.”



10
    Ginger was kind enough to let me shower and shove a breakfast bar down my throat before practically shoving me into the elevator and out the front door. I’d