Page 68 of Ready Or Not
She just starts picking the crust off the sandwich. “I can hear her screaming, you know.”
She can hear it all the way from down here. I hate that. I cock an eyebrow. “You think just because Riley defends you that you’re safe?”
“No, I know I’m not safe at all.” Rachel takes a bite, and despite myself, I sit there and watch her. She’s mouthy. Riley definitely likes mouthy. She picks fights with me any chance she gets. Is that what Rachel has that I don’t?
I watch Rachel eat, noticing the skin around her nails is bloody and ripped up.
Rachel sighs. “So, like, are you gonna kill me now or later? The suspense is killing me.”
“Later. Once I can convince Riley she’s making a huge mistake.” Again, I expect some big emotion out of Rachel, but she’s just still for another moment, then takes a bite. Slowly, she starts picking at her bloody fingers absently.
“What did Riley say?” I ask. “When you were at Noel’s?”
Rachel blinks, then focuses on me. “What?”
“What did she say? About him?”
She looks up and away, which I know means she’s remembering. “Nothing, really.”
“Right.” I draw the word out.
Rachel glares at me. “I told you the first time I met you that I’m an honest person. I don’t lie. Riley said nothing. There was no one there. Nothing there.”
“Then why did she take you there?” I narrow my eyes.
Rachel snorts like I asked something amusing. When I just look at her, she stares at me. Then she shakes her head. “You’re just as clueless as she is, aren’t you?”
I clench my jaw.
“How? How is this my life?” Rachel’s voice is pitched high. “My whole life, I’ve struggled to understand people. I’m always thinking about how I read a situation wrong, but there are people out there who are worse than me, and now I have to explain it to them in a way that won’t get me killed?” She gives an incredulous laugh. “Man, fuck my life.”
I just eye her.
“Look.” Rachel runs a hand through her blue-streaked hair. “You guys need to figure out a way to flirt with each other that isn’t fighting. And killing.”
I stare blankly at her.
“You’ve really fucked up. I’ve never seen a woman more pissed off at someone in my life. Whatever you did, you royally fucked it up.”
I’m up and at Rachel’s throat in a flash. I pin her against the stairway railing. “What did you just say?”
She laughs, and I can feel her throat bobbing in my hand. How easy it would be to crush it.
She puts her small hands over mine. Her touch is so delicate, I hardly feel it. I apply pressure, watching her arch her back.
“I could help you.” She gasps. “But you’d have to keep me alive. Give me a bed. And a real toilet.”
I stare down at the tiny woman who’s become almost as big a pain as Riley. Is she actually…bargaining with me? “And why would I do that?”
“Because,” she coughs and laughs. “I have something you don’t.”
“And what’s that?” I narrow my eyes.
“Love.” She meets my gaze. “I know how to love. And you need that if you’re ever going to get your wife to love you back.”
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Antisocialist - Asking Alexandria