Slow Agony (8 page)

“So, you’re going to school?”

She laughed. “Yup. Well, it’s break now. We finished our finals last week. But, yeah. Silas and I are both doing the college thing. It’s way more fun than the assassin thing.”

“I bet it is,” I said.

We got to the top of the steps. There were two doors and another set of steps.

“This is my room,” she said, pointing to one of the doors. She pointed to the other. “And my bathroom. Silas’ room is downstairs. Yours is all the way at the top.”

“This place has three stories?” I’d hardly been able to tell from outside.

“Four, if you count the basement,” she said. “It’s finished. I think it was supposed to be like a party room, but we work out down there and stuff.” She plunged up the next set of steps.

“This
is
a cool house,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said.

The room I was staying in was small but cozy. It had a single bed, a dresser, and its own TV. There was also a tiny bathroom off to one side with its own shower. I turned around in a circle. “This is just a guest room?”

She shrugged. “We talked about getting a roommate, but we don’t really need one. We asked Griffin if he wanted to move in, but he seems to like having his own space.”

I turned to her. “Thanks for letting me stay. I appreciate it.”

“Sure,” she said. “You were injected with the serum, right?”

I nodded. That seemed like a strange way to take the conversation.

“Well, I think it might be cool to have someone else to talk about it with. Someone who’s not a guy, you know? Because most of the Op Wraith assassins were male.”

Oh. Okay. She was offering me friendship. “Yeah. I get that.”

She straightened a knick knack on the dresser. “I don’t have a lot of friends that are girls.”

I smiled. “Me either. The ones I have seem to keep getting killed.”

She smiled back. “I’m hard to kill.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to get to know you.”

Silas had his head in the refrigerator. “There are no more leftovers, Sloane.”

“I’m ordering pizza,” she said as she led me into the kitchen. It was a wide open space, with the stove located on an island in the middle. The lighting dangled from the ceiling, and the appliances were sleek and stainless steel. She gestured for me to sit down at the kitchen table. “You like pizza, right, Leigh?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Of course.”

Silas closed the refrigerator door. He surveyed me. “So why’d Griffin kick you out of his house and send you to us?”

“Silas, don’t be an ass,” said Sloane, dialing on her phone.

“He didn’t tell you?” I said.

Silas sat down at the table across from me. “No.”

“I made his girlfriend mad,” I said.

“Daisy?” said Silas. “The Sunday school chick?”

“Yeah.”

He shook his head. “Man, I do
not
know why he’s dating her.”

“She’s nice,” said Sloane. “You guys are okay with pepperoni, right?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Sure,” said Silas. He turned back to me. “That’s the thing, though. Nice. It’s like he’s afraid to be with someone he might actually like. Because whatever you did to him, you royally fucked the boy up.”

“Silas, geez,” said Sloane. Into her phone, “Um, hi. I want to place an order?”

“It’s okay,” I said. “He didn’t tell you why we broke up either?”

“He doesn’t talk much about you at all,” said Silas. “And when he does, he gets this look on his face. All shot through with agony and pain and shit. I feel bad for him.”

I bit my lip. I felt bad for him too. Judging from the way he’d been with Daisy, I’d assumed he’d moved on. But the more I found out, the more apparent it became that it wasn’t like that at all. Griffin was as lost without me as I was without him. I had to find some way to make him see that. No matter how we’d hurt each other, we needed each other.

“So,” said Silas. “What’d you do to him?”

I looked down at the table.

Sloane hit Silas on the back of the head. “You’re such a dick.”

“Ow.” He glared at her, rubbing his head. “I was only asking.” He turned to me. “If you don’t want to talk about it, just say so.”

“It was really complicated,” I said. “A bunch of stuff happened. I don’t even know how to explain all of it.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something a chick would say,” said Silas. “Girls always make it complicated.” He got up from the table and went back to the refrigerator. “Did Sloane tell you I brew my own beer?”

“We haven’t actually been talking about you that much,” said Sloane, sitting down at the table. “Not everything on earth revolves around you.”

He rolled his eyes. “So, you want a homebrew or what?”

“Sure,” I said. I didn’t think I’d ever had homemade beer before.

“It’s good,” said Sloane. “You’ll like it.” She leaned back in her chair. “You going to offer your twin sister one too?”

Silas handed us mason jars with the lids firmly screwed on. They were filled with cloudy, brown liquid.

“Thank you,” said Sloane, unscrewing hers.

“You guys are twins?” I said.

Silas sat back down with his own mason jar. “Yeah. We think Jolene French recruited us for the novelty of it. Twin assassins. She was a sick piece of work.”

“Oh, I met her,” I said, taking the lid off my beer. “This is kind of like a glass and a bottle all at the same time.”

“Exactly,” said Silas. “I thought of it.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Sloane.

“Griffin was different back in Op Wraith, don’t you think?” said Silas.

I took a tentative sip of my beer. It was yeasty and a little bitter. Not as foamy as something I’d get on tap at The Purple Fiddle.

“Then he is now?” said Sloane. “We were all different.”

I took another taste of the beer. “This is good,” I decided.

“Thanks,” said Silas. He turned back to his sister. “No, I mean, back then he was really closed off, and now he seems kind of more open.”

“We’re all that way,” said Sloane. “We had to be closed off. We were ordered to kill people all the time. It doesn’t tend to make people friendly.”

“Okay, I’ll stop trying to put it politely, then,” said Silas. “In Op Wraith, he was an asshole. Now, he’s cool.”

Sloane chewed on her lip. “Well, I mean, we didn’t know him that well back then. Maybe he was always cool, and we didn’t know?” She shrugged. “Or maybe it was falling in love with Leigh that changed him.”

Silas leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know. He’s completely wrecked if you ask me. If that’s the way you feel after you fall in love, then I’m glad it’s never happened to me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Silas is a manwhore.”

He shrugged. “Chicks dig the piercings. What can I say?”

I took another drink of my beer. “I think it takes time for Griffin to open up. When I first met him, he was kind of an ass. He didn’t talk much. But after we spent some time together, I realized that he was a really good guy.”

“That’s so sweet,” said Sloane. She looked at Silas. “Do you think Griffin still has feelings for Leigh?”

“Why are you asking me that? I have no idea.”

“Because you’re a guy,” she said.

“And I just explained that I don’t do that ‘feelings’ shit,” he said. He got up from the table. “Maybe when I’m like thirty or something and there’s nothing left for me to do but have kids.”

“You said that he seems sad when he talks about me,” I said. “Do you think it’s because he misses me or because he hates me?”

“I don’t know.” He picked up his beer. “When’s the pizza coming?”

“Soon,” said Sloane.

Silas loped out of the room, pausing in the doorway to look back at Sloane and me. “I like you a hell of a lot better than that prissy Daisy chick. I think Griffin does too if he’s honest with himself.”

Sloane appeared in my doorway. “Come with me.
Now
.”

I got up off my bed, where I’d been sprawled out with a trashy romance novel. “What?” I’d been staying with Sloane and Silas for nearly a week at this point and I’d yet to see Sloane look so excited.

“Come on.”

I followed her down the steps, into the foyer and around the corner. I could hear voices coming from the kitchen. They were both male, and one belonged to Silas.

Sloane stopped me. She put a finger to her lips. “Listen,” she whispered.

“She’s fine,” Silas was saying. “And honestly, it’s probably better if you don’t see her. You know how chicks get. You say one nice thing to them, and they think that you’ve suddenly promised to buy them a ring. You talk to her, it’ll only make things worse.”

“So, but what’s she doing?” said the other voice.

My eyes widened. Griffin. What was he doing here?

Sloane was grinning and bouncing on her toes in excitement.

“Doing? She’s not doing anything. She’s on house arrest. That’s what you said. Keep her out of sight until this thing blows over.”

“So she’s like staring at the walls?”

“No, she’s hanging out with Sloane and watching movies and shit,” said Silas. “The point is she’s fine. You’re feeling guilty because you dumped her here and didn’t keep her at your place, but I’m telling you, don’t feel that way. You’re done with her. So just go home and call up Daisy and fuck the shit out of her.”

Griffin laughed. “That’s what you’d do.”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Look, all I want to do is say hello for a minute. Make sure she’s okay. And then I’m gone.”

“Why are you pushing this?” said Silas. “Did you break up with your girlfriend or something?”

Griffin didn’t answer.

“Oh my God,” said Silas. “You broke up with your girlfriend?”

“It was sort of mutual,” said Griffin. “She wasn’t much of a girlfriend anyway.”

“Well, yeah,” said Silas. “That’s true. I’m glad you said it and not me. But she was really, uh, you know, not the kind of girl I see you with.”

“What kind of girl do you see me with?”

“Actually,” said Silas, “you know what your problem is, Griffin? You limit yourself too much. You don’t have to be with any one kind of girl. You can be with every kind of girl. Why don’t you come out with me tonight and find some stupid, sexy coed to take home and treat like crap? That’ll make you feel better.”

Sloane’s eyes got big. She charged into the kitchen. “Don’t you dare do any such thing, Silas.”

“What, are you eavesdropping on my conversations?” said Silas. “What’s your problem?”

“Griffin should not be out taking home random sluts,” said Sloane. “He obviously wants Leigh back.”

“Um,” said Griffin, “I only came over to check on her. I didn’t say anything like that.”

“But it’s obvious,” said Sloane.

“No,” he said. “I only want to make sure she’s okay.”

I walked into the kitchen. “I’m fine.”

Griffin raised his eyebrows. “Leigh. You were eavesdropping too?”

I avoided his eyes.

“Don’t be mad at her,” said Sloane. “I made her do it.”

“So, you’re okay?” Griffin said to me.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Well, that was the only reason I was here.” He shuffled out of the kitchen. “I’ll see you in a week when this is all over.”

We heard the door shut after him.

Sloane punched Silas in the arm. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Ouch,” he said. “Don’t hit me. You’re a lot stronger than you think you are.” He rubbed his arm.

“You tried to get Griffin to go out and hook up with random girls? Why would you do that?”

“I was only trying to get him to have fun,” said Silas.

“What about Leigh?” asked Sloane.

Silas looked at me. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “Griffin wouldn’t do that anyway.”

“If Griffin wants to make up with Leigh, he will,” Silas told Sloane. “It doesn’t matter what I do. I can’t control him.” He started out of the room, but he stopped in front of me. “I just want you to know that what I said was nothing personal. I happen to think you’re great.” Then he left the kitchen.

Sloane took a deep breath. “Well, it could have gone better, I guess.”

“Nothing happened,” I said.

“Are you kidding? First we found out that Griffin’s thinking about you and worried about you enough to come check on you. Then we found out he broke up with his girlfriend. These are all very good signs, Leigh.”

I had to smile. “You’re right. They are good signs.”

“He wants you back. That’s all there is to it.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “What Silas said is true. If he wanted me back, he’d do something about it. And he isn’t doing anything.”

“Sure he is,” she said. “Be patient.”

“I don’t know how patient I can be,” I said. “After the two weeks is up, I don’t know what happens. That could be the end. Griffin thinks the guy will give up after that.”

Sloane raised her eyebrows. “Give up? That’s his plan? To sit here and wait and hope that the guy gives up?”

“Um, as far as I know,” I said.

“That’s the worst plan ever.” She tore out of the kitchen. I heard the front door open and her voice as she called after Griffin.

“He gave you a meeting place?” said Silas. We were all in the kitchen, sitting around the table drinking homebrews. “And you’re not going?”

Griffin shrugged. “I’m not going to follow his stupid plan. I never want to see that guy again.”

“Dude, I’m not saying to follow the plan,” said Silas. “I’m saying we know where he’s going to be. We need to take him out.”

“Yeah,” said Sloane. “That’s how we end this. You go to meet him, and Silas and I back you up. Hell, I’ll shoot him myself.”

Silas pointed back and forth between himself and his sister. “You know that’s how we worked our missions for Op Wraith, right? One of us went in face-to-face, and the other hung back in hiding. If you have both me and Sloane at the perimeter, then this guy’s toast.”

Griffin ran a finger around the edge of his mason jar. “I don’t know. I don’t want to put you guys in danger.”

“What danger?” said Sloane. “He won’t even know we’re there. All we have to do is put a bullet in his head. It’s easy.”

“Definitely,” said Silas.

“Um,” I spoke up. “It might not be that easy. I shot him before. In the throat. And I could swear he was dead, but then he showed up at my apartment.”