LITMIR.BIZ

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ever smiled at him before. And once again, none of what he had given up mattered, as long as this beautiful angel continued to smile at him like that.

      “Any sign of Brandon?” she asked, and immediately Justin felt wrenched from his temporary fantasy.

      “No, not yet.” He stared out the window, pretending to watch.

      Fact was, he had forgotten about Brandon, and even now, didn’t care if he showed up. He couldn’t figure out how the hell his brother, Eric, had been such good friends with the guy. Brandon wasn’t anything like Eric. In fact, he wished Brandon would just sorta disappear off the face of the earth. He was sick of him and his macho Casanova, oh-look-at-me-I’m-so-cool attitude. He didn’t care if he was supposedly some precious Father-in-training.

      Justin also couldn’t understand why Brandon had to tag along everywhere he and Alice went. The guy could have any girl he wanted. Why couldn’t he leave Alice the fuck alone? Except that Justin knew Father insisted members never travel anywhere alone. And since Justin wasn’t a full-fledged member yet, anyone with him would still be considered traveling alone.

      Eric had attempted to explain all the rules and crap to him, but then Father sent Justin out into the woods for almost a week. Father had called it an initiation ritual, and Eric hadn’t argued with the man. Although Justin still wasn’t sure what camping out, sleeping on the ground and eating cold canned beans had to do with being initiated into anything.

      Luckily, he had wandered into Shenandoah National Park, and some campers ended up taking him in—fed him pretty damn well, too. He worried he had put on weight instead of looking the emaciated, frightened fledgling that Father had hoped would return. Unfortunately, when he got back, Eric was gone, off on some top-secret mission that no one could tell him about. He hated all the cloak-and-dagger shit. It felt as goddamn stupid as it sounded.

      Alice scooted into a corner booth to wait. Justin hesitated. He really wanted to sit next to her. He could use the excuse that he needed to watch for Brandon, but Alice was already doing that, watching so intently he found himself hating Brandon for drawing away her attention.

      Justin slid into the booth on the opposite side. He surveyed the restaurant, checking to see if anyone cared that they take up a booth when they hadn’t ordered anything. The place was filled with late-night customers getting their Saturday-night junk-food fix. It was long past dinnertime. No wonder his stomach ached. The bite of Ginny’s pretzel was all he’d had since lunch. And not like that gummy rice and beans they fed him would last, despite it feeling like it stuck to the inside walls of his stomach. How the hell did they eat that crap day after day? And since they were on the road, today’s ration had been served cold. Yuck! He could still taste it.

      Realizing it might take a while, Alice wiggled out of her jacket. Justin followed her lead, trying not to stare at her incredible tits. Yet, he couldn’t stop thinking how hot she looked in that tight pink sweater.

      She reached into her jacket pocket and brought out the bulging leather pouch, clumping it down on the table and making the quarters chink against one another. Justin thought about asking if they could, at least, get a couple of Cokes. She had used only one quarter for the phone call that seemed to be a big part of their mission. But then Alice had left just a short message, some weird code about a cab ride.

      Justin didn’t try to figure it out. Truth was, he didn’t much care about the group’s politics or religious beliefs. Or even their travel arrangements, for that matter. He simply wanted to be with Alice. Not like he had any place better to be.

      He had been gone almost a month, and he doubted that his parents gave a fuck that he wasn’t around. Maybe they hadn’t even noticed he was gone. They certainly didn’t seem to care when Eric left home. All his dad said was that Eric was old enough to screw up his own life, if that’s what he wanted to do. But Justin didn’t want to think about them. Not now. Not when he was sitting across the table from the only person who had ever made him feel like he was someone special.

      Alice smiled at him again, but this time she pointed over his shoulder.

      “Here he is.”

      Brandon slid into the booth next to Alice, taking up too much space and squeezing Alice against the wall. She didn’t seem to mind, but Justin felt his hands clenching into fists, so he kept them in his lap under the table.

      “Sorry I’m late,” Brandon muttered, though Justin knew he didn’t mean it. He knew guys like Brandon said “sorry” like some people asked “how are you?”

      Justin examined the tall redhead, who reminded him of that dead actor in all those rebel movies—James Dean. Brandon’s head pivoted, his eyes looking everywhere except at the two of them. Justin glanced over his shoulder. Was Brandon worried someone had followed him? It sure as hell looked like it. His eyes kept darting all over the place. If Justin didn’t know better, he’d think Brandon was high on something. Except that was impossible. Brandon pretended to be a rebel, but he wouldn’t dare cross Father. And drugs were forbidden.

      “We need to get back to the bus,” Alice politely and quietly instructed them. “The others will be waiting.”

      “Give me a chance to catch my breath.” Brandon saw the pouch of quarters and reached for it. “I could use something to drink.”

      Justin waited for Alice to scold Brandon in her soft, strict way. Instead, she stared at his hands. Then Justin noticed what had stopped Alice. Brandon’s left knuckle had something caked on it. Something dark and red that looked an awful lot like blood.

      CHAPTER 17

       Reston, Virginia

      R.J. Tully held down the button on the remote and watched the TV’s channels flip one after another after another. Nothing on the screen could distract him from the clock on the wall—the clock that now showed twenty minutes after midnight. Emma was late! Another night of breaking curfew. No more Mr. Nice Guy, no matter what her excuse. It was time for RoboDad. If only it were possible to access some mechanical part inside himself and let it take over without emotion getting in the way.

      Nights like this made him miss Caroline the most. Probably a sign that parenthood had driven him completely over the edge. After all, shouldn’t a red-blooded guy miss his ex-wife’s sexy, long legs or even her to-die-for lasagne? There was a whole list of more likely things than missing her ability to sit next to him and reassure him that their daughter was just fine.

      Caroline had always been so creative in their plans for punishing Emma, zooming in on the one thing she knew would bug the hell out of their daughter. Simple things like making her sort all the household socks for the entire month. Stuff he’d never dream of in a million years. Sorting socks was fine when Emma was eight or nine and caught riding her bike past the territorial limits they had set. But at fifteen, it was increasingly difficult to get her attention, let alone find meaningful ways of disciplining her.

      He scraped a hand over his face, attempting to wipe away the sleep and the brewing anger. He was just tired. That’s why he was irritable. He left the TV on Fox News and traded the remote for the bag of corn chips he’d left on the secondhand coffee table. He had to sit up to make the exchange, and only now did he notice the remnants of his previous snack attack crumbling out from the folds of his Cleveland Indians T-shirt. Jeez! What a mess. But he made no effort to clean it up. Instead he sank back into the recliner. How much more pathetic could he get? Sitting here on a Saturday night, eating junk food and watching the late night news?

      Most days he didn’t have time to feel sorry for himself. However, Caroline’s earlier phone call had set him on edge. No, actually, it had pissed him off. She wanted Emma for Thanksgiving, and was sending the airline tickets by FedEx on Monday.

      “It’s all been worked out and scheduled,” she had told him. “Emma’s looking forward to it.”

      All worked out and scheduled before she even checked with him. He had custody of Emma, something Caroline had willingly agreed to when she decided having a teenage daughter had become an inconvenience to her as a CEO and new dating-game

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