Page 95 of Bound in Ashes

How they—we—watched like it was nothing.

I risked glancing at Jack.

His expression was stony but unaffected.

He wasn’t falling apart inside.

Rage, white-hot flashed through me.

“I said⁠—”

He cut me off, voice flat. “I heard you. And I am.”

“Why?” I spat before I grimaced. Didn’t I just tell myself to shut the fuck up?

Oh well.

“What did you and Chris have to talk about after that little display?”

“Little display? Is that what you call it?” I said incredulously.

“What did you talk about, Asia?”

His voice was calm.

Deceptively so.

I gulped.

Literally gulped.

And I didn’t gulp.

I remembered when I was fourteen and I indulged in a bit of shoplifting. I was caught dead to rights, pocket stuffed with all of the costume jewelry I could carry.

Stupid, because I didn’t even have pierced ears.

Anyway, I stood there eye to eye—almost literally—with the head of mall security and lied my way out.

No gulping was involved.

But now?

Driving along an abandoned highway in a fallen world, I gulped.

“He’s not my friend, Jack,” I said.

“Don’t bullshit me, Asia.”

“Hold on a second,” I said, my voice coming out rough. I looked around, eyes frantically searching.

For what? I wasn’t really sure.

But apparently there was a confrontation afoot, and I was going to have it.

Better that than the alternative.

I pulled off the shoulder.