Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride [91]
“It looks like they’re cooking,” he whispered to Brooke.
“Shh,” she said. “I think it’s a spell. Can you push the sides of my bag down a little bit more? I can’t see that well.” Ramon shoved down the sides. “Thanks,” she said. “Man, this is so cool. It’s like Practical Magic meets Rachel Ray or something.” Brooke glanced over at Mrs. W. “Or maybe Julia Child.”
Ramon shrugged. “Just looks like fancy cooking to me.” Brooke ignored him and kept watching, her eyes alight with curiosity.
Fascinating as it was, he still felt antsy. When his phone went off, he set Brooke’s bag on a corner table so she could see. Then he excused himself and went out back.
“Hello?”
“Tell me what you know.” The voice had a low growl in it and didn’t sound anything like the person Ramon had heard on the message. This voice wanted to bite his head off. The hair on the back of his neck began to rise. He pushed it down with the palm of his hand.
“Douglas has her, but I don’t know where.”
The man grunted. “That’s okay. I think we do.” He sounded like he was about to hang up.
“Wait,” Ramon said. “Tell me where. He has my friend, too.”
The line went quiet. “Please,” he said. “Fine, but don’t get in our way. And if my daughter gets harmed because of your bumbling, your blood is mine.”
“Understandable.” Ramon said it like people threatened his blood all the time. He ran in and got a pen so he could write down the address.
Once he had the information, he couldn’t stand still. Sitting back down with Brooke and the girls was unbearable. Sam needed his help. Ramon was useless here. He had to go as soon as he could. His heart thudded away at the decision. He was used to being the one that got them in trouble. It was usually his fault they got chased by security guards for skateboarding in the wrong places; it was his fault they’d gotten detention over and over in high school. His fault they got thrown out of the Sadie Hawkins dance. All worth it, of course, but his fault. But he’d never before had to seriously worry about his safety or Sam’s. Except for the Sadie Hawkins incident. He’d almost lost a finger that time.
Things had definitely changed. If they screwed up now, they wouldn’t be getting off with a ticket or a slap on the wrist. He only had to look at Brooke to remember how bad it could go. But what was he supposed to do? It was Sammy.
He snuck past the room where the girls were, through the kitchen, and out the front door, quietly grabbing the keys to Tia’s car on his way out.
23
School’s Out Forever
The whip-crack of pain across my already injured back made my whole body seize up. It didn’t bring me to my knees. I’d already been on those. Now I was on my hands and knees trying to breathe past the pain. Either Douglas was tired of the visceral thrill involved in beating me bare-handed or his hands were getting sore from smacking me around. Whatever the reason, the end result was the riding crop in his right fist. I’d have told him he looked silly walking around a basement waving a riding crop, but I liked myself enough not to.
Douglas grabbed a fistful of my hair and jerked my head back. He leaned down, getting close enough that I could smell the musk of his aftershave. “I can’t tell,” he said through gritted teeth, “if you are intentionally screwing up or if you’re really this useless.”
I licked at a crack on my lip from an earlier blow and wondered why I couldn’t be both.
“I’m trying,” I said, putting as much calm in my voice as I could manage, “as best I can.” He had been running out of patience with me, and I didn’t want that. Normal Douglas freaked me out. Angry, out-of-control Douglas? No, thank you.
Under Douglas’s tutelage,