Liars and Liaisons by Sav R. Miller
19
As soon asthe man speaks, a small pink-haired girl steps out from behind him. Her arm is hooked in his, and she’s wearing an oversize hoodie with a green-and-purple double-headed serpent design on it.
She looks at the corpse, then slowly at me, finally landing on the man she clings to. “I don’t think I can smoke near a dead body.”
“I think we have more pressing matters right now than draining your brother’s weed supply, pretty girl.” The man slides his arm around her shoulders, gripping the top of her head with one palm.
“Should we tell your uncle?”
When she says that, recognition dawns on me. Grayson and Nate’s nephew, Aiden James, the prolific rock star from New York. The headlining act from Alistair’s fundraiser all those weeks ago, though this is the first I’m getting to really see him in person. Even if he’s half-hidden in shadows.
“About which part?” he asks her, as if I weren’t even standing here. “The murder or the woman who just made his house a crime scene?”
“Both seem kinda important.” She tilts her head, then slips out from under his grasp. Her approach is slow, calculated, the way one might try to capture a wild, dangerous animal. “Are you hurt?”
I shake my head. At least, I think I do. My eyes remain on the man, half-focused and completely horrified.
The girl pauses, glancing over her shoulder at him before sliding her gaze back to me. I can feel its heat bore into the side of my face.
“Don’t worry about Aiden,” she says. “Honestly, in terms of the James family members currently up at that mansion, he’s probably the best-case scenario.”
“You’re such a sweet-talker,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.
I notice that he has a hoodie that matches hers and realize they must be a couple.
“So, you’re not hurt.” The girl steps in close, examining me with narrowed eyes. They’re clear, likely a bright blue that becomes transparent in the moonlight. “Shock then? We have weed if you need help relaxing.”
“I don’t remember saying I’d share—”
Frowning, she cuts her significant other a dirty look, then pulls a recently rolled joint from her pocket. It’s small and white, and she holds it in the palm of one hand. “Look, I can’t take it back. My brother’s fiancée would kill me if I put used stuff back in their stash. You might as well try it.”
My mouth is dry, but somehow, I find a tiny drop of saliva, which allows me to speak. “Do you normally offer drugs to strangers in the forest?”
“This is not my first rodeo.” She smiles, and there’s something oddly disarming about it. “I’m Riley, by the way.”
I reach out and take the joint from her, but I don’t do anything with it, except allow the soft paper to ground me in the moment. It breaks through the paranoia and latent fear and replaces it with something almost normal, as if my nervous system is trying to right itself again.
I don’t look down.
“Well, this is sort of my first rodeo,” he says, running a hand through his brown hair. “Not all of us grew up around cold-blooded killers.”
“Violet’s not cold-blooded.”
My gaze snaps to Riley’s. So does his.
“How do you know who I am?”
She grins, tucking rosy strands of hair behind her ears. “Your brother talks about you all the time. I recognize you from some of the pictures.”
It takes me several blinks to register that because, outside of his wife and two daughters, I don’t see Kal interacting with anyone whom he isn’t in a business relationship with. Even our meetings have been tangentially transactional, though often as a guise for underlying issues.
I can’t imagine him talking about me at all, much less to this pink-haired pixie, who is apparently affiliated with my ex’s family.
God, this world is way too fucking small.
When I don’t respond, Riley purses her lips and casts a quick look around the immediate area. As if scanning for witnesses. She takes my hand and pulls it through her arm, gently tugging me away from the corpse.
The rock falls from my fingers, landing with a dull thud on the ground.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” she says, patting my knuckles. “Then, we can talk about what the fuck just happened.”
