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What do I say?
If I tell Dejonae I’m being blackmailed by Richard Sullivan in exchange for Henry’s freedom, she’ll waterboard him in a bucket of chai and then chop his neck off. And that’s before Sazuki unleashes Akira and his army of scary bodyguards.
I’d have no problem with them going after Sullivan except that it’ll break our contract.
And that means Henry will have to bear the consequences alone, leaving his grandmother in a critical state.
Dejonae steps forward. She’s far too threatening for someone that small.
“Yaya, why did Richard Sullivan want to talk to you?”
“Because we made a deal,” I sign.
“What kind of deal?”
I square my shoulders, look my sister dead in the eye and lie straight to her face, “I’ve agreed to be a spokesmodel for his company.”
CHAPTER7
sweet but not easy
DARE
I lean on my car, one foot flat against the rims. Mosely’s in front of me, my cell phone propped between his hands.
“Did I do it right this time?” I ask.
He gives me a long-suffering expression. “No, sir.”
“Dammit.”
“I believe your hands are supposed to rotate in the opposite direction.”
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s this direction.” I make the sign again.
“It’s supposed to be left.”
“This way?”
“My left. Not your left.”
“Thisisyour left.”
He sighs again. “No, sir. It’s not.”
“Play the video.” I gesture to the cell phone. Once his thumb taps the center, the lesson resumes. A woman appears on screen. She’s grinning from ear to ear like her dying company just got an angel investor.
“Would you like to watch a movie?”The camera changes to get the side angle. Her cheerful voice intones, “Movie.” The camera zooms in on her hands.“Movie.”
“Movie.” I mimic the way she moves her fingers. “Mosely, this is definitely my left.”
“Sir,” Mosely shuts the phone off and steps closer to me, “as much as I enjoy being your human tripod, don’t you think it would be better to learn from anactualASL teacher instead of videos on the internet?”
“I have a class with the CEO of the interpreter agency tomorrow evening.”
“Then…”
I snatch the phone from his hand. “I’m learning the basics, so I have a foundation to build on.” Eyes sliding to the obnoxious pink watch wrapped around my wrist, I check the time. “It’s three o’clock.”