Page 199 of Charming Like Us

Charlie pushes off the hood of the car and stumbles close before I can reach him. I see he’s trying to help pick up a lens off the ground.

“I’ve got it,” I tell him, but he’s already on his knees, curling his fingers around the lens. He passes it to Jack.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie breathes. It’s one of the few times I’ve heard him verbalize an apology.

“Alright, you’re concussed, Charlie,” I say, flat-out. I help my client back to his feet and then wrap an arm underneath his, supporting his weight. “I’m getting you both to Farrow.”

Jack zips up his camera bag, but I grab the strap before he can and hook it over my free shoulder. The three of us slowly walk down the aluminum stairs. Out of the bumper car tent.

Heading back to the main carnival, lights still glow and music thumps loudly.

Jack touches the bump on his head in a wince. “So this is what a fight feels like?” His glittering gaze slides to me. “Have to say, Oscar, I can’t believe you used to do this for a living.”

“Tell that to my baby sister who’s still doing it for a living.”

He lets out a soft sound with the shake of his head.

Gabe catches up to us, and I take his radio.Sorry, Gabe.Seniority and all. I fit in the earpiece and switch frequencies about the same time a familiar serious-ass voice sounds in my ear. “Thatcher to SFO, has anyone had eyes on Akara, Banks, or Sulli in the past twenty?”

What in the ever-loving hell?

My mind can’t wrap around those three. For one, I thought Akara was in denial about his feelings for Sulli. So when she got her first boyfriend, I expected full-on Jealous Akara to gush his feelings once and for all. I grabbed my popcorn. Didn’t happen.

Not even after Sulli broke up with her boyfriend.

What did happen? I overheard Banks say that Sulli is a “total stunner”. Akara was there and just nodded. Couldn’t tell if it was in agreement or if he short-circuited.

Putting that history aside, Sulli could be stuck challenging them to a basketball toss or squirt gun game right now. She’s competitive, and Akara assigned Banks to her detail tonight too. Double-security. But Akara would respond on comms.

Unless another little bastard tried to rip his radio off him.

A chorus ofNegativesandNo’sring out in my ear. No one has seen them.

I manage to click my mic to get in ano.It takes one more minute before Donnelly says, “I saw them enter the funhouse a half hour ago.”

Those three might be lost with no comms signal, but chances are someone from the med team will be over there in case something happened. And Charlie and Jack need a medical assessment.

At least now we have a destination, looking at the bright side.

* * *

We reachthe funhouse the same time Thatcher and Jane run up to the entrance where bulbs spell outAmerican Circus Funhouse. They roll to a stop when they see Charlie in pain and welts on our faces.

“Merde,” Jane curses in French. “What happened?” She changes course and reaches us with Thatcher jogging ahead. Her worry mounts as I unhook my arm from Charlie and ease her younger brother down to the grass.

“Life,” Charlie says, eyes closed, pain cinching his face. “Stupid people, the aftereffects of my choices…walking backwards.”

Stupid people, the aftereffects of my choices.Feeling that tonight like a motherfucker. I’ve made some mistakes that ended with me having a broken radio and caused Jack to head-butt a pole.

“Stay very still,” Jane instructs, a hand on her brother’s shoulder. If anyone asks, I’d say Jane Cobalt is a saint for her patience and kindness towards Charlie. She tries to take care of him, even when he actively pulls away from the family.

He’s told me that he doesn’t deserve his sister’s love, but there are many times where he proves his own belief wrong. From joining the FanCon tour for her, to threatening her ex-friends-with-benefits so caustically that Nate never made a peep again.

And no one knows he did that but me.

I extend an arm around Jack as he sways slightly, too light-headed. My stomach clenches. “Take a seat, Highland.”

Jack lowers to the grass and rests his forearms on his knees. Like he’s taking a breather after high school PE.