Page 55 of Mimic

“I think I’ll drive.”

We pulled out of the compound, and so did Archie. He had been on his bike, lingering by the gate. It hadn’t registered that he might be waiting for us.

“Is Archie following us?”

“You’ll get used to it,” Kytten said without turning around to confirm.

“Why is he following us, Kytten?”

“Prospects always escort old ladies,” she answered as she played on her phone.

“I’m not an old lady.” I looked in the rearview mirror to see he was trailing behind us, separated by one car.

“I am.” She laughed.

I snapped my head to the side, catching her smile. “Oh, right.”

“You could be, you know.”

“Please don’t. Your brother and I are not compatible. We don’t even like each other.”

It was true. We couldn’t be within ten feet of each other without glaring looks and sniped words.

Except when you’re on your knees for him.

We weren’t talking about that. That was a lapse of judgment on my part. And maybe his, since he’d made no attempt to get me back there. Or get me anywhere.

“Cash and I didn’t like each other at first. At least not that we would admit anyway. I was attracted to him the minute I saw him. Until he called me a kid.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t his fault. I am tiny, and I was only twenty.”

“As opposed to being older now.” I snickered, knowing she’d only been in Diamond Creek a few months.

“Yes.” She stuck her tongue out at me, and I laughed. I’d never really had a friend before. And Kytten felt like a friend. Sure, there was Alice and Jenny, and the others. But that was a trauma bond, not real friendship.

Haizley wanted to be my friend, but I just didn’t feel comfortable getting that close to a therapist. Her entire being was set on getting inside people’s heads. And I couldn’t let her get in mine.

We pulled into the salon, and Simon met us at the door.

“My two favorite bitches!” Kytten gave him a ‘you’re full of shit look,’and he laughed. “You two are the only people in town that let me play.”

“Why do you stay here?” I asked.

“I have lived here my whole life and, believe it or not, I feel safe here,” he said.

“And a certain someone lives here.” Kytten waggled her eyebrows at Simon, and he whacked her with the cape before wrapping it around her neck.

“I see your old man has been talking.”

“Wait, you have someone? Who?” I asked, wanting to hear all the tea.

“No one. He’s not interested. Just a little eye candy to get a guy through those cold Nebraska winters.” Simon’s sigh was heartbreaking. Sure, I didn’t want someone, but I knew others, those who had grown up in normal households with loving families, wanted what they’d seen modeled to them when they were young and impressionable.

When I was young and impressionable, the things I saw... the things I did, had the opposite effect. It made me realize that love was a construct created by Hallmark. A marketing ploy by companies who made money from sex. I’d realized afterwe escaped and I got a taste of the real world that everything revolved around sex.

Companies like Hallmark might wrap it up in pretty words and stories about love conquering all, but it still boiled down to men wanting women in their beds.