Page 11 of River of Deceit

Blaze stares at her in shock. “Did you just steal my food?”

Even I’ve never dared to take anything of Blaze’s without asking. He’s yelled at people for using his pencils without permission, for Christ’s sake.

I brace myself for the usual loud reprimands, but Blaze grits his teeth and swallows whatever cursing he normally would have done.

Pandora grins. “Yep. You want some of mine? I got the Asian sesame crunch wrap. And edamame.” She pushes the edamame closer to Blaze.

“I’m vegetarian,” Blaze says, smiling back at her. “I don’t want your wrap.”

Pandora rolls her eyes. “I was offering a bite, not the whole thing. And last I checked, edamame is made of beans, not beef.”

I don’t know what game Blaze is playing, but I’ll play along for now. I take one of the edamame beans, popping it into my mouth. “Pretty good,” I say. I don’t offer her a bite of my own wrap, though.

Blaze glowers and drags his tofu closer to himself. “Were you raised in a barn, Pandora?”

“Yep. My roommates were the cows and the pigs.” Pandora laughs. “Well, I have three siblings, and there were Mama, and Papa, and Da… Damien, and Uncle Slayer, so eight of us in the house. All meals were huge communal meals. What about you? What kind of barn were you two raised in?”

I don’t want to talk about the tiny, cramped home I was raised in. “Uncle Slayer?” I repeat, quirking a brow at her. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”

Something about the name nags at me, but I chuck it up to the many people in Blaze’s circle. Probably one of his father’s underlings used “Slayer” as a moniker.

“Yeah, the story is that he was boning my mom and one of my brothers is his,” Pandora says in the same even tone.

I blink at her. That’s not the kind of story I’d had in mind.

Pandora has to be being flippant, but she doesn’t crack a smile at the obvious joke. She takes another few bites from her wrap. “What about you, Blaze? You’re from down south?”

Blaze’s shoulders stiffen, but he keeps the fake smile plastered on his face. “What? How do you know that?”

“The accent? All southern drawl and all.” Pandora smirks at him. “I bet most women swoon when you open your mouth.”

Blaze bites his lip before he shakes his head. “Most women do swoon, but not because of the ‘accent.’”

I know Blaze has worked hard to erase any southernness from his voice, so it must kill him that Pandora picked up on it anyway — especially when she didn’t comment on my own admittedly subtler accent.

“We’re from New Valence,” I tell her, watching her expression. Something isn’t quite right about it, but I don’t know what it is that’s setting me on edge. “Are you from around here?”

“New Bristol, born and raised.” Pandora finishes her wrap. “I realize Dyschord is only two hours away from the city, but it feels like I went back in time with how sleepy and slow Harmony is. There’s only one night club in the town, too? How do people survive this?”

Harmony is mostly a college town, with the majority of the population the college students and people employed by the university. I don’t even know if it would be able to sustain a second nightclub.

It’s not like anyone is enforcing the law enough to keep underage people out of the one nightclub that does exist.

“That’s what frat parties are for,” I say with a smirk. “You don’t have to pay to go out clubbing. Just come join us, free of charge.”

Well, free of charge for her. Blaze is paying out the ass for the two of us to be a part of the fraternity.

It’s another way I’m beholden to him, another reason for him to get tired of me.

I know he doesn’t think that way; he spends money like water and barely bats an eye. He’s never understood how difficult it is for me to accept his help.

“The drinks are free too, right?” Pandora says, winking. “Does that include the roofies?”

Blaze lets out a small chuckle. “I thought you didn’t hold grudges?”

“That doesn’t mean I forget.” Pandora reaches out to rub her thumb under the cut on my arm. “I won’t hold it against you, though.”

I jerk my arm back. “I just got that to stop bleeding,” I tell her, trying to bite back my irritation. I should be focusing on how to lull her into a sense of false security so that we can entice her into whatever trap Blaze is trying to set, but it’s hard when she’s acting like… this.