Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
That wiped the irritation off Andrew's face. It was forever before Andrew answered in German. "That's unexpected. Did no one tell you I hate surprises?"
"What makes you think I care?"
"How many languages do you speak, runaway?"
Neil ignored that. "Tell me why you did that."
"I already did," Andrew said. "I'm still waiting for your answer."
"I answered you. I told you I'm not a mole. You're insane if you think I am."
"Then correct me."
"Give me a reason."
"Besides the obvious?" Andrew said. "If I can't get an answer from you, I'll get it wherever I can. How about I start with your parents?"
"Good luck," Neil said, feeling cold all over. "They're dead."
"Did you kill them?"
He said it so casually, like he was asking for the time, that Neil could only stare at him for a minute. It was such an unreasonable leap of logic Neil didn't understand how he even thought to ask it. Then he remembered who he was talking to and asked, "Did you kill yours?"
Andrew gave a dismissive flick of his fingers. "I don't have parents."
It was only a half-lie. The twins didn't know who their father was, and only Aaron grew up with their biological mother. Andrew was surrendered to foster care when he was just a few days old. He spent thirteen years in the system and three at juvie. It wasn't until he was released on early parole that his mother let Andrew move home. Five months later she died in a car accident. Neil doubted Andrew attended the funeral.
"I didn't kill my parents," Neil said, but he couldn't go on. Fear was an iron grip around his lungs, making it impossible to breathe. Neil trusted the story he'd patched together on his walk, but he didn't want to say it aloud. The words came out in jagged pieces and he hoped his struggle added realism to the lies. "Riko's family did."
That got Andrew's attention. Neil swallowed hard, trying to clear the tightness from his throat, and forced himself to explain.
"My father was a gopher for a group who did business with the Moriyamas. In the grand scheme of things he wasn't worth much, but he knew a lot of names and he knew how to move product. He did some business out of Edgar Allen, which is how I met Kevin and Riko. I didn't know who they were back then. I was just excited to meet kids my age. I thought we were going to be friends.
"Then my father started getting cocky, started getting stupid, and tried skimming from payments. He took Moriyama money that was meant for his boss. They found out, of course. The Moriyamas executed him and my mother before his boss could get to him. I took what he'd stolen and ran. I've been running ever since."
Andrew wasn't smiling anymore, but Neil was. He felt it as it curved across his lips and knew it was a sick, ghastly expression. He dug his fingernails into his mouth, trying to claw the look off his face, but it was frozen in place.
"I'm lucky Kevin doesn't recognize me," Neil said. "I don't know if he even remembers meeting me, but I remember him. Seeing him helps me remember my parents. He's all I have left of my real life. But if Kevin or Riko recognizes me and word makes it back to my father's boss, I know what will happen to me."
Andrew said nothing for so long Neil thought he'd blown it, but finally Andrew moved. Wymack shifted his weight, ready to intervene if things turned violent, but Andrew only came to stand right in front of Neil.
"Then why did you come here?" Andrew asked.
"Because I'm tired," Neil said, trying to sound defeated. It didn't take much effort. "I have nowhere else to go, and I'm too jealous of Kevin to stay away from him. He knows what it's like to hate every day of his life, to wake up afraid every day, but he's got you at his back telling him everything's going to be okay. He has everything, even when he's lost everything, and I'm —" Neil didn't want to say it, but the word was already there, broken and pathetic between them, "— nothing. I'll always have and be nothing."
Andrew reached up and forcibly uncurled Neil's fingers from his mouth. He pushed Neil's hand out of the way and stared Neil down with nothing between them. Neil didn't understand the look on his face. There was no censure over Neil's crooked parents or pity for their deaths, no triumph over having backed Neil into admitting so much, and no obvious skepticism for such an outlandish story. Whatever this look was, it was dark and intense enough to swallow Neil whole.
"Let me stay," Neil said quietly. "I'm not ready to give this up yet."
That strange look left Andrew's eyes. His expression cleared to stony indifference and he let go of Neil. "Keep it if you can. You and I both know it won't last long."
Neil's stomach gave a nauseating flip. He'd been lying since he'd first learned to speak. What he'd just told Andrew was fifty percent truth, the most honest thing he'd ever tell someone about his life, and Andrew took it without batting an eye. Neil didn't know how to feel about that. He should be relieved, because it meant Andrew might be done asking him questions, but it went deeper than that. He wondered for a moment if Andrew could handle the entire truth so calmly, but that was too dangerous and stupid to consider.
"I'll be gone by our match against Edgar Allen," Neil said. "I don't look now how I looked then, but I can't risk Riko's family recognizing me."
"Such an unexpected will to survive from someone who has nothing to live for. Next time we have a little heart-to-heart like this, maybe I'll ask you to justify that."
"Let's not talk like this ever again."
"Let's not," Andrew agreed.
Neil hesitated, then asked, "Are you going to tell Kevin?"
"Don't ask me stupid questions."