Divine Vices by Melissa Parkin Read Free Book Online Page B

away from home, Gate House Records.
Pulling the front door open, I was met with the sounds of sinister rock music
roaring through the speaker system as the bell placed above the entryway rang.
    Ian
came out of the backroom with the intention to greet a run-of-the-mill
customer, so he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was me.
    “I
take it you don’t welcome all your customers with such affability?” I teased.
    “I
can put on a good game face, but if I’m asked again about another boy band or
pop singer, I’m gonna go postal,” he replied, dragging out a small step ladder
and propping it up beneath a partially fallen Halloween banner.
    “Here,
let me give you a hand,” I said, motioning him out of the way.
    I
climbed up and readjusted the tack in the wall so that the banner hung evenly.
    “Thanks,”
he said, helping me down. “You know us men are hopeless when it comes to
décor.”
    “Hence
why I had to readjust all the posters in your bedroom,” I said. “I think you
suffer from the same cockeyed syndrome as my dad. You guys hang everything with
a slant. You should have seen our house just after we moved in. Not a frame or
mirror was hanging level.”
    This
place went hand in hand with Ian. Its Steampunk nature, oval archways, gold
filigree wallpaper, and antique display cases lining the register, not to
mention the spirited decorations for the season, made it unlike anything else
you’d come across in this town.
    “I
see you got the fog machine working,” I said, looking down at the gray cloud
that engulfed the floor up to my ankles.
    “You
should see it from the outside at full blast,” said Ian merrily. “The fog
actually seeps through the front cracks of the doorframe. Very John Carpenter.
Unfortunately, that means there’s zero visibility inside here, so obviously it
wouldn’t make much for good business.”
    “I
can imagine,” I laughed, heading over to the music racks. “I know it probably
sounds a bit satanic to say this, but Halloween’s actually my favorite holiday.”
    “Really?
I know you like a good scare every now and again, but I would’ve taken you to
be more of a Christmas girl.”
    “You’d
think so, but it’s the whole façade that goes along with seeing my extended
family that kind of kills my merriment. It was always tradition that on
Christmas Eve we’d come visit my grandma here, which I loved. But then on
Christmas Day we’d have to go see my mom’s side of the family.”
    “Have
to?” Ian queried amusingly.
    “Yes,
at least it was forced on my dad and me. My mom and sister loved going to see
my mom’s side, but that’s only because they were treated as equals.”
    “And
you weren’t?”
    “That’s
the thing you have to understand about the Cossacks. They come from money,
which means every holiday consists of the same narrow-minded and worthless
chatter about all of my cousins’ accomplishments or the new addition that my
aunt and uncle just put onto their already-enormous house. Having believed that
my mother married beneath her, the Cossacks treat my dad like a primitive
outsider. What irks them more than anything is the fact that my dad has never
been bothered by their mistreatment, and more often than not is throwing quips
out at their expense in regard to their own snobbery. As for my sister and me,
Nikki was always proper, well-dressed, an overachiever and whatnot, so there
was still hope for her to be one of the elite. But as you know, I am most
certainly my father’s daughter, so I’ve always been about one wisecrack away
from them throwing me into a barred cage with a banana for dinner.”
    “I’d
say you’d be better off not seeing them, but I’ve never had an extended family
to visit, so...”
    “No
one?”
    “Just
my mom and me,” he said. “Okay, I know this really isn’t any of my business,
but can I ask you something?”
    I
nodded uncomfortably as my mind conjured up far too many possible topics of
discussion he could