Trickiest Job by Cleo Peitsche Read Free Book Online Page B

she says, and that makes me sad. Jeremiah owned the landscaping company that tended to the flowers and lawns. He would often bring captured grasshoppers and caterpillars for Layla and me to look at.  
    “Your grandfather claims you’re homeless and living on the streets,” she volunteers during a lull.
    Startled, I set down the cup. I don’t slam it, but it doesn’t exactly alight delicately on the saucer, either. “Did you… Do you believe him?” I ask.
    “No, I didn’t. It’s a sin what that man did to you girls.”
    “Girls?” The panic makes my voice sharp, and Miss Susan reaches over and strokes my cheek, just as she did when I was young.
    “It wasn’t easy for Layla to lose you,” she says. “But he doesn’t play his games with her. It all seemed to stop the night you disappeared.” She gives me a canny look.
    There’s a chime; someone is driving through the front gate.  
    My heart jumps into my mouth, and I feel suddenly all wrong. Awkward. I’m not ready to see Layla.
    “I’ll bring her in,” Miss Susan says, and she leaves.  
    I fold my hands in my lap, and I try to imagine what I’ll say. Of course I’ll hug her, but what if she doesn’t remember me?  
    It’s a stupid worry, but I can’t help it.
    “You’ll do fine,” Romeo says, and I feel his strength wrapping around me.  
    “Lindsay!” calls out Miss Susan, and there’s panic in her voice.  
    I surge to my feet, and my pounding heart races even faster, the individual beats too close together to know where one ends and the next begins.  
    There’s only one thing that could put that fearful tone into Miss Susan’s voice, and it isn’t Layla.  
    She rushes in. “Your limo is still out front,” she says. “Mr. Yorker won’t be able to miss it.”
    Romeo stands and buttons his suit jacket. “We’ll take care of that,” he says. “Is there somewhere Lindsay can stay while we deal with Mr. Yorker?”
    “But I don’t want to see him,” I say. I’m completely panicked.  
    “You won’t have to,” Hawthorne assures me. “We’ll say we’re here because we’re interested in doing business with him.”
    “At his home ? That will never fly,” I whisper.
    Miss Susan touches my arm. “It could. If you know anything about real estate…” She looks pleadingly at the three men.  
    “That won’t be a problem,” Romeo says, and Miss Susan sends me into the rear living room.
    “I’ll come get you when the coast is clear, and you can make a run for the car,” she says anxiously, a little breathlessly. “I’d better go fill in your friends so they know what to say.”
    At that moment I realize that the stakes are high for her, too. At her age, so close to retiring, it wouldn’t be easy to find another job without a letter of recommendation.
    If my grandfather finds out that she let me in but didn’t alert him, that she hid me…
    “I understand,” I say, but she’s already hurrying away.

    ~ ~ ~

    It’s like being in a soundproof room. Even with the double doors slightly open, I can’t hear a damned thing.
    I’m dying to sneak out. I don’t want to be seen by my grandfather, but I realize I’d like to see him, to look pure evil in the eye. As a child, I didn’t fully appreciate what he was, but now I know.  
    Perhaps he’ll be mundane, a withered old man, though I very much doubt that.
    He’s the sort of person who will be healthy and cruel up until the moment he dies, which could easily be another thirty-five years.
    The light in the hallway flickers on, and I melt away from the door.  
    “From what I heard, they grade on a curve, but it’s not just our class. It’s all the intro classes, and since we’ve got a sucky professor, we’re doubly screwed.” The female voice is light, laughing.
    It’s a voice I’ve never heard before—at least not like this.
    She was twelve, just a kid, the last time I actually spoke to her, and even though her voice has matured, I recognize the way she