Use by CD Reiss Read Free Book Online

girl doing God knows what. I don’t even want to say more because you’re my sister, but I read the papers, okay? You disappear for months, show up at Easter, and no one’s seen you since. Even the fucking paparazzi can’t find you. Then you’re arrested, and shit explodes. Now you want to tell me to keep it under control? I don’t even want to be seen with you.”
    “I know what I am, Jon. I know damn well what I am, and I know better than you who to be seen with when, which was why you didn’t hear from me for months. Okay? And fuck you too.”
    “I asked them to keep you away from me,” he said, pointing the ping-pong paddle at me. “You get on my last fucking nerve.”
    He was a boy in a man’s body. I knew about plenty of his exploits. He was at least as out of control as I was. I tried to keep myself from reacting strongly, because I knew someone, somewhere was watching closely. I didn’t have to break my gaze with my brother to know it. I took a deep breath. He was family, which made us especially prone to poking at our raw places.
    “I just got out of solitary,” I said, dropping my voice. “I was in for two days, and it felt like a week. Keep your shit together. In here, losing control has a price. They’re paid good money, and they’ll do what they want. They will drug you and lock you down. They will restrain you for as long as they want.”
    It paid to be an older sister, because in his face, I saw that something had gotten through. His arms were still taut and his chin still jutted out, but on some level, he’d accepted the gift I gave him.
    “Promise me,” I said, holding out my arms. “Promise you’ll try to keep it together.”
    He put his paddle down and accepted my embrace. “I can’t believe she’s dead. It’s my fault. What this family did to her was so wrong. I couldn’t live with it. They euthanize animals, and that’s what I am.”
    “Were you driving?”
    “I was so drunk, I don’t remember.”
    Then, as if blindsided with a pie to the face in front of a large studio audience, I laughed.
    He pulled away. “What? I…”
    I just kept laughing. I pointed at myself, then at him. “It’s genetic,” I squeaked then held out my hands. “Drazen Dementia.”
    It wasn’t funny. Not really. It was very sad, but he got it. Though he didn’t laugh as hard as I did, he chuckled and picked up his little white ball.
    thup crackcrack

CHAPTER 13.
    FIONA
    I  couldn’t believe I was sitting in front of Elliot again. After talking to Jonathan, I’d showered and eaten before my afternoon session, trying not to think my most sexual Elliot thoughts. He’d see them, or I’d slip, and I didn’t want him to know.
    Some of his things had been removed from the office, but the fixtures and furniture were the same. The lighting was still warm, and he looked exactly the same.
    “You need a haircut,” I said.
    “I’ll get right on that.”
    “I’m glad you’re back.”
    “Well, I’m not fully back. I’m back for you, but I still have duties at my other job,” he said.
    “I feel special.”
    “You are special, but it’s simply a matter of redressing a wrong. I shouldn’t have left things unfinished with you. I should have known better.”
    “So why did you do it?”
    He shifted his pen on his desk three quarters of an inch. “I had pressure in my personal life.”
    Two words in, I knew he’d prepared his answer very carefully.
    “Really? Someone didn’t like you working with the rich kids?”
    “My girlfriend wants me here.”
    I tightened when he said he had a girlfriend. Men who dug ditches didn’t work harder than I worked to hide the shot of adrenaline that went through my system.
    “Okay?” I said. “So you should be here then.”
    “It would be inappropriate for me to get deeply into it, but I can’t do things to please other people. Things came to a head at home just as my recommendation for you was due. The other job came up, I felt I was needed there, and