Call of Water (Madame Tan's Freakshow #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,64
my skin and muscle all the way to the bone. I stood there wishing that one warm shower was all it took to wash away the two months of being locked in a cage.
Now what? Bounced in my head with no definite answer.
The list of things to do was long. I had to contact my clients, see how many I still had left after not responding to their emails for this long. I needed to find a new place to live. At least, I should have some money to last me for a little while, since I’d paid no rent and had no expenses, being on Madame’s “room-and-board” all this time.
I also had to go to the police to close the missing person’s report, not to press charges like Mom wanted.
Was she that wrong about that, though? After all, I did have something to report. A vindictive part in me longed for some kind of retaliation against Madame and against Trez, too. That man had nearly killed me, after all. I suspected Trez might also be behind Zeph’s kidnapping. Though, I had no proof on that one.
Why did Zeph decide to lie to Mom about what happened? At the end of the day, we did nothing wrong. Crimes had been committed against us, not the other way around.
Did he not believe that contacting the police would result in Madame and her goons being brought to justice? She might have come from the magical kingdom, but she lived in this world. Her people broke our law. There had to be a way to make them pay.
I thought about Amira and Radax and about whatever new acquisitions the bracks had been making. There had to be a way to stop them from hurting more people—humans or Fae.
Maybe Zeph just didn’t want to tell the truth in front of my mom? She had made her tendency to overreact pretty obvious, after all.
Or was I making excuses for him, again?
Sooner or later, I’d have to get out of this shower. And I didn’t know anymore how to behave around him. What I thought I knew about Zeph turned out to be not true. And the more I got to know him, the more confused I became.
I felt unprotected when faced with his smile and his charm. Inept to tell a lie from the truth, as far as he was concerned. Unsure what he wanted with me but certain that whatever he wanted, sooner or later he would get it.
When I finally got out of the bathroom, fully dressed, hair brushed, Zeph was finishing his sandwich.
He had changed, too. My stepdad was tall and lanky so his clothes happened to be just the right length for Zeph. Except that the jeans stretched a bit too tight around the muscles in his thighs, and the t-shirt was seemingly bursting at the seams on his shoulders.
“We’ll get you some better fitting clothes soon.” I blinked, tearing my gaze away from his bare arms only to stare at his hands instead.
“These will do just fine. Thank you.” He reached for his mug of tea.
I watched his long fingers wrap around the handle, the ropes of muscles in his forearm flexing when he lifted the mug to his mouth. I wished I didn’t remember how the touch of his fingers felt between my legs.
He took a drink. The memories of his mouth on mine tingled my skin.
I licked my lips, taking a step back.
“Does Ghata know your name?” he asked. “Or the location of this house?”
I tried to remember. “I never told my name to anyone. Nothing about my mom or this house, either.” No one had ever asked me any of that at the menagerie. In a way, I was now grateful for the no-talking rule Madame imposed on her staff.
“Good.”
“Um.” I thought back to that day at the CNE and talking to Fleur during our tour. “My friend might have said my name a few times the day I got caught. If Madame or Radax heard her, they may still remember it...Oh, and I told Amira your name. I told her I knew you from before and that I cared about you.” He glanced at me as I continued, “To convince her to take me to the room with the water tank. I hadn’t seen you for weeks. I was worried...”
I stopped, thinking about the feelings I’d always had for him, no matter how hard or how long I fought against them.