Basil (The Brinnswick Chronicles #3) - Michele Notaro Page 0,125
and I got into the passenger seat, Blaze still snuggled in my collar. “Why would they want to set me up?”
“I’m not sure, but my brothers are going to meet us at the park to help out.”
“Sounds good. So ya finally gonna tell me who the hell Armina is?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Basil
I blew out a breath, then started driving back to the park. This day had been a huge clusterfuck and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about this, but Hiro needed to know. “Uh, she was my girlfriend from high school, but she kinda messed me up.”
Hiro began loading all his weapons back on that had been confiscated when he’d been taken in. I’d brought them out to the car earlier. He asked, “How? You’ve hinted at things, but have never said exactly what happened.”
“When I was sixteen and seventeen, Armina hired a mind-bender to mess with my memories and to try and make me her… servant-slave-person, I guess.” Blaze moved from Hiro’s shoulder to mine to offer me comfort, so I gave him a few pats as he nuzzled into my neck.
I felt his gaze on me as I drove, then a flash of anger rushed through our bond. “What the fuck? She did what to you?”
“Yeah, she messed with my memories, made me do some pretty shitty things to Thayer. I guess to, I dunno, split up our family or something. Then once I did the shitty things, she had the mind-bender erase my memory of it so I’d think Thay was the one being an asshole and… I don’t know, it was really messed up. And she did it so many times it sorta backfired, and I started getting confused a lot, even in the middle of conversations. It was… scary, to be honest.”
He paused his movements to lean over the console and tuck my hair behind my ear. “Were you able to get your memories back?” He was trying to keep his anger at bay, but I felt it through our bond, anyway.
“Uh, yeah. My family noticed me being forgetful and acting strange, so Ailin checked me and figured out what was going on. He hunted Armina down, then the mind-bender, and forced him to fix everything. I… I thought the mind-bender was my friend, and I thought Armina loved me, so… yeah… it was really fucked up.”
He was quiet for a moment, then said, “I guess that’s why you didn’t want a commitment before me.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I was kinda shitty about dating and all that crap for a while.”
His jaw clenched. “Armina’s lucky I didn’t know about this sooner or I would’ve hunted her down myself.”
“Not so lucky, since she… uh, you know, since she was murdered.”
“Fuck, baby. I’m sorry. That was such a shitty thing to say. I’m just—”
“It’s fine. It’s… this day has been crazy as hell.”
He asked, “Are you sure you still want to go back?”
“Yes.” I answered without hesitation because someone was messing with my family, and I was done playing games. We were going to catch this guy and end this.
Toby, Thayer, and Jorah were already there when we arrived, so once Hiro and I got out, we all headed into the park where the body was found. Armina’s body had been near the backstop, but it had already been taken away. The area was still blocked off, but no one else was around anymore, which kinda made it easier for us, to be honest.
We started where the body had been, then began searching outward to look for anything that shouldn’t be there or to sense any magic. Hiro and I headed toward the other baseball field while the other three went closer to the surrounding trees.
Hiro squatted down in the dirt, saying, “Does this footprint look weird to you?”
Before I could answer, a strange clicking noise filled the air, and a chill ran through me as dark energy seemed to seep into the park. Hiro and I moved back to back as we searched for the source, and I cursed internally for moving away from my brothers.
What the fuck is that? I asked Hiro and my brothers, somehow tapping into both connections in my panic.
Jorah said, I don’t know. All I see are shadows. Does Hiro know?
What the hell? Hiro said. I can hear you, Jorah.
We can hear you, too, Thayer said.
Basil, how are you doing that? Jorah asked, too curious for his own good sometimes.