pour myself a drink, and since I haven’t gotten around to purchasing much of the furniture I need even though I’ve lived in the house for a few months already, I set the bottle on the floor. I walk over to one of the couches and sit down before staring pointedly at Zoe until she sits too. I know I’m making her uncomfortable, but I feel like looking away first makes me the loser in the creepy stare off we’re suddenly in.
“So?” She tips her glass, and without looking away, downs the contents in a single gulp. She doesn’t so much as wince when she swallows the whisky.
“I thought you wanted to savor a good whisky. If I knew you were going to shoot it, I would have pulled up a twenty-dollar bottle.”
“Pulled up? You mean like from the wine cellar? Or maybe you have your own special cellar for every different kind of alcohol. Maybe for dead bodies too.”
“No. Just a basement with a bar, unfortunately. It’s not nearly as interesting, I’m afraid.”
Zoe sets her tumbler down on the floor and smooths her hands over her legs. She has really, really nice legs. The green dress she has on, which is almost the exact shade of her eyes, only makes it obvious that she has many more nice things to be appreciated. These jeans will only hide so much, so I concentrate on enjoying the complicated and complex flavors of the whisky.
“Why did you really ask me here?” It’s clear Zoe is running out of patience. I’m still quite surprised she showed up.
“I wanted to talk about old times. Like what you’ve been doing. It’s been almost two decades.”
“Are you sad I never looked you up? Offended? I should remind you that you never looked me up either.”
“I’m easier to keep tabs on.”
“And much harder to get a hold of because of it. You live in a gated community, and I seriously doubt anyone could just call to set up an appointment with you. Not that I was keeping tabs on you. I just couldn’t help it, as I said. The whole city knows who Ruthless Raiden is.”
“Since we’ve been over this, we should just skip it and the angry, resentful, bitter emotions that conversation might evoke. I’d like to talk about happier times.”
“You never even tried to contact me,” Zoe says evenly, but by the hard set of her jaw, I can tell she’s pissed. “You had all the resources in the world.”
“That didn’t come until later. And it’s pretty hard for a fifteen-year-old kid to hire a private investigator to find someone who doesn’t want to be found. Plus, there was always the fact that I didn’t have a cell or computer of my own yet, and my mom didn’t want to have anything to do with your dad, which we both know was probably for the best. And I didn’t have a car. We couldn’t afford that. So, you’ll forgive me if I had zero resources at my disposal up until after college.”
“Yeah? What was stopping you then?”
“The fact that you never contacted me either, and it had been ten years by then, and I thought maybe things were best left alone. I doubted I’d receive the warmest reception.”
“You’re such an asshole now. You know that?”
“I rest my case.”
“No one says that. This isn’t a courtroom, Your Honor. Or maybe it’s Your Highness now. Maybe it’s Mr. Vanstone.”
“Whatever you like.” With a smirk at her, I continue to sip my whisky, even though my blood pressure is rising. The best way to deal with angry people—as I’ve come to learn—is to diffuse the situation by not rising to it. Calmer heads often prevail. It might be cliché, but it’s often true.
Zoe mutters something under her breath that sounds like ‘shitfart,’ but she glances down at her empty glass and pretends like she didn’t say anything at all.
I get the hint. The world might think I’m smart when it counts, tech-wise, but I’m actually smart in other ways too. I do sometimes pick up on signals and cues and whatnot. Sometimes. This is one of those times. So, while my ex-stepsister stares daggers at me and is probably doing some silent voodoo stuff that can make my dick shrivel up and fall off, I shove off the couch, grab the bottle of whisky, then sit down hard right beside her.
Judging from her gasp and the extreme look of disgust she gives me, she didn’t expect that, but