“Because it’s, it’s too . . .” she trailed off, not knowing why it was so hard.
“Too raw. Like being naked,” Lucas said for her. Helen nodded her head. “Well, sorry. But with me you have to be either honest or silent.” He released the brake, put the car in gear, and merged back into traffic.
As soon as he could stop shifting, he grabbed her hand and held it on his leg, and when the fading sunlight forced him to turn on the headlights, he let go of the steering wheel rather than let go of her hand.
Lucas pulled into Helen’s driveway behind the Pig, then killed the lights and engine. “Stay here for a sec,” he said before hopping out of the car and disappearing around the back of the house.
Helen craned her head to look for him as she waited, but she didn’t hear anything—not even the sound of his footsteps. Annoyed that he would just run off like that, she got out of the car and walked up to the Pig to get a better view. She noticed her purse lying on the ground behind the front tire. Oops. She picked it up and fished out her phone. There were over a dozen missed calls.
She remembered that her purse was lying on the ground because she had been attacked, and she suddenly realized that her attacker was not Hector or Lucas, as she had assumed the other night.
Now that she could look back on it without the Furies there to warp her judgment, she figured out that there had been someone else here waiting for her when she came home. Someone with wiry arms—a woman, she thought, recalling the smell of cosmetics—had grabbed her from behind, then been scared off by the arrival of the Delos family. Lucas had sent Ariadne and Jason to chase after her, but the woman must have gotten away because there was no mention of her this weekend. In the shock of the past few days, Helen had completely forgotten about the attack.
“Lucas?” she called, heading toward the shadows off to the side of her house. He had been gone too long. She heard a muffled thud behind her.
“I asked you to stay in the car. It’s for your safety, Helen,” Lucas said with frustration. She spun around to face him, gesturing wildly with her cell phone still in her hand.
“That woman! You’re looking for that woman who jumped Kate and me,” Helen said, finally understanding it all. “She’s a Scion, too. She has to be!”
“Yes, of course she is. . . .” he interrupted her. “But listen to me. There are two of them—two different women are after you, and we haven’t caught either of them yet.”
A pair of lights flashed across the house and driveway. A car was pulling up. Lucas stood in front of Helen and looked easily through the lights that were blinding her from seeing the people in the car. “It’s your father,” he told her.
“Helen? There you are! Where the hell have you been?” Jerry shouted as he climbed out of the cab before the driver had even come to a full stop. He was angrier than she’d seen him in years. “I called over and over. You’re never late! I thought something had happened to you!”
“Why are you here?” Helen screeched.
“We got an earlier flight. Didn’t you get any of my messages?”
“I . . .” Helen trailed off, holding up her cell phone stupidly. She knew she had to make something up, but she also knew she was a terrible liar. She started to panic. Lucas grabbed her phone from her and, as he did, Helen heard an almost imperceptible crunch.
“Her phone’s broken,” Lucas said, passing Helen’s phone to her father so he could see it. It came apart in Jerry’s hand. “I came over to see why she wasn’t picking up and she was out here in the driveway on her way to go get you.” Helen stared at Lucas with her mouth open, wondering how someone who demanded honesty from everyone else could be so quick to lie.
“How did you do this, Len?” Jerry asked in a dismayed voice as he studied the pulverized sandwich of plastic and microchips. “This was brand-new.”
“I know!” Helen said a little too emphatically. “Piece of junk, right? I’m so sorry, Dad. I had no idea you were coming early. Really.”
“Oh, it’s all right,” Jerry said a bit sheepishly now that