Free Slow Agony by V. J. Chambers

talk about it with. Someone who’s not a guy, you know? Because most of the Op Wraith assassins were male.”
    Oh. Okay. She was offering me friendship. “Yeah. I get that.”
    She straightened a knick knack on the dresser. “I don’t have a lot of friends that are girls.”
    I smiled. “Me either. The ones I have seem to keep getting killed.”
    She smiled back. “I’m hard to kill.”
    I nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.”
    “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to get to know you.”
    * * *
    Silas had his head in the refrigerator. “There are no more leftovers, Sloane.”
    “I’m ordering pizza,” she said as she led me into the kitchen. It was a wide open space, with the stove located on an island in the middle. The lighting dangled from the ceiling, and the appliances were sleek and stainless steel. She gestured for me to sit down at the kitchen table. “You like pizza, right, Leigh?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “Of course.”
    Silas closed the refrigerator door. He surveyed me. “So why’d Griffin kick you out of his house and send you to us?”
    “Silas, don’t be an ass,” said Sloane, dialing on her phone.
    “He didn’t tell you?” I said.
    Silas sat down at the table across from me. “No.”
    “I made his girlfriend mad,” I said.
    “Daisy?” said Silas. “The Sunday school chick?”
    “Yeah.”
    He shook his head. “Man, I do
not
know why he’s dating her.”
    “She’s nice,” said Sloane. “You guys are okay with pepperoni, right?”
    “Yeah,” I said.
    “Sure,” said Silas. He turned back to me. “That’s the thing, though. Nice. It’s like he’s afraid to be with someone he might actually like. Because whatever you did to him, you royally fucked the boy up.”
    “Silas, geez,” said Sloane. Into her phone, “Um, hi. I want to place an order?”
    “It’s okay,” I said. “He didn’t tell you why we broke up either?”
    “He doesn’t talk much about you at all,” said Silas. “And when he does, he gets this look on his face. All shot through with agony and pain and shit. I feel bad for him.”
    I bit my lip. I felt bad for him too. Judging from the way he’d been with Daisy, I’d assumed he’d moved on. But the more I found out, the more apparent it became that it wasn’t like that at all. Griffin was as lost without me as I was without him. I had to find some way to make him see that. No matter how we’d hurt each other, we needed each other.
    “So,” said Silas. “What’d you do to him?”
    I looked down at the table.
    Sloane hit Silas on the back of the head. “You’re such a dick.”
    “Ow.” He glared at her, rubbing his head. “I was only asking.” He turned to me. “If you don’t want to talk about it, just say so.”
    “It was really complicated,” I said. “A bunch of stuff happened. I don’t even know how to explain all of it.”
    “Yeah, that sounds like something a chick would say,” said Silas. “Girls always make it complicated.” He got up from the table and went back to the refrigerator. “Did Sloane tell you I brew my own beer?”
    “We haven’t actually been talking about you that much,” said Sloane, sitting down at the table. “Not everything on earth revolves around you.”
    He rolled his eyes. “So, you want a homebrew or what?”
    “Sure,” I said. I didn’t think I’d ever had homemade beer before.
    “It’s good,” said Sloane. “You’ll like it.” She leaned back in her chair. “You going to offer your twin sister one too?”
    Silas handed us mason jars with the lids firmly screwed on. They were filled with cloudy, brown liquid.
    “Thank you,” said Sloane, unscrewing hers.
    “You guys are twins?” I said.
    Silas sat back down with his own mason jar. “Yeah. We think Jolene French recruited us for the novelty of it. Twin assassins. She was a sick piece of work.”
    “Oh, I met her,” I said, taking the lid off my beer. “This is kind of like a glass and a bottle all at the same