Free Slow Agony by V. J. Chambers Page A

time.”
    “Exactly,” said Silas. “I thought of it.”
    “No, you didn’t,” said Sloane.
    “Griffin was different back in Op Wraith, don’t you think?” said Silas.
    I took a tentative sip of my beer. It was yeasty and a little bitter. Not as foamy as something I’d get on tap at The Purple Fiddle.
    “Then he is now?” said Sloane. “We were all different.”
    I took another taste of the beer. “This is good,” I decided.
    “Thanks,” said Silas. He turned back to his sister. “No, I mean, back then he was really closed off, and now he seems kind of more open.”
    “We’re all that way,” said Sloane. “We had to be closed off. We were ordered to kill people all the time. It doesn’t tend to make people friendly.”
    “Okay, I’ll stop trying to put it politely, then,” said Silas. “In Op Wraith, he was an asshole. Now, he’s cool.”
    Sloane chewed on her lip. “Well, I mean, we didn’t know him that well back then. Maybe he was always cool, and we didn’t know?” She shrugged. “Or maybe it was falling in love with Leigh that changed him.”
    Silas leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know. He’s completely wrecked if you ask me. If that’s the way you feel after you fall in love, then I’m glad it’s never happened to me.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Silas is a manwhore.”
    He shrugged. “Chicks dig the piercings. What can I say?”
    I took another drink of my beer. “I think it takes time for Griffin to open up. When I first met him, he was kind of an ass. He didn’t talk much. But after we spent some time together, I realized that he was a really good guy.”
    “That’s so sweet,” said Sloane. She looked at Silas. “Do you think Griffin still has feelings for Leigh?”
    “Why are you asking me that? I have no idea.”
    “Because you’re a guy,” she said.
    “And I just explained that I don’t do that ‘feelings’ shit,” he said. He got up from the table. “Maybe when I’m like thirty or something and there’s nothing left for me to do but have kids.”
    “You said that he seems sad when he talks about me,” I said. “Do you think it’s because he misses me or because he hates me?”
    “I don’t know.” He picked up his beer. “When’s the pizza coming?”
    “Soon,” said Sloane.
    Silas loped out of the room, pausing in the doorway to look back at Sloane and me. “I like you a hell of a lot better than that prissy Daisy chick. I think Griffin does too if he’s honest with himself.”
    * * *
    Sloane appeared in my doorway. “Come with me.
Now
.”
    I got up off my bed, where I’d been sprawled out with a trashy romance novel. “What?” I’d been staying with Sloane and Silas for nearly a week at this point and I’d yet to see Sloane look so excited.
    “Come on.”
    I followed her down the steps, into the foyer and around the corner. I could hear voices coming from the kitchen. They were both male, and one belonged to Silas.
    Sloane stopped me. She put a finger to her lips. “Listen,” she whispered.
    “She’s fine,” Silas was saying. “And honestly, it’s probably better if you don’t see her. You know how chicks get. You say one nice thing to them, and they think that you’ve suddenly promised to buy them a ring. You talk to her, it’ll only make things worse.”
    “So, but what’s she doing?” said the other voice.
    My eyes widened. Griffin. What was he doing here?
    Sloane was grinning and bouncing on her toes in excitement.
    “Doing? She’s not doing anything. She’s on house arrest. That’s what you said. Keep her out of sight until this thing blows over.”
    “So she’s like staring at the walls?”
    “No, she’s hanging out with Sloane and watching movies and shit,” said Silas. “The point is she’s fine. You’re feeling guilty because you dumped her here and didn’t keep her at your place, but I’m telling you, don’t feel that way. You’re done with her. So just go home and call up Daisy and fuck the