Free Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

is a decent human being. You know how I feel about Boy, and you probably even know exactly how I feel about my father and his business practices.’’
     
     
    ‘‘Everyone knows how you feel about your father and his business, Allie. Dropping out of college, publicly disowning any contact with him, then going into hiding for the last few years paints a pretty clear picture.’’
     
     
    Like I needed to be reminded of any of that. Still, it prickled. I just sat there, wondering how he could get under my skin so fast.
     
     
    ‘‘So there’s no mystery about how much I hate my dad.’’ I smiled and told myself he didn’t know, could never know, what it was like growing up under my father’s Influence. There was a reason my mother changed her name and lived overseas, and hadn’t ever tried to contact me. There was a reason he’d married and divorced four times since then. People in my father’s life were commodities to be consumed and discarded. And I, his only child, was tired of being recyclable goods.
     
     
    ‘‘Since you just quit your job and no longer work for Beckstrom Enterprises, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t tell me what you know about the hit. Why they did it and why Boy was the target.’’
     
     
    He frowned and looked down at his hands.
     
     
    ‘‘Zayvion,’’ I said, ‘‘I don’t want the kid to die. I’d like to think you’re the kind of person who wouldn’t want a little kid to die either.’’
     
     
    ‘‘You Hounded the hit,’’ he said. ‘‘Are you sure it was your father’s signature?’’
     
     
    ‘‘Yes.’’
     
     
    He looked back up and there was a fierceness in his eyes. ‘‘Do you think it could have been a forgery? Or someone else’s signature? Something magically forged?’’
     
     
    ‘‘I know my father’s mark intimately.’’ End of discussion.
     
     
    Zayvion glanced back out the window again, and I wondered if he were watching for someone, or maybe if he thought he was being watched by someone. Economics, my ass. This man was either a PI or an undercover cop.
     
     
    ‘‘I don’t know what to say,’’ he said. ‘‘I have no idea why your father would Offload illegally. It seems like there would be too high a risk that he would be found out. He’s a careful man.’’
     
     
    That was an understatement.
     
     
    ‘‘You know him better than I do.’’ He looked back at me. ‘‘Why would your father do such a thing?’’
     
     
    And hearing someone else ask it brought a dozen answers to my mind. Maybe he knew I’d been nice to Mama and wanted to hurt me through her. Maybe Mama was indebted to him and had agreed to let him do it. Maybe he thought hurting the kid would get me storming into his office after seven years of avoiding him.
     
     
    Maybe he’d done it for no reason at all.
     
     
    I wanted to take the easy way and just believe my father was thoughtless in his cruelty, but I knew that wasn’t true. He wouldn’t have put a hit on Boy without weighing the risks and deciding the odds were on his side. And there was no way it could have been a random mistake—he was not that sloppy.
     
     
    But what did he have to gain from Boy dying?
     
     
    I shook my head, frustrated. ‘‘Do you think I’d be sitting here having lunch with you if I knew the answer to that?’’
     
     
    Zayvion’s expression went carefully blank. ‘‘No,’’ he said, ‘‘I don’t suppose you would.’’
     
     
    I rubbed at my eyes and regretted it because they started to water. My head was pounding.
     
     
    ‘‘Sorry. Don’t take it personally. I wasn’t kidding about having no social life. I’m a little rusty on the finer points of polite conversation. But tell me this: you weren’t going to really help me, were you? Because you’re still working for my father, right?’’ It was a hunch, but I was pretty sure I was right.
     
     
    ‘‘I told you I quit.’’
     
     
    ‘‘You told me you quit