Audition (North Security 4)

“So,” he says. “Psychic Readings for twenty bucks.”

I roll my eyes. “That’s my grandmother.”

“You don’t believe she’s psychic.”

“It’s just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.” Sometimes she does feel psychic. Even my brother has an uncanny sense about people. I’m lucky my brother’s not inside. He’d have sensed this by now. No part of me wants to find out what would happen if he saw me standing with Josh at an unscheduled time like this.

Maybe a small part.

No—that would be awful.

My shoulder lifts. “When people come in through the front parlor there’s incense and curtains. Even a few voodoo dolls to complete the effect. I’ve seen the place in the early morning, with a cup of coffee by the crystal ball and my math textbook under the tarot deck.”

“It’s like sausage.”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve seen how the sausage gets made. Now you don’t want to eat it.”

That makes me snort. “Are you disappointed? Maybe you wanted me to tell you your fortune. Maybe that’s why you came.”

“Maybe,” he says. “Maybe not. The future’s a scary place.”

My eyebrows raise. We have enough people coming to the house desperate for answers. It’s strange to meet someone who doesn’t seem to want them.

He tilts his head toward the back of the yard. “Let’s go.”

My pulse is a drumbeat that won’t settle. You’d think I’d just run through our entire recital routine from the way my heart pounds. “Where?”

“For a walk. Where else?”

Where else indeed. Now I wish I’d put something else on. Not because it’s cold, but because the tank top is flimsy. The bralette I’m wearing underneath isn’t meant to conceal anything from the world. It’s meant for someone who will spend the night tucked under the covers. We cross the yard, staying close to the deepest shadows. I can only relax once we’re past the ring of light from the house—and I can’t relax much.

Of all the shifting shadows by the creek bed, Josh is by far the biggest. And scariest. But I’m not about to show him that.

Wind whispers through the Spanish moss dangling from the branches of the live oak tree. It’s humid, the way it always is in New Orleans. The moisture in the air gives it a tactile quality. It reminds me of the way Josh kissed me in the warehouse before he knew who I was. Before I knew who he was.

“I saw your brother tonight.” His voice is low, a sultry match for the night breeze against the corner of my mouth. It’s like he sensed the spirit between us—my brother, my savior and my enemy. A brick wall between me and Josh.

A chill battles with the heat at the base of my spine. “Yeah? I’m sure a lot of people saw him tonight. He wasn’t home.”

“Do you know where he was?”

This feels like a test. Most of the tests in my life have simple answers, like igneous rock or it’s an arabesque, not a pirouette, do it again. The truth in tonight’s case is equally as simple. Only I’m not sure if it’s the right answer. “No. He doesn’t tell me his plans before he goes out. I don’t know anybody who has an older brother like that.”

“My older brother let me know where he was going,” Josh muses. “It didn’t make much of a difference once he left for the army, though.” His tone bristles with something underneath I don’t dare ask about. I can only feel it, like the thrum of voices beneath the floor in my house.

We meander down closer to the creek, where the dry bed narrows. Josh steps closer, and his arm brushes against mine. “How much do you know about the company your brother keeps?” He stops suddenly, facing me in the moonlight. Mistake, screams the voice i

n the back of my mind. You shouldn’t have come here. But damn it, I wanted to.

“He meets with dangerous men. He is dangerous. I’ve told you that before. You don’t need me to tell you again.” I’m outside, out of sight, with the most dangerous man of all. But it’s not pure terror that makes goosebumps prick my skin. It’s something more akin to excitement. Adrenaline. “What’s this about?”

Josh waits a beat, then turns and keeps walking. He doesn’t speak until I’ve caught up with him. “He called an interesting meeting tonight. A man named Noah joined us at the bar.”

I should turn around right now and run for the house. I should stay far, far away from Josh. I should, at the very least, rectify this grave error I’ve made. But I do none of those things. “Yeah? What was he like?”

“He was quiet.”