Annie and Fia (Mind Games 0.50)

“Because you look hot in it, and I saw some cute boys here yesterday.”

“Seriously?” Her voice catches between disbelief and an excited squeal. “How did you see cute boys that I missed? And since when are you so interested in boys?”

I shrug. “Not like we have a lot of opportunities at the Keane School of Endless Estrogen.”

Eden cackles.

I glare at my push-up bra. I wish I were wearing a sports bra. Then I tug my camisole down a bit, knowing I need Eden’s much-older-looking body for today to work.

I am using Eden for her boobs.

Okay, that part of the wrong is almost funny enough to laugh about. But not quite.

And now—I feel sick, so sick—I have to get rid of Annie, because Annie will ruin what I need to accomplish. I don’t know how or why, but I know she can’t be there. I want nothing more than to spend the day with her, but instead I will spend the day drowning in wrong so that I can protect this life Annie loves so much.

I step out into the hall and nearly run into Clarice. These are the instincts I have to ignore. The ones that say hurt her, hurt her now, hurt her before it’s too late.

I’m crazy, I know it, it’s wrong to feel this way.

But I want to hurt her.

“I need you to take Annie,” I say instead of smashing my elbow into her stomach.

“Why?”

“Because I have work to do today and I can’t do it with her around,” I say instead of slamming my palm against her nose.

She smiles. “I see. What do you have planned?”

“I don’t know yet,” I say instead of slamming my foot into her knee and crippling her. “But Annie won’t work.”

“Fair enough.” She slips past me (if I had a knife, I could—no, I’m not evil) and knocks on the door before opening it. “Annie! There’s my girl.”

MY GIRL. NOT CLARICE’S.

“Come on, I want to get you all set up and introduce you to your instructor as soon as she gets here. Have breakfast with me in my room.”

Annie smiles, pleased as always to have so much of Clarice’s attention. Annie loves Clarice. Clarice helps Annie. It’s wrong to feel the way I do about Clarice. My fingers clench so tightly they ache.

“See you on the slopes!” Eden crows. I want to say something, anything cheerful, but it will be a lie and my throat closes on itself.

I walk in after Annie and Clarice leave and close the door behind me. If I can operate in the middle of this much wrong, if I can fake out my own instincts, I can fake my own emotions, too.

I am excited.

I smile slyly at Eden, give her what she needs to feel so I can rope her in. “How would you like to be sixteen for the day? Because there’s a pair of super hot brothers perfect for sharing long ski lift rides with.”

And a small, wicked part of me revels in the wrong, revels in knowing that even if I don’t know exactly how I am going to pull this all off, I can.

ANNIE

Ten Months Before Keane

“FIA, CAN’T YOU REMEMBER TO PUT YOUR SHOES away?” Aunt Ellen says.

I sigh and lean against the headboard, my bed squeaking beneath me. I almost wish Aunt Ellen would yell. She sounds so . . . tired when she talks to us. Fia mutters in reply and then stomps to our room, throwing something with a loud thump against the wall. My guess? The shoes.

“I hate weekends,” she says, bouncing the mattress as she climbs on next to me. “At least when she’s gone she doesn’t ignore us.”