The Mysterious Stranger (The Confidence Game 3)

The older blonde sipped her coffee. She had short nails, perfectly painted red. “I like to live dangerously. You can pretend this isn’t happening. I’ll deny it anyway.”

Had Beth seen something Rory didn’t want seen by anyone? A little break and enter maybe? A little too much familiarity with Zeke? “Glad we got that straight. Like your nail color.”

It looked remarkably like Ready and Willing Red, the bottle that had disappeared from Rory’s bag. She looked at her own hands, polish impossibly chipped and no remover to fix the situation.

Beth likely had her acetate too. Nothing to be gained by making an issue of it. Just like there was nothing to be gained when she’d showed up at the library, only to be told she had to wait six months to qualify for membership, as if people who liked to read would find themselves improved by having to wait to get near a book.

“Did you enjoy the social?” Rory asked.

“You’re one of those pains in the neck who answers a question with a question.”

“I’m out of practice talking to people.” Beth didn’t come on like the advance guard of a love-bombing brigade. Rory stuffed the words, “What do you want?” back down her throat.

“Go on, ask me why I came over here.”

Good call. “Why’d you come over here?”

“Thought you could do with some advice, new girl. My turn for a question. Why’d you say you didn’t want Orrin’s kid?”

Well didn’t that little gem go viral fast. “I didn’t say that.”

“Near enough, new girl.”

“My name is Rosie.”

“Your name is whatever Orrin wants to call you, if you know what’s good for you.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you remind me of someone.”

“Oh yeah? Who?”

“None of your business.”

Beth had to be in her late fifties, which made her ancient by Abundance standards. “How long have you been here?”

“Since the beginning.” She put her mug down. “I was a damn fool back then, letting Orrin sweet-talk me into thinking this was a good idea and now it’s too late to do anything about it.”

“You don’t like it here?” The only one close in age to Beth was Orrin and then maybe Spencer and Mike, the head of Zeke’s crew. The smattering of older men in the population wasn’t well-matched by older women.

“Sure, I like it.” Beth picked her mug up and put it down again for emphasis. “All the world is going to hell in a handbasket, this is as good a place as any to go mad, but we’re not talking about me.”

Rory pushed her plate away. Her appetite had dissolved. “I’m just trying to make my way, you know.”

“I know you think that. But your education is making you question what you have no right to. Best thing to ever happen to you will be when Orrin claims you. I came over here to tell you not to screw that up.”

Rory crocheted her hands like Cadence had done. “I’m a little scared of him.”

Beth laughed. “You’re not scared of anyone. Orrin won’t appreciate you playing hard to get. That’s the kind of game we left in decay, but you look like you bathe in it.”

That observation was a little too sharp for Rory’s liking. “What will he appreciate?”

“How sweet you are to him. How good you are in bed. How quick you make a baby, and how well you run along down those stairs of his with a big old smile and no complaints when he’s tired of you.”

Down those stairs of his. That was oddly specific, and Beth had waggled two red-tipped fingers in a running motion to illustrate her point.

“That’s it?” Rory slapped her palms on the tabletop. “He doesn’t like conversation, or, I don’t know, playing tic-tac-toe?” There was only one place with stairs in Abundance. The second story of HQ wasn’t more offices. It was where Orrin lived.