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EVERY MUSCLE IN IMARA’S BODY SEIZED as she fell into the seat of the bubble car. Abe’s limbs seemed to be shaking too, but not as bad as hers. He tried to paste on a smile and said, “Thanks for saving my—”
She punched him in the shoulder before he could finish. “Do you have a death wish?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “And, ow.”
She smacked him again. “Are you sure? Because...” Her chin trembled. She tried to breathe, but the air came in as a shudder. “That was so stupid. And reckless.” Her chin trembled again, and her shoulders started shaking. She folded her arms over her stomach and dug her nails into the fleshy part of her elbows.
Her lips parted as she tried to speak, but then she lost control, and everything inside her shivered so hard it hurt. Abe pulled her head to his chest, and she buried her face without question. She tried to take deep breaths, but each one felt too shallow or so deep it made her head spin. All the while, her muscles seized so hard they ached.
Abe held her the entire car ride. When they arrived at his apartment a few minutes later, her muscles burned, but no longer trembled. Once inside, she turned on him again. “You thought you could jump across the roof? What were you thinking?”
He stared at his feet while tucking his elbows into his sides.
She wagged a finger at him with her eyebrows lowering more every second. “Sometimes you’re reckless to help people, and it’s very brave. But sometimes you’re reckless for no reason at all, and you needlessly put your life on the line. Why do you do that?”
He looked up, and a hint of guilt lingered in his eyes, though not nearly enough. He shrugged. “I don’t have a death wish. Sometimes I just do stuff without thinking it through.”
“No,” she said, plopping down onto his couch. “You know that isn’t the only reason.” She reached for the hair on the back of her neck and gave it a tug. “I think it’s because of your mom.”
“No,” he said with a flinch. “It has nothing to do with her.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you sure? Because sometimes the things you do border on insanity.”
He huffed and dropped himself onto the couch next to her. “Who cares? It all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”
“Are you serious?” she said through her teeth.
“What?”
“I care!” she said, jabbing a thumb toward her chest. “Your dad cares. Lots of people care. Aren’t you the least bit concerned with how devastated your dad would be if something happened to you?”
“My dad is strong. He’d survive.”
She let out a growl and punched the nearest pillow. “Out with it,” she said. “There’s more to this whether you realize it or not. So, dig deep. What is it?”
He rolled his eyes and waved a hand through the air.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest for a second time. “I’m not leaving until you figure this out. I don’t care if it takes all night.” She glared at him until he turned away from her stare.
Soon he was crossing his arms over his chest and huffing through his nostrils. He tried to stand, but she raised one eyebrow at him, and he slunk back into the couch. She wasn’t sure exactly how long they sat like that, but it was long enough for a cramp to form in her leg.
Little by little, the muscles in his shoulders started to relax. Soon, his face wasn’t glaring, so much as staring off into space. At one point, his thumb found his chin, and he began stroking his jaw line.
He took a careful glance toward her but quickly turned away. “It...” he swallowed. “Maybe it does have something to do with my mom.”
She wanted to roll her eyes since that was, by far, the least surprising revelation of her life. But somehow, she managed to keep her eyes in place. “Go on,” she said.
He shrugged as he stared at the ground. “It’s not what you said the other day, about not wanting my dad to take responsibility. It’s because... my mom died because of a freak accident. She had no control over it.” He lifted one hand to rub the back of his neck. “I don’t know. I just...” He shrugged again. “When I die, I want it to be on my own terms.”
She blinked at him and had to clench her jaw shut to keep from saying something she’d regret. When she finally spoke, it took all her energy to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “I guess I can see how you mildly used logic to come to that conclusion.” Her face softened with a sigh and she reached for his hand. “But don’t you think you should take responsibility for your life instead of your death?”
He turned to look in her eyes before breathing out a long sigh. “Well, when you put it like that.”
He let out a tiny chuckle, and she joined in a second later. He squeezed her hand and said, “I do see what you’re saying, but I can’t just undo this compulsion I’ve had for years.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” she said, thinking how easy it still was for her to see the worst in people instead of the best. She dropped her head onto his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her. She sighed. “Next time you get an impulsive urge, can you at least try to remember people care about you? And that you shouldn’t be so reckless with your life, for their sake.”
He gulped loud enough for her to hear and then pulled her closer.
“Why didn’t the gangsters come after us?” she asked after they sat in silence for a few minutes.
“There were security cameras in the alley,” he said. “The gangsters would have been caught and arrested if they tried to attack us.”
She nodded, wondering how they started the fire in the first place. She shook her head. “What was the point of that trap? Has Sef ever tried attacking you like that before?”
Abe snorted. “Sef has been trying to get rid of me for at least a year. He has to be extra careful though because I work for the Egyptian Council, and they’d personally investigate if anything happened to me.” He narrowed his eyes and slid his thumb across his chin. “He’s never done anything that direct before. Maybe the taggers are making him desperate.”
Her nose curled, and she said, “I thought we’d have a way to stop the taggers by now, but it’s been months, and they’re just as powerful as the day they got here.”
Abe shrugged. “Yeah, but the only people they hurt are Sef’s men. Maybe we should be more concerned about Sef than the taggers.”
“Four people have died since the business fair,” she said with a scoff. “The police think Takara did it herself. How can we stand by and let that happen, even if they’re just Sef’s men?”
“I know, I know,” Abe said as his head bobbed up and down. “We definitely need to stop the taggers. The problem is, I have no idea what to do. But Sef has that list. If we can get even one of his men to join us, we can find out more about the list and might have a way to stop him.”
Imara grinned, remembering the gangster with the chestnut brown eyes. “I think I might know just the gangster.”
