This is a prequel novella to the ONDINE QUARTET series. You can get this book and the rest of the series at Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Troy weighed a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, yet he put away more food in twenty minutes than I’d ever seen one person do.
I still had the oddest sense I’d seen him somewhere before.
“Have you ever been to Rave?”
He swallowed. “What’s that? A coffee shop?”
Then again, maybe not. “So you come here a lot?”
“I like the food.”
The diner looked as worn-out as Troy sounded. Grease saturated the air, coating the tiled walls with a dull film. Scratches marred the surface of every wood table and the linoleum floor was yellow with age.
So far, Troy had offered no explanations. After the day I’d had, hanging out with a freshman in a dive that skirted health regulations wasn’t my idea of fun.
But my curiosity was piqued and since he was paying, I decided to hear him out.
Troy polished off his burger, wiped his fingers on a flimsy napkin, and said, “You kicked ass at the tournament.”
I leaned back, the booth’s vinyl sticking to the back of my arms. Through the window, the setting sun streaked a muddled orange across the smog-filled sky.
“I should’ve won that match earlier.”
I grabbed another fry off my plate and caught his shrewd expression.
Empath detected a trace of curiosity. Had he seen what happened with my mother?
My voice hardened. “Why did you follow me?”
“I just happened to be there today —“
He stopped at the look on my face.
“Yeah, I followed you.” He began ripping his paper napkin into tiny pieces. “You stopped Rui today so I…” He paused and took a deep breath. “I thought maybe you could stop them… you know. Permanently.”
“I don’t kill people.”
He blinked.
Too easy.
I sighed. “It’s called a joke, Troy.”
He gave a nervous nod, Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “I meant maybe you could help me with my dad’s debt.”
That was the last thing I’d expected him to say. “Do you know how much he owes Vergara?”
“Fifty grand.”
An almost impossible amount for anyone here to come up with. We were in a working class neighborhood in east L.A., composed mostly of single-parent families that didn’t have extra money lying around.
Mom deposited funds into my account once a month. Her inheritance was our only financial source and given how stingy she’d recently become with expenses, money was tight.
What she deposited was never enough so I often supplemented it by hustling pool or poker. It wasn’t hard to rack up a couple hundred in a few hours.
Still, fifty grand was way out of my reach.
“Can’t help you with that.”
“I didn’t mean cash. I meant you could help me shut Vergara down.”
YOU ARE READING
Ondine (Ondine Quartet #0.5 Series Prequel)
Jugendliteratur“I shouldn’t get involved.” Rebellious and headstrong, sixteen-year-old Kendra Irisavie doesn’t have much respect for authority. An ondine with the powerful gift of Virtue, she uses her tough attitude and Empath magic to navigate through high school...
