Omega Twink by Judith Shale

Author:Judith Shale [Shale, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-04T07:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

“There you are,” Edna said, giving me a withering stare. “Do you know this child?”

I gave Lily my best version of the same stare. Whatever she was doing here, it wasn’t good. I told her to stay home, dammit! Of course the brat had gone and gotten herself into trouble. Legal trouble, no less.

The cop’s face was devoid of humor as he waited for my answer. “That’s my sister,” I said.

“Your sister?” Lane repeated.

The cop ignored him. “Are you her legal guardian?”

“No,” I said. “I’m just looking after her for a while. My mom sent her to stay with me.”

“Did you know she was in the grocery store today?”

“No. She was supposed to be at home. I told her not to leave the apartment. Did she do something? What happened?” I glanced at the crowd of onlookers. Why couldn’t these busybodies go away? A few left when I waved them off, but some stuck around—Edna and the alphas among them.

Lily’s lower lip hadn’t retreated the whole time she’d been standing there. “I didn’t do anything,” she said.

“She was shoplifting,” the cop said. “Cashier caught her leaving the store with a pile of candy bars in her pocket.”

“You must be joking.” Not Lily. Not at the age of ten.

He shook his head. “Ask her yourself.”

I turned to my sister with death in my eyes. “Lily, tell me you didn’t shoplift from the grocery store.”

“I didn’t shoplift from the grocery store,” she said hopefully.

The kid was playing games with me. “Did you or didn’t you, Lily?”

She lowered her eyes. “I did.”

I shook my head, raging internally. “I’m sorry, Officer. My sister made a huge mistake. I’m going to talk to her about it, and I’ll have our mom talk to her as well.”

“All right,” the cop said. “I hope it gets through, because next time we won’t take it so easy on her.”

He took off, leaving me standing awkwardly between my sister and my coworkers. With the immediate threat gone, the alphas’ presence started to call to me again. My heart beat faster as I became conscious of the urge to sandwich myself between the two of them and guide their hands all over me. I shuddered for a moment, then pressed the sensations as far down as I could. This was not the time!

“I think I should bring Lily home,” I said apologetically. “I’ll work through lunch hour.”

With Edna’s nod of approval, I grabbed my sister by the arm and walked down the stairs. I was still seething, both at her and at myself. I could’ve prevented this if I’d just planned better.

“So you’re a shoplifter now,” I said, still shaking my head. One day with me had turned my kid sister into a little criminal.

“I needed food,” she said.

I paused and looked at her. It was true, there wasn’t much in the fridge when I’d left for the day. A few eggs, pasta in the cupboard… nothing a ten-year-old would know how to prepare. Somehow I hadn’t thought about that when I’d told her to stay home all day.

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