Priceless by Joel Smallbone

Author:Joel Smallbone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worthy
Published: 2016-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

20

FROM WHAT ANTONIA COULD SEE of the sun that fought to come in through the still-closed blinds, it had to be noon. Amber had taken Maria off to lunch but nobody had offered Antonia any food. Not that she could eat. Her lip was swollen on the inside—Amber told her that was Daisy’s signature—and her stomach was in a painful knot that squeezed all the way up her throat.

Feeling like a caged bird in a pink floral dress—the most innocent-looking garment she could find in the closet—she perched on the edge of the bed she’d barely left since she arrived. If she wasn’t trying—unsuccessfully—to sleep she was holding Maria and lying to her. Everything is going to be okay. We’ll get out of here and find jobs. You can trust me—it will be the way we planned.

Maria seemed to have believed her. Maybe because she wanted to. Antonia wanted to believe it herself, but that was harder to do the longer she sat here watching Garo mix drinks at a bar that miraculously pulled out of the wall. He had his back to her, which gave her time to come up with an excuse not to consume whatever he was concocting.

I was not raised in a house with drink probably wasn’t going to cut it, even though it was true. Her parents never had alcohol around, even on special occasions. She herself had only had a single drink ever. A tequila with Trini. He’d tried to convince her she’d be completely chill, relaxed like she’d never been before. In retrospect, it had been one more ploy to get her to sleep with him. Which she didn’t.

I do not like the taste of it wouldn’t be likely to work either. She did think it was like drinking the vinegar her mother used to clean the windows, but Garo … he wasn’t going to buy that. Everything here was the best, he claimed—the clothes, the sheets, the hairspray—so why would the liquor be any different?

Antonia folded her hands under her chin and stared at the carpet. He had been nothing but ingratiating since the moment they’d met, but Daisy’s words hissed in her head: Enjoy it while it lasts.

She’d seen the way he turned his head when Daisy tried to kiss him—the distasteful look in his eyes. And the way he disregarded the other girls while he slathered his attention on her. His presence maintained a crucial tension between protective and menacing. Just watching him pass through a doorway, his shoulders brushing the frame, his head nearly grazing the top—he could shield whatever he wanted. Or he could crush it.

He turned now, and Antonia stood and leveled her shoulders.

“For you,” he said. He lifted her hand and placed a short-stemmed glass in it. The pale amber liquid smelled stronger than Trini’s cocktail. Antonia fought back the urge to retch. She couldn’t have gotten any of her rehearsed excuses out anyway, so she merely said, “No, thank you.”

Garo drew in air slowly through his nose, drawing his height up with it.

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