Thicker Than Water by Bruce Hale

Author:Bruce Hale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2014-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

CINNABAR JONES was not a happy camper. Not only would she have to share a costume with Nikki Knucks and her grubby little mate Dermot, but Cinnabar’s sister, Jazz, wasn’t even coming along on the Hercules Security mission. Jazz’s expression when she learned that the sisters were being separated yet again?

Heartbreaking.

“Cinn, what do you mean I’m not going?” Jazz’s brown eyes were wide and haunted.

“They need you here.”

“But—”

Cinnabar brushed a curl back from her older sister’s forehead. “We won’t be long,” she said. “You’ll hardly notice I’m gone.”

“No, I know,” said Jazz. But her hands gripped Cinnabar’s like a drowning woman’s. “It’s just…” Her voice trailed off, and Cinn knew the rest of that sentence was I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again.

Cinnabar suppressed a sigh. It was excruciating to leave, with Jazz’s condition still so delicate.

And the cherry on top? Max and the other team were going to the hostage swap with that bottle blonde, Vespa da Costa. The girl wasn’t even trained, for crying out loud, except maybe in heavy-handed flirting.

It bothered Cinnabar. And it bothered her that it bothered her.

Max wasn’t her boyfriend, after all. Even though they’d been through a lot together, she had no claim on him. And honestly, he’d been a bit of a jerk lately about Cinnabar’s need to spend time with her sister. He didn’t seem to get how fragile Jazz was since being rescued from LOTUS, how much she needed her sister’s presence.

But still, that was no reason for him to get all goo-goo-eyed over a tart who probably learned that fake Brazilian accent from a rerun of Girls Gone Wild: Rio Edition.

Since the hostage-swap team was headed into the capital, they had to leave promptly in one of the school’s two Range Rovers. Cinnabar nearly collided with Max as he was clattering down the stairs to join his group.

“Oh, hi,” she said.

“Hi,” he answered, pulling to a halt.

Max immediately buried his hands in his jeans pockets, hunched his shoulders, and examined the stairwell carpeting.

“So…Mr. Stones is alive?” she said after a pause that seemed to stretch the length of a bad foreign movie. “That’s brilliant.”

“Yeah,” said Max, nodding vigorously. “Brilliant.”

Another longish pause. He glanced up at her with a searching look, like he wanted to ask something important. But all he said was, “They’re probably waiting for me. Good luck on your mission.”

“Yeah,” she said. “You, too.”

He wheeled and clomped off down the stairs.

You, too? she thought. That was the best you could come up with? Cinnabar shook her head, disgusted with herself, and went on upstairs to help her group prepare.

Maybe after this whole thing is over, she thought, maybe then I’ll have the nerve to sit down and really talk with Max about feelings and stuff.

Or maybe I’ll just chicken out again.

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