With Regrets by Lee Kelly

Author:Lee Kelly [Lee Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Domestic, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Technological
ISBN: 9781639104673
Google: ZwmgEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1639104674
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Published: 2023-09-04T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

16

Britta

#TotalDisasterTerritory

#OutrightSpectacle

FORGET CLEMENTINE. BRITTA’S husband and friends just voted Padma off the sitting-room island, confining her to the cold floors of the wine storage area for who knows how long.

Liz and Mabel, too, after their heroic efforts to help, are now separated from their husbands and left to fend for themselves.

Is this really the right thing, impulsively dividing the group based on intermittent news stories? For how long?

Christ, does Britta loathe not knowing the next frame, the next move. No one could have predicted tonight’s twists and turns, but she clearly underestimated the glimmer’s holding power. Even more devastating, more unforgivable, is that Britta has completely lost control of this narrative.

How has everything spun so massively off-script?

She keeps pacing the far corner of the sitting area.

A gun.

Really, Britta thought she knew the full contours of Joel. She didn’t like who she knew, and most definitively sometimes hated who she knew. But she thought she understood his parameters, his limits. Jacking off in a car minutes before their guests arrive? Yes, that was surprising, but not out of character. Joel is a master at performing self-care with almost perfunctory efficiency; she’s seen him squeeze in a round of bicep reps while he waits on hold with a Verizon operator. His new but apparent abuse of stimulants? Nope, doesn’t rise to the level of shocking, not when she considers his new angsty, vampirish persona. Even the gambling … Joel can be impetuous, as well as competitive.

But a weapon? What’s Joel doing with a gun?

“How could you go through my things?” Joel hisses at Spencer. He grabs the pistol from Spencer and stuffs it into his pocket.

Spencer responds in his low, deadpan tone. “Because I don’t trust these people, and if I hadn’t—”

“You stole from me.”

Spencer shrugs. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Joel leans in, so close it looks like he’s going to head-butt Spencer. “Don’t give me that crap. You know the pressure I’m under …”

Britta shivers and looks away, though her mind’s wheels keep turning. Pressure. Meaning Joel keeps a gun because of his gambling debts? Are loan sharks after him? Is Spencer his loan shark?

It’s gross, really, how Britta needs to piece together the truth from these whispers, just like some cheesy hard-boiled sleuth, some Instagram compendium of Daniel Craig in Knives Out. What she knows for sure: Joel and Spencer have a history of fighting about gambling. She’d confronted Joel about their fight a few weeks ago, right after Britta’s friend Ainsley told her she’d caught the two of them all-out sparring in the school drop-off line. Joel had said it was about poker, specifically.

Or is “poker” just a code word for drugs?

Britta fitfully rubs her temples.

Maybe she should get some shut-eye. What is it, five AM? Marco and Jane, tucked into the room’s far corner, have somehow slept through all the drama—not entirely surprising, Britta supposes, as they’ve slept through tripped alarms when Joel takes the trash out and forgets that their security system’s on. Avery, though, has yet to turn back.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.