Read Losing Nuka (Litmus Book 1) for Free Online Page B

struggle.
    “The way I see it, you’re kidnapping me.”
    “Your mother would never forgive us if we let you get away. I need this job, Nuka, I have nothing else. You know what it’s like for us in this world.”
    This brings me up short. I take my hands off him and stop struggling, letting out a loud sigh. “You must have some pretty mad skills to do what you just did.”
    He adjusts me over his shoulder to get more comfortable. “What did I just do?”
    “Pulled the Defective card, made me feel guilty when I’m the one being abducted.”
    He lets out a laugh. “I’m not abducting you, I promise. Your mum has been searching for you. She’d hate to know that we screwed up and almost lost you.”
    “Okay,” I reply, no longer having any fight in me.
    “If I put you down now, are you going to run?” he asks.
    “I guess not.”
    He puts me down and stretches out his back, wincing from the burns I put there.
    “Come on, keep moving,” Drake says impatiently.
    We cross a street and make our way down another alley where an older, black three-door sports car is waiting.
    I whistle. “Nice car. It’s got to be at least seventy years old, right?” All the modern cars are the same. After the pandemic, cars stopped being looked at as a trend to keep up with and were more of a necessity for getting from point A to B. There are five basic models to choose from, and sports car is not one of them.
    “Eighty actually,” Brett says, the pride in his voice obvious.
    Drake opens the passenger door and pushes the front seat forward. He holds out his hand for me, gesturing for me to climb in the back.
    “Nah, I call shotgun,” I say.
    “Your legs are shorter than mine.”
    “You just attacked me and held a gun to my head. You think my mother is going to be pissed at Brett for making out with me, what will she think if she found out what you did?”
    Brett starts laughing as he gets into the driver’s seat. Drake swears under his breath and climbs in the back. I can’t stop the smirk from finding my face.
    Brett stares at me with an expression I can’t decipher while I climb in the front seat. I can’t tell if it’s amusement or resentment. Perhaps it’s a little of both.
    “You’re going to be worse than Sasha, aren’t you?” he says with an exasperated smile.
    “Who’s Sasha?”
    His smile drops from his face slightly. “She’s your sister.”
    “I have a sister?” I have a sister.
    Brett starts the car. “I’ll let Cade fill you in on everything,” he says, driving off.
    “So who are you guys anyway? What exactly is your job?” I ask.
    “We’re security,” Drake says. “And I’m Simon, by the way.”
    “Simon? I thought your name was Drake.”
    “Last name. You can call me Drake if you want, everyone else does.”
    “Why does my mother need her own security team?”
    “We’re home security, assigned to your sister mostly, and I guess you now,” Brett answers.
    “I don’t need any security looking out for me.”
    Brett raises an eyebrow at me. “Really? Because I think you just willingly followed a guy into a darkened alley.”
    I try to think of something to defend my actions, but I can’t. Following him was not my brightest moment. Neither was voluntarily getting into this car with him, but I’m not going to say that aloud.
    “You must be pretty strong,” I say, changing the subject from my poor choices. “I’m sorry about your hands and your back.”
    Brett shrugs. “All part of the job.”
    “You get attacked often?”
    He doesn’t answer me.
    What the hell is my mother involved in?
     
     
    ***
     
     
    “How much longer?” I complain. It feels like we’ve been in this car forever.
    “Now you even sound like Sasha,” Drake says with a laugh.
    “What’s she like?”
    “Sasha or your mother?” Drake asks.
    “I was meaning Sasha, but I wouldn’t mind knowing about my mum, too.”
    “Sasha’s a pain in the butt,” Brett mumbles under his breath. Drake laughs.