Read Online Be the Death of Me by Rebecca Harris - Free Book Online Page B

to get snippy.”
    “Oh really?” Ford chuckles darkly, filling in the boxes for 8–Across. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was just fine before you showed up.”
    “Yeah, you were doing wonderful,” I scoff. “Except for that part about your imminent death.”
    He turns to Tuck, who has remained quiet during all of this. “Yeah, about that,” Ford says. “Thanks for letting me know and all, but wouldn’t it be easier for me to just call the cops?”
    “The cops?” I can’t contain the sneer that decorates my face. “Are you serious?”
    “Yeah, I’m serious. Why should I let you protect me when you obviously couldn’t keep yourself alive?”
    “Hey, watch it,” Tuck snaps from the counter. “Low blow, man.”
    “Like I care. Ten bucks says I’m dead before the day’s over.”
    “Go to the cops then!” I shout. “But mind if I ask what you plan on telling them? Because saying two dead teenagers came to you in the middle of the night and told you something or someone is going to kill you is only going to get you locked in a cozy, padded cell.”
    “That would be better than spending another second with you.”
    “Make sure they put that on your headstone, will you? Right below ‘Here lies Benedict Bartholomew Ford. He had no friends and a really stupid name’.”
    “This coming from a chick with a guy’s name.”
    “Well, it could be worse.”
    “How?”
    “I could be a seventeen year old shut–in with imaginary friends.”
    “I hate you, you know that?”
    “Yeah, well take a number, pal.”
    “That’s enough!”
    Tuck slams his fist down on the table, shaking the thin, antique legs with the impact. The pendant light dangling over our heads flickers on and off, on and off as if hit with a sudden, overwhelming surge of electricity. Ford and I fall silent.
    “What is the matter with you people?” Tuck exclaims. “Honestly! I feel like I’m in charge of the two most obnoxious kids on the planet! And contrary to what you may believe, I don’t enjoy babysitting you.”
    He turns to me, more enraged than I’ve ever seen him. “Is this how you handle all of your assignments? Because I gotta tell you, Billie, if you were my Guardian, I’d probably kill myself just to get away from you. You may think you’re some unattainable, gorgeous girl, and you’d be right, but it still doesn’t give you an excuse to act this way.”
    “Amen,” Ford chimes in.
    “And you!” Tuck whirls on him. He slumps lower in his chair. “What’s your problem, man?”
    “I don’t have a–”
    “Don’t interrupt me,” he jumps back in, snatching the crossword from Ford’s hands. “You know, most people would be grateful to have their own secret service assigned to protect them. I mean, you do realize you’re complaining about people trying to keep you alive , right? So just stop with the self–pity act and cowboy up. And if both of you can somehow manage to grow up, deal with the situation, and at least pretend to like one another, then maybe, just maybe, no one will die.”
    The silence that washes over us is both palpable and painful. In that instant of speechlessness, Ford staring at his fingers, Tuck staring at me, I see it. The plea for cooperation written in the furrow of his brow, in the flare of his nostrils and strength of his hands. He isn’t asking for much, and I know then that one of us is going to have to bend before this entire operation breaks.
    I look at Ford across the expanse of table. “Jeez, what’s his problem?”
    And for the first time since meeting him, I receive a genuine smile. His face lights up with a grin, the sharp lines melting away to reveal a completely new person.
    “Seriously,” he agrees with a playful roll of his eyes. “Calm down, buddy, before you spontaneously combust.”
    “Hilarious,” Tuck says. “Just answer me this, will you? How, out of all the assignments in the entire world, did I get stuck with this one?” His words may sound