Read Online Fix by Ferrett Steinmetz - Free Book Online

language; part of it was they were both videogamemancers, of course.
    But Aliyah had always been wilder than Imani had meant her to be. And so was Valentine.
    Aliyah’s eyes narrowed. “ What did you call me?”
    â€œI spied something beginning with ‘B,’” Valentine shot back. “ You did not answer. So I saw a Burned Kid.”
    â€œI am not a burned kid! And you have never made fun of my scars–”
    â€œThen what do you see when you look at you?”
    â€œI see a badass who’s gonna kick your ass in–”
    â€œâ€“ language –” Imani said.
    â€œI,” Aliyah said stiffly, “am a badass . Which is… It’s not a bad word, Mom, they use it in Borderlands . It means a big boss.”
    â€œThen why not say ‘Big Boss’, Aliyah?”
    â€œBecause it’s… it’s not as badass .”
    Imani decided the moral lesson wasn’t worth the energy of arguing. “Fine. Badass.”
    Aliyah jabbed her finger into Valentine’s belly. “I see a badass who will shred you if you ever – ever – make fun of me that way again.”
    â€œFine,” Valentine said. “Your turn.”
    Aliyah scowled, sensing a trick – but she still wanted to know what happened next. “Fine. I spy, with my two little eyes–” and here, she poked her fingers underneath both of them “–something beginning with ‘I’.”
    Valentine spread her fingers across her cleavage in a dainty motion. “’Ignoramus’? ‘Imbecile’? ‘Idiot’?”
    A sly grin crept across Aliyah’s face. “I was thinking more ‘Irritating Player of I-Spy.’ That game’s for six year-olds.”
    â€œFine. What do you want to play next?”
    â€œI don’t want to play anyt… Ooh! Punch buggy !”
    Valentine grabbed her injured bicep. “There was no buggy! You just wanted to punch me!”
    â€œIt was super fast. I guess you didn’t see it out of your right eye… oh, sorry, your only eye.”
    â€œMy single eye sees just fine when it whips your ass at Destiny , kid.”
    Aliyah bopped her with a soccer ball. Imani would have guessed they were about to brawl, if it wasn’t for Aliyah’s goofy grin.
    â€œ You kids play careful! I will pull over the car! ” Imani barely got the words out through her laughter. She shot a grin over at Paul, hoping the tickle fight in the back seat would draw him out of his funk…
    Paul had fished out a pair of earphones from underneath his seat, and had plugged them into the car’s headphone jack.
    â€œTurn on the radio,” he whispered.
    Imani knew Paul could have turned on the radio by himself. He was seeking permission – like an injured junkie asking someone he trusted whether it was OK to take this Oxycontin.
    â€œPaul, you can’t listen to the news now ,” she whispered. “Give yourself a while to heal before you pour that poison into your ear.”
    â€œI gave myself precisely one hour to bathe in self-hatred.” Though he wore an old-fashioned clockwork Timex, he showed her the watch face as though his self-inflicted deadline was engraved on its surface. “Now we need information to keep Aliyah protected while we’re on the run.”
    He wouldn’t be running anywhere, Imani thought. Paul had unbuttoned his shirt and removed his tie – a look that, for her dignified husband, was nearly naked. He peeled his shirt’s sweat-soaked fabric away from his bruise-blackened ribs.
    â€œShe doesn’t need to hear this.” Paul jerked his head back towards Aliyah. “Let me find out so she doesn’t have to know.”
    Imani nodded.
    He snapped on the radio.
    â€“ the first unsealable broach on American soil, almost certainly a terrorist act –
    Valentine and Aliyah froze as the announcer’s voice boomed through the car.