Destruction: The December People, Book One Read Online Free PDF

too.”
    Present tense. He didn’t even mean to say it, but he hoped they caught that.
    They looked at him as if they would have been less shocked if he transfigured the plates into mice.
    The phone rang. Amanda. Fear shot from the pit of his stomach to his heart. He stopped breathing.
    He answered the phone and said, “Amanda.”
    “Bring them here.”
    “What?”
    “What are you going to do, take them to a hotel? Bring them here. Now.”
    She hung up, and he remembered to breathe again.

    In the dark, David couldn’t see his kids’ reaction to their new neighborhood. When he imagined seeing the houses through someone else’s eyes, they seemed pompous. Too big. His college-age self would have thought so, anyway. But the houses would have impressed the kid David. The kid David had wanted to be rich more than anything but had parents who considered poverty a badge of honor.
    He parked the car and unloaded the trunk and the kids, while Amanda watched from the doorway, her dark silhouette looming ominously. David’s attraction to fiery women had a dangerous side effect: if he pissed one off, anything could happen. He couldn’t rule out the possibility Amanda had taken a gun out of the lock box and tucked it under her sweater.
    When they reached the front door, she spoke to the kids as if she couldn’t see David.
    “Come in,” she said. “Have you eaten?”
    “They have,” David said.
    Amanda put her hand on Evangeline’s shoulder as she led her through the doorway.
No touching.
But neither of them burst into flames upon contact. After Xavier and Evangeline had passed, Amanda blocked the doorway.
    “Just them. Not you,” she said.
    “What?”
    “They need a place to stay and haven’t done anything wrong. But we’re done. You’re out of the house. You can come by and get your stuff while I’m at work.”
    “I can’t leave them here with you. I’m their legal guardian. You’re no one… I mean, you’re no one legally… to them.”
    “If you think I’ll let you in, then you don’t know me.”
    “Can we discuss it privately?” Evangeline and Xavier stood right behind Amanda.
    She shut the door in his face. He had no inclination to turn and leave. Everything that mattered to him slept in that house. And he legally owned that house. So, he would live here unless the police dragged him away.

avid awoke to the sound of breaking glass. Cube-like shards littered the floor of the Expedition. The back window, the one closest to where he had slept, had shattered. He sat up fast but didn’t see anyone outside. He shook pieces of glass off his jacket and inspected himself for cuts.
    He climbed out of the car and saw Emmy and Amanda run through the doorway into the garage.
    “What the hell?” Amanda demanded.
    “I—―”
    “Did you break the window?” Amanda asked.
    “Of course not. I was sleeping. I don’t know how it broke.”
    “That’s it. We’re not going to church.” Amanda threw her hands in the air.
    “How did it break?” Emmy whispered. Someone had turned her volume down.
    “I don’t know, honey,” David said. “Stay back. You don’t have on shoes.”
    “Give me your keys,” Amanda said.
    “I’ll take the car and get it fixed today. I don’t want you to have to worry about that on top of everything else.”
    “How considerate,” she said acidly. “Give me the keys.”
    He removed the house key from the ring and handed only that one over. “Let me keep the car keys. I can sleep there.”
    “Go to a hotel, David.”
    “No.”
    “You can stop sleeping outside; there’s no point. You can’t pull off the romantic guy thing anymore. Romantics don’t cheat on their wives.”
    He disagreed. Too much romance caused his downfall, not too little.
    “Emmy, can you go inside, please?” David asked.
    “It’s not like she doesn’t know what’s going on,” Amanda said. “She’s smart. She’s an Honors student.” But she nodded Emmy back inside.
    “How dare you?”