Slow Burn (Book 7): City of Stin Read Free Page B

That was a fact. They didn’t behave rationally. Something inexplicable was wrong with them. Their behavior was too far outside the norm. How they’d been so crazy and not been locked up somewhere was an unanswered question that bothered me a lot.
    Murphy nodded an acknowledgment. “You and me coming into the situation, we were like a powder keg. No, we were the sparks in a powder keg. We blew it all up. We didn’t mean to, you were just Null Spotting around and… I have to thank you for that. I would never have known my sister was alive if you hadn’t dragged me down to help those people stranded in the cove. I’m glad it happened. I just wish it didn’t go as far as it went. I wish all those people wouldn’t have died.”
    “Do you think that was our fault, then?” I asked.
    Murphy shook his head. “It was all Jay and his crazy brother. Without them, maybe we’d all be living happily ever after on Monk’s Island. Or maybe we’d have moved in and some of the other dipshits would have knifed us in our sleep. Jay was crazy, but plenty of those others hated us. A lot more of them—most of them—were afraid of us. That’s why most of them didn’t go out to Balmorhea, but instead back to Monk’s Island.”
    Nodding, I replied, “I think you’re right.”
    “Yup,” Murphy grinned. “So we’re cool. I didn’t think you were thinking straight that night they all left you and me here alone, but I think it was the right move. I’m a danger to Rachel just by being around her. She’s better off out there with Dalhover and the others.”
    “Okay.” It felt good to have that behind us. I’d been afraid that Murphy was staying with me through resentful loyalty only. “What about the helicopters, then?”
    “I told you what I think about ‘em,” said Murphy. “You tell me what you’re thinking.”
    “I think they represent… ” I wasn’t sure exactly. “A threat. Possibly. They could represent something good, but it’s most likely a threat.”
    “Why do you want to go see, then?” Murphy asked.
    “We need to know,” I said. “It’s that simple. We just have to understand what all the threats are out there. Every time we go forward without all the information, we get in trouble. I don’t know if that’s something that can be fixed, but I know I’m going to mitigate that as much as possible.”
    “Really?” Murphy laughed.
    Clearly, he didn’t believe me. I huffed. “ You tell me what you think my reasons are.”
    “Oh, I’m not saying those aren’t valid reasons,” said Murphy. “You like to overthink things, and you especially like to hide from your motivations. It’s because you hate yourself most of the time.”
    “Okay, Sigmund Freud.” I rolled my eyes dramatically. “Why don’t you tell me what I want out of the chasing-down-the-helicopter question?”
    “In a way,” said Murphy, “you’re like a cat sitting out on that deck every day, watching a mouse crawl back and forth across the floor. Not knowing where the helicopters are coming from or where they’re going is driving you crazy. You can’t help yourself. Now that the thought is in your mind, you don’t have the impulse control to put it back out again. It’s going to nag at you until you do something about it no matter how dangerous it might be.”
    “Wow.” I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not. “You think my motivations are that simple? Really?”
    “Nobody is as complicated as they think they are.” Murphy shrugged. “For the most part, we’re all just a bunch of Whites with a thin layer of rationalizations and morality keeping us civilized. Mostly, we just want to eat, fuck, and play.”
    I laughed. “Sometimes, Murphy.”
    “Sometimes?”
    I said, “You’re a lot smarter than you think you are.”
    “You’re not gonna say that when I tell you the other reason we need to chase those helicopters.”
    Cautiously, I asked, “Okay what is my other reason?”
    “I’m not sure if