Obsidian Faith Read Online Free Page B

had not seen eye-to-eye on.
    Trevor shuffled back toward the kitchen and re-entered. This time the woman was sitting on one of the barstools, and Phil was standing next to her, his arm draped around her shoulders.
    “Trevor, this is Stacee, with a double-e. Stacee, my nephew, and now foster son, Trevor Kyle.”
    Trevor didn’t particularly like how Philip cavalierly assumed their situation was permanent.  He and, especially Shanice were still hoping the Bailey’s foster child would get adopted so he could move in with them. Trevor kept his face impassive as Stacee spoke to him.
    “Hi, Trevor,” she said in an inordinately high-pitched voice. “Nice to meet you.”
    “Hello, Ms. Stacee,” Trevor said, remembering how the Kyles had taught him to address his elders.
    “You can drop the Ms.” she said. “I’m just plain old Stacee.”
    “Yeah, Trevor, we don’t have those kinds of rules around here. Dave and Elena were fantastic parents, but hey, I’m just barely over thirty. A little more than twice your age, but young enough you don’t have to be so formal.”
    “Okay,” Trevor said.
    Phil leaned in and tongue-kissed Stacee so thoroughly, it made Trevor uncomfortable. Finally, he peeled himself away from Stacee and grabbed the phone.
    “You like Chinese, Trevor?” Philip asked as he dialed.
    Trevor wondered if Phil would’ve changed if he’d said no, but he didn’t bother. Chinese was great when he had an appetite. He wasn’t sure whether he’d be hungry once the food arrived, so he answered in the affirmative.
    Stacee jutted her ample chest out and smiled at Trevor. She had a childlike quality about her, despite her very mature-looking body and state of dress. Trevor’s hormones responded in the manner in which they were designed. Thankfully he was wearing baggy shorts over tightey-whiteys or he might’ve had an embarrassing situation to explain. Even so, Trevor turned away and headed back to his room when Phil got off the phone and glued himself to Stacee again. He would get dinner later. Or not.

    In the beginning, Philip appeared to be just as nice and caring as his brother. Well, at least his generosity trumped everything David and Elena had done for Trevor, and early on that was the only barometer by which he was able to measure the difference. It was easy for a kid coming from poverty such as his to have his head turned by expensive things. Plus Uncle Philip was cool in the beginning. Trevor was in hog heaven for all of two weeks before the other shoe dropped.
    “Hey little buddy,” Uncle Philip said one evening after he’d gotten home from school. “Here’s your allowance for the month.”
    Philip handed him a crisp one hundred dollar bill. “There’s more where that came from. I might just need you to pitch in and help your old uncle out with some work I’ll be bringing home every once in a while.”
    “What kind of work?” Trevor held the money by one corner as if it might burn him.
    “Some special computer work that only an expert like you can help me with.”
    Trevor mentally puffed his chest out at being called an expert at first, but then his brow furrowed. “Don’t they have IT people at the bank where you work?”
    “They do, but they’re doing other things with their time. The bank expects me to know this computer crap, but the fact is I don’t.”
    “I could teach you a few things, I guess,” Trevor said, finally pocketing the bill.
    “I think it would be better if you did them,” Philip said. “Don’t you want to pull a little weight around here? I know David and Elena taught you that it’s a good thing to help out. To pay your keep, so to speak.”
    “Yeah, they did.” Trevor said. That sounded logical, so Trevor would go with it. What harm would it be to help his computer illiterate uncle out?
    “All I need is for you to find some information on people for me every once in a while on the internet,” Phil said. “These are people I’m investigating for