Dylan
ASHER STAYED THE night with me, and left early the next morning. Without Addison to talk to, I spent the day alternating between computer games and mafia novels until I was confident I could land a headshot and dispose of the body. I was hoping Asher would spend the night again, but he called and said he had to work late and wouldn’t make it over.
The next day held more of the same boringroutine. By the time Asher called and told me he had to work late again, I was so desperate for real life human contact I was reading pizza delivery reviews to figure out who had the friendliest driver. By five p.m., I’d ordered my pizza and I was plotting out how to trap the driver in a conversation when my phone rang with an incoming call from a Lakeview number.
“Hey, Dyl, it’s Dakota. Howare you?”
“Dak!” I said, sounding overly enthusiastic even to my own ears. “I’m so glad you called. Hey, how are you?’
“Good. I called to give you an update on the damage your little tornado did in our town.”
I chuckled. “We did shake things up a bit, didn’t we?” Dad was in the slammer awaiting trial. Apparently he’d known about the DA’s plan to kill off the nursing home elders, and had notrouble stealing jewelry from people who were about to be knocked off, including his own mother. I was having a hard time coming to terms with that. My dad had a girlfriend in Klamath who was unloading the jewelry off onto the pawn shop, which explained why they had no record of him ever selling anything. Dad’s girlfriend was also currently a guest of the state.
“How’s the town dealing withDicky’s arrest?”
“It’s a circus. Half the population has stepped forward to snitch about other things he was wrapped up in. By the time Klamath County gets it all figured out, I reckon he’ll have more cases against him than that old actor accused of date-raping all those women.”
All of a sudden, I was a little proud of my home town. “I’m glad people are finally finding the balls to nail him.That’s encouraging.”
“Yeah, me and Brandy are stepping forward, too.”
“Wait, what? You and Brandy?”
He chuckled. “I’ve liked Brandy for a long time, Dylan. No offense, but you weren’t exactly my type.”
I’d suspected as much. No matter what Dakota had said, there’d never been any sort of spark between us. “It’s because I wouldn’t sit on your lap when you told me you were the real Santa Claus,isn’t it?”
That earned me a good belly laugh. “You sure got my number.”
“So why did you act like you liked me?”
“At first, it felt expected. You and I were gonna get married, like everyone said. Then I took a likin’ to Brandy, but ol’ Dicky’d already laid claim to her.”
“What?” I asked. “How old was she?”
“Sixteen. But what were we gonna do about it? Who could we tell, Dyl? You know how thingsare down here. So I kept tellin’ everyone you and me were still together.”
