A lot of eyes are turning in our direction now. It’s hard to have a private conversation in a place like this. All anybody has is the time to be really fucking curious, and Leo and I tend to draw attention anyway at the best of times.
“I have blends,” Leo says. “To deal with people. Dissociatives, sedatives, the works. You know.”
I did know of Leo’s penchant for chemistry, yes. Can’t say I ever approved of it, but he always promised that he was using his skills for good. Never really believed that either.
“I had someone I thought might know about Teddy, and they got the syringe, and I spent the next three days meeting every fucking deity that ever existed, and some that never got to,” he says. “After that, I went to a fast food place and ate my weight in their menu. It was the only thing that brought me back to my body. Fat, carbs, soda. Lifesavers.”
He’s talking in a slow drawl like he’s still trying to put himself back together. I can’t help but chuckle. Poor bastard must have been miserable. Most people I know who have those kinds of psychedelic breakthroughs do so under the care of shamans in some kind of special South American facility, and they generally come back pretentious rather than changed.
“You couldn’t get out?”
“I was shackled to a bed in the cabin I brought for the purposes of breaking the mark.”
I laugh again, and it feels so fucking good. Pure amusement and fuckery and joy flood through my veins. “You could have fucking died, man.”
“I’m aware,” he says grimly. “Glad it entertained you, though.”
“We have to go and get the person who did that. Who was it?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he says, suddenly cagey.
Okay. That’s a problem to solve later. I can interrogate his newly plastic brain once I’m not wearing grippy socks and slide-y sandals.
“Alright, well, it’s time I got out of here. I thought going through rehab would give me a clear shot at the person I was looking for in connection with Teddy, but all it’s got me is forced sedation and institutional tacos. Tell them you’re taking me out.”
He looks at me dubiously. “This isn’t a fucking hotel. I can’t just check you out.”
“It’s not a prison, either.”
“You got committed here, brother. I think at this point, it basically is.”
Now he’s fucking with me. Maybe I should have been more sympathetic to the whole being shackled to a bed high on his own drugs thing, but if there was ever someone who deserved that to happen to them, it’s probably Leo.
“Then you need to break me the fuck out. Or, better than that, tell them you won’t be paying the bill. I’ll be out the back door with the garbage cans before we know it.”
“I think Aiden is the one they deal with,” Leo says. “I’ll call him.”
He goes off to make the call. All the way outside the front door where I am not supposed to go. Two big burly men in tight white shirts are standing guard in case any of us try to make a break for it. It happens more often than you think.
Clipboard comes over to me. “You’ve been making a rather loud scene, Mr. Levin,” he says, his eyes narrowing at me. He really hates me, which is an excessive response. I’ve been the model patient the last few days. He just doesn’t like my attitude, or my height, or my face.
“Because I laughed?”
“There will be a test when your brother leaves,” he says. “I suspect you’ve been slipped something.”
The man is begging to be punched in the fucking face. He knows I haven’t been given anything. This place has cameras all over it. We should get hold of them and wipe them if we don’t want Leo’s story getting out.
“I’ve tested clean every time I’ve been here,” I tell him. “There’s not been one fucking test that I’ve failed and you know it, you fucking piece of shit.”
I’m more aggressive than I should be, but I’m also very bad at managing my emotions in times of extreme stress, so I’ve got that going for me.
“I’m just here to help,” he says in the smirkiest, smarmiest tone ever.
I can feel darkness rising in me. The kind of darkness that gets things done. Leo’s gone to call Aiden. As if Aiden is in charge of everything. As if Aiden gets to decide what happens to me. I love my brother more than anything. But I hate the way I amalways treated as the family problem just because I have a lot of problems.
“You can do it now,” he says.
“I’m waiting for my brother to come back.”
