She is dribbling her tears upon my jacket and now I will need to wash it the moment I get home—or burn it.
I could push her.
I could pull away.
I could choke her just a little.
None of these are viable options, but boy, do they sound beautiful, and I try to envision them to help me live through this torture. And then I’m envisioning choking Matthew just a little as he hides his giggles behind his hand.
Gabriel reaches out and takes her arm, drawing her off me in the most heroic gesture before giving her a hug, which is equally bad. He shall hug no one but me from here on out.
“I’m just so happy we were able to find her. I really hope she recovers. I’ve thought about her constantly since we found her,” Gabriel says.
The woman snots and dribbles tears all over him as I brush my jacket off, but the tears have stained it. I can still feel her touches on me and they make me shudder. What a distasteful experience.
“We must work. No time to waste,” I announce and head off for the golf cart. “Pat, I would also like access to Nadine’s work area and the surrounding offices.”
“Of course. I will take you there. And then I’m going to leave you the keys to this golf cart. You can use it to travel around,” she tells us.
“Thank you,” Gabriel says as we all clamber on. Since there are five of us and four seats, I assume that I will get to place Gabriel on my lap. Instead, the moment I sit, Gabriel jumps into the front seat and Matthew climbs onto my body.
“What are you doing?” I growl.
“I’ve been lonely for so long, aching for the touch of another man,” he whispers in my ear. I try to shove him off as Pat begins to drive, but he’s ridiculously strong when he wants to be. So there I suffer with the man from my nightmares hanging from my body and refusing to let go.
“Sorry for the lack of space; Lacey is going to meet us on the other side so you’re not squished together.”
“Oh, we’re fine like this,” Matthew says while he holds on for dear life. His life is literally in danger as we pass a recessed wolf pen I consider tossing him into, and he insists he’s enjoying it.
“Matthew is a masochist. New information to deliver to Jesse.”
That makes him grimace. “Please don’t.”
“I’m so evil to you and still, you keep coming back. I need to know… have you been enjoying it?”
“Not in the slightest,” he mutters. Yet if he hasn’t, why did he pick my lap to sit on?
Lacey pulls up with another golf cart. I assume Matthew will leave, but he remains cradled in my arms. I stand up and deposit him on the seat before heading over to the other golf cart while expecting that my one true love will follow me, but nope. I am now left alone with this woman as Pat zooms off with everyone else.
“Have you heard anything else about Nadine?” Lacey asks the moment I sit down. I had moved over here because I’d thought she would be silent when faced with my grumpy expression, but she proves otherwise.
“No.”
“I didn’t know if you were able to get more information with your… status. All of our information is coming from her brother to me, but he’s not the best at keeping me up to date,” she says.
“I see.” Why must humans speak to me? This is why I wanted someone else on here to deal with the brunt of her questions.
“Do you… do you think it’s safe?” she asks. “To be here, I mean? Like… I don’t know. Did the killer know that Zach was a bad person, and that’s why they killed him? Or did they just… get lucky targeting that man? Oh my god, that sounds awful. Not lucky, just like…”
“Everyone is a suspect,” I inform her, which doesn’t seem to ease her concerns for some reason that doesn’t quite matter to me.
“I feel like I’m second-guessing everyone today. Isn’t that awful?”
“I assume everyone is a horrible person every day.”
Thatalsodoesn’t seem to reassure her, so I decide I’ll fix what I’ve just said.
“Besides Gabriel, I mean.”
