“Fine,” I snap, holding my hands up. “But for the record, I don’t understand why you can’t just answer my question, and why you feel the need to be a complete ass about it.”
Nico shakes his head minutely. “Is that what I’m doing? Being a complete ass?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t realize saving your life made me a complete ass,” he says.
“You know what I mean,” I say.
“Was I being a complete ass when I stopped you from going blind?”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” He’s purposefully misunderstanding me. I’m so furious I feel like I could bite through steel. “I’m grateful you saved me.Obviously.”
“Eden—”
“I’mgoing.”
I climb the stairs. Nico follows me, his footsteps booming on the metal a couple of steps behind.
“I can go upstairs on my own,” I snap over my shoulder. “I don’t need an escort.”
“Just making sure you don’t get any ideas.”
“Ideas like what? Turning around and bulldozing my way through you so I can have round two with Billy? Why thefuckwould I want to do that?”
I reach the top of the stairs and step through the doorway, greeted by warm air. I turn in time for the door to slam in my face.
My breath comes hard and fast as I stare at the door. The big, industrial door that’s always closed. Yet somehow, was left open.
Billy couldn’t have opened the door. At least I don’t think he could have, trapped inside that dome.
Apart from Donny, who hasn’t left his apartment since we got back, Nico’s the only one allowed in the vault unsupervised. He must have been down there before I was, working late. He could’ve left the door open when he came upstairs to get something, thinking everyone else was already in bed.
I hear Billy’s words ringing in my head as clear as day:I didn’t tell her what you did.
I shake the horrible thought from my mind. Nico had no way of knowing I’d hear Billy, or that Billy would try to talk to me, so it doesn’t make any sense that he set a trap for me. He also couldn’t have known I’d be awake at this time. How would he have made sure I wandered all the way there from my room?
Come to think of it, why was Nico working at this hour? What could he possibly have to talk to a killer about at two in the morning?
Maybe he was the one to catch Billy. But there was so much anger in Nico’s voice… maybe Billy targeted someone close to Nico. His sister? Girlfriend? Mom? Given the years Billy operated, it’s plausible.
CHAPTER 16
I didn’t always plan to build a team. But when I first met that boy, covered in blood with nowhere to go, I couldn’t leave him behind.
—Journal of Donald Dellman, October 2023
Bob’s getting bored from being on bed rest, so I grab the frozen peanut butter KONG toy I made for him and bring him with me to the gym. Griffin cranks up the incline on the treadmill, which leads to alotmore complaining, but the pain gives me something to focus on.
Last night wasn’t the first time I heard a ghost talking to me. The one in my car spoke to me, too. I just didn’t realize what was happening at the time.
I will get answers today.
And I should probably stop saying hello to every voice that whispers to me in the dark.
By the time I finish, I’m dripping sweat, and my lungs are burning, but at least I managed the full thirty minutes without collapsing. I drag my feet into the kitchen to find Zoey reaching into the fridge. She stops when she sees me, hand paused on DJ’s labeled yogurt container, but she takes the yogurt anyway before brushing past me and slipping out of the door.
I give Bob his breakfast in the kitchen, adding a little warm water to his kibble to make it easier on his stomach. The gauze in his bandage has turned gray under the hard casing, so I leave a message with a local vet to make an appointment to get it changed, making sure my ringer is on for when they call meback. I pour coffee into a mug with a hot dog on it and the caption ‘I swallow juicy wieners’ because I laughed when I saw it in the cabinet, then sit on the floor next to Bob as he eats, sipping the hot liquid and watching him crunch each individual piece.
