“Are you okay, D? You’re spinning. I can see it.”
“I’m fine. Go to sleep.”
“You’re thinking too hard again.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
Tallus gave up and snuggled closer. Within minutes, his breathing evened out.
I fell into a restless sleep not long after and dreamed of Tallus in a leotard, dangling from a trapeze. I dreamed of a maze of hallways, with garage-style doors leading nowhere. I couldn’t find my way out. Fires blazed all around me. I dreamed of a cabin in the woods. A tangled fishing line. Of smoking computers arranged in a circle, robotically reciting the Twelve Steps of AA. Of a drug den, where Darcy lounged on a pillow, high as a kite. He offered me a joint, eyes glazed and half-lidded.“My landlord said it’s okay.”
I woke with a start, sweating and trembling. Disoriented. Where was Echo? It took a minute to remember she’d stayed with Darcy. It was still night, but a pounding headache radiated through my skull. It was likely what woke me.
Carefully dislodging from Tallus, I got up. In the bathroom, I shook a couple of aspirin into my palm and chewed them dry before sipping warm tap water and rinsing the sour taste from my mouth.
I splashed water on my face and stared at my reflection in the mirror as bits and pieces of my dream came back to me. It wasn’t a nightmare, but it was bizarre and disjointed. Stress. It was a stress dream. They always presented the same broken way. Dr. Peterson would be impressed. Usually, they were centered around my father and the years I’d spent as his punching bag. This one was different.
In the kitchen, I searched the fridge, locating an energy drink. It was after five, and I wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon. Talluswas the coffee drinker. Unless I was in the mood, I got my caffeine in different ways.
I contemplated hitting the gym, but my hand throbbed. Examining it and bending the stiff joints, I decided I wouldn’t be able to clutch a dumbbell. Punching a bag was out of the question, and I wasn’t in the mood to run for an hour.
Not with a headache.
Echo registered I was awake but remained wrapped in Darcy’s embrace. She was a sucker for morning snuggles and usually got them from Tallus. I didn’t complain.
Without thinking of the consequences, I snagged the kid’s cigarettes and went out on the balcony. The spring chill cut through my T-shirt, and I regretted not slipping into my jeans. With only boxers and a tee, the hairs on my arms and legs stood on end, and I shivered as I lit a smoke and leaned on the railing.
The city was calm and quiet. Almost serene. The pre-dawn hours were my favorite. I studied the empty streets and watched the streetlights change from green to yellow to red and back again.
Where was Lukyan?
Had he skipped the country?
What had been on those computers?
Who were those kids Tallus had seen?
Where had they gone?
Did we have enough to turn over to the police? Tallus thought the tax forms proved fraud, but until we explored them more thoroughly, I couldn’t be sure it was enough for them to get a warrant for an arrest. Besides, reporting Lukyan put Darcy in danger.
The custodian at the nursing home could identify him. I wasn’t sure how to cover his involvement. Not when he was the one visitingEvergreen and Elwood. He was the one who had set up the online banking.
A flash of my dream came back to me. Darcy, lounging on pillows in his drug den apartment. A cloud of toxic smoke filling the room. Eyes glazed.“My landlord said it’s okay.”
I frowned and hauled on the cigarette. Something tickled the back of my brain, but whatever it was refused to come forward. I backtracked through all our interactions, starting on the day we met. The day I’d chased him down the street.
The balcony door slid open, and I glanced over my shoulder, expecting Tallus but finding a rumpled Darcy. He wore the same torn hoodie and shredded jeans he’d been wearing for days. His cast didn’t fit through the sleeve, so one arm hung limp and unoccupied.
“Can I have one?” His voice croaked as he motioned to the cigarette pack.
I passed them over. “They’re yours.”
“Technically, you bought them.”
“Technically, I quit.” I tossed the butt into the can.
He huffed and slid a cigarette between his lips. “So you don’t want another one?” He teased the pack in my face.
