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I hate him.
I hate him with the ferocity of a thousand flaming crypts. May he choke on my ashes and the anguished cries of my ruined childhood.
And that’s only the tip of my daddy issues. If Leo and Kody only knew how much I love Denver, how much I need him, admire him, look up to him, and crave his devotion…
If that makes me a grade-A asshole, well, I’ll live with it.
I light a ciggy and give Frankie the ten minutes it takes to burn before becoming the guy who bangs on doors. “Frankie.”
The shower shuts off.
“You all right in there?” I wait, listen, and bang again. “Hello?”
“One minute.”
She takes three before opening the door.
Steam billows out around her wet head and shrunken body beneath baggy clothes.
“I don’t feel good.” She sways.
“Let’s get you tucked into bed.”
38
Wolfson
—
In Kody’s bedroom, Frankie staggers to the bed and collapses on her side with a moan. “Everything hurts.”
Witnessing it, I feel an overwhelming sense of protectiveness and grab a pitcher of water off the desk.
She drains the glass I offer and lies back down, her gaze on the window, on the eerie, snow-speckled sky beyond. “Do planes ever fly over Hoss? Helicopters? Drones? Have you ever seen any aircraft up there?”
“Not once in the twenty-three years I’ve been alive.”
“What about satellites?”
“Good call. We should use the rocks in the hills to spell out HELP in gigantic letters. Just think, it’ll only take one to three years for our distress call to show up on Google Earth.”
“There’s like a one in a trillion probability someone will zoom in on our exact location and see it.”
“So you’re saying we have a chance?” I ask, voice dripping with mock melodrama.
“God, this sucks.” She growls a little kitten growl. “No one knows we’re here. No one even knows you exist, Wolf.”
“True story.” I cover her with blankets and climb onto the foot of the bed. “You know, Denver didn’t build Hoss by himself. Sometimes I wonder if someone from the crew is still alive, still out there somewhere thinking about this place.”
“I bet he killed them.”
“Dark view of the world, my love.”
“Perhaps. What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”
My breath dies. Does she know? Did my brothers tell her? Surely not.
“Cute of you to assume I’ve peaked,” I say nonchalantly.
“Cute of you to avoid hard questions.”
“It’s not cute. It’s dark and mysterious. Chicks dig it.”
Her mouth curls up at the corner.
“There she is.” I squeeze her foot through the covers. “Can I get you anything?”
“Wings.”
“If you’re going to wish for a superpower, make it a good one. Like teleportation. Or time travel. Better yet, how about power mimicry? Why have one superpower when you can have them all?”
“Mimicry then. I would use it to steal you away from this place.” She tucks her hands beneath her cheek, her eyes watery. “There’s so much of the world to see. Mountains, coastlines, cityscapes, rain forests, prairies of wildflowers—you can’t imagine the beauty. Nothing compares to experiencing it with your own eyes.”
In a space balloon with astral views of every corner of Earth, I would still stare at you.
“Sounds sexy.” I refuse to dwell on it.
Leaving Hoss is strictly for the birds. I’ll die here, and so will she.
Silence descends between us, until the clamor of footfalls hits the stairs.
Oh, goody. Now I get to share her.
In a deluge of testosterone, Leo and Kody lumber into the room, their faces swollen and their clothes shredded and bloody.
“Must be that time again.” I lean toward Frankie, using a conspiratorial whisper. “Their periods are syncing.”
Kody ignores me, grabs a change of clothes, and grunts “shower” on his way out.
The other one ignores me, too, pinning all his attention on her. “We need to talk.”
“It can wait.” I stand, blocking his view. “She doesn’t feel well.”
“I’m fine.” The bed rustles behind me, and she touches my hip to nudge me aside. “Why were you fighting?”
“Doesn’t matter.” He pinches the busted bridge of his nose and winces. “Fuck. I’ll be right back.”
Without another word, he leaves.
She starts to doze off. I nod off, too, until the door opens again.
Leo breezes in with a first-aid kit. Sitting against the wall, he patches his injuries in silence.
Just when I’m about to fall asleep again, he says, “Kody heard us.”
“Heard what?” Spiky heat tunnels through my stomach. “What did you do?”
“Frankie and I…” He stares at her, overly-confident. “We fooled around. Blew off some steam.”
I whirl on her, expecting an objection, a different version of the story, something that will shut down Leo’s claim. But she just blows out a tired breath and nods.
Hurt. It crashes into me so completely it knocks the air from my lungs.
She wants us to be just friends? While she spreads her legs for him?
It’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens.
