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“Okay, pretty little liar, so what now? Where do we go from here?”
“I honestly don’t know. New York? Cali?” I shrugged. “Pick a coast and we’ll head that way. I just can’t be Danica Rossi anymore. Not in this city.”
Another slow grin split Connor’s lips as he looked down at me with a strange-ass twinkle in his eye. “How about Danica MacCullagh? Ya think ya can stay and be her for a bit? Or, ya know, maybe even forever?”
65
TWO WEEKS LATER
“Hey, Doc, Laney sent me. Said you’d know what that means.” I shrugged while grinding the Spearmint against my teeth, the popping sound it created not nearly as soothing as the puff of a cigarette. But shit would do for now. The nicotine was messin’ with my sleep and my brain did enough of that on its own.
Which brought me here. To this bullshit building. To see yet another medical professional who I was sure would do nothin’ more than talk circles around me like all the rest of 'em.
The old man in question eyed me for a few moments longer than was appropriate, and I could tell the fucker was none too happy about my late-night appearance. Truth was I was none too happy about it either.
And misery loved fucking company.
But Officer Gallagher insisted this was the way shit worked. Show up at this bullshit medical office. Outside the city. And ask forDoc. Said I would know him when I saw him. And thiscrotchety old bastard in a white lab coat screamed quack with a capital K. While the woman coming up his rear was a glorified Nurse Ratched if I ever saw one.
If he thought I was gonna beg him for help,Doctor Kevorkianhad the wrong fuckin’ girl. Wasn’t about to let him walk past me either though.
A few more awkward beats and the old man shook his head, a grin softening his features as he directed me to the first door on the left.
My eyes flicked around the room. The all-white walls. The little jars of cotton balls and Q-tips. The too-sterile countertops. And back over to the man perched up on ona those little doctor stools. The bleach smell was fuckin’ with my head and eating away at my resolve. I hated hospitals. Hated doctors more. But something had to give before I did.
The old man watched me with an odd expression on his face—one I couldn’t quite read—before passing me a shit-ton of papers attached to a plastic clipboard. I glanced down, back up again, then tossed his bullshit forms onto the metal tray table in front of me.
“Yeah, I’m not really the formal type.”
“Right, well, I at least need a name for the file,” he said in that condescending doctor voice they all seemed to have while peering up at me through his tiny glasses.
“Dani. That should be enough for yourfile,” I ground out, my patience as thin as the hair on the old fucker’s shiny-ass head, which he nodded once before gesturing for me to continue. “So, Doc, tell me…” I hummed as I sat back with a knee crossed over an ankle. “How familiar are ya with lost time?”
66
FOUR MONTHS LATER
The gray slabs of stone were popping up in the distance like morbid jack-in-the-boxes the closer we got to the towering gates, the white arches of Calvary Cemetery looming overhead and the words “thy will be done” mocking a certain Irish Catholic boy turned heathen. It took everything in my power to stop myself from making the sign of the cross over my chest. Sister Mary’s voice taunting me in my head with the familiar disdain that to this day still haunted my nightmares.
“That’s not gonna save your soul now, son.”
My former grade school teacher was a real ball-buster, her daily scoldings sticking to my brain worse than the gum I liked to press under my desk. Even a decade later.
Dani tugged at my arm, guiding me farther down the walking path while reminding me why we were really here. And that I’d gladly burn in hell for her. I mean, according to good ol’ Sister Mary and her trusty ruler, I was headed there anyway.
She came to a stop in front of a row of headstones, each with the same last name scrawled across the front.Mulligan.An entire family tree wiped out and lined up along the grass. There was no fanfare, no crowds of mourners, no one throwing themselves on the graves and sobbing into the dirt.
It was a startling realization. That one day we’d all end up here—well, maybe not here.Herecost more money than I’d hope to make in a year. But like this. Trapped six feet under in a box, if we could afford it, with nothing to show for ourselves but a few words carved in stone.
I shuddered at the thought, my claustrophobia getting the best of me.Wonder if my girl would chip in for an open-air casket?Because I was certain I’d be going first. I had no doubt this woman would be the death of me one way or another.
She glanced up at me with a small smirk playing on her lips as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Setting it on top of the headstone directly in front of us before dropping my hand and walking away.
I watched her go for a few moments. Because the sway of those hips was a sight to behold, even with the grim surroundings. And shifted my cock in my pants. Baby girl was gonna get it when we got home. Though I was pretty sure that was her intention as she glanced back at me from over one shoulder.
My gaze flicked to the yellow legal paper that was one good gust of air away from disappearing before landing on Dani’s back again.
“You gonna tell me why we’re here?” I called out.
