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“Well,Ihave that problem. And it’s going to be solved before I go anywhere.”
His voice was sharp and she opened her mouth to argue. Except he didn’t have the strength for a heated exchange, and frankly, neither did she.
“We’ll come back for it.”
“No.” He shook his head, then swallowed like he was trying not to throw up. “I want you to take it back. They can load me into that SUV like luggage. You’ll be on my bike. That’s how it’s going to go.”
Who gives ashitabout the Harley,she wanted to scream at him.
But she tried to put herself in his position. When easy options were impossibles, you thought in different ways. You put out demands because you had no choice. You dug your heels in on things that felt arbitrary and insignificant to other people because that was all you had.
“Okay.”
“Thank you,” he said roughly.
“They’re waiting for us back at the lab.” C.P. ended her call. “Let’s get you moving. My men will process this scene and I’ll drive you myself—”
“Why the hell did you do that to him,” Daniel cut in.
The other woman’s eyes narrowed, and instantly, the cold calculation Lydia had associated with C.P.Phalen at first entered that stare. Gone was the friend she had become.
“Excuse me.”
“You gave him… Vita-12b.” Daniel pulled over the paperwork he’d been holding and had dropped. As he held up the pages, they shook like they were in a breeze because his hand trembled so badly. “That’s what I signed in your office, when you asked me to witness your signature. You gave him the rights to the compound and you made him a target.”
“I’m not going to dignify that with a response.” The woman shoved her phone back in her pocket. “Can you stand? Or are we carrying you out of here—”
“You put him… in the crosshairs. You live with… an entire platoon of those rent-a-guns—and you gave him… the drug that requires all that security—”
“Right, we’re moving you.” C.P. motioned at the men who were coming down the stairs. “Pick him up and put him in my car. He’s going back to the lab right now—”
“Fuck off.”
Daniel grunted and heaved himself to his feet. As he lurched to the side, he threw his hands out for balance and before she could stop herself, Lydia jumped up and steadied him. When she realized what she’d done, she braced herself for morearguments—and as none came, she was grateful. But also more scared than ever.
“Come on,” she said in what almost passed as a level voice. “I’m sure we’ll get updates soon.”
She shot a meaningful look to C.P., and the woman nodded sharply in return. “As soon as I know anything, I’ll pass it along.”
With that settled, Lydia started leading Daniel slowly through the kitchen to the garage door. As they went along, he did lean on her strength, but his back was straight and he seemed determined to go out on his own two feet. He hadn’t been using his cane for the last couple of days, and as he struggled now, the pit in her stomach was a spotlight on how much she had internalized the relative improvement after his immunotherapy had ended. With all its side effects winding down after the infusions had been stopped, the rebound was real, but temporary.
The Keytruda hadn’t worked. Just like the conventional chemo hadn’t.
This was the problem with smoking. Some people got away with it—and some did not. And you didn’t know which group you were in until it was too late. Meanwhile, Daniel’s terminal cancer was a bomb in her own life, blowing apart everything, laying ruin to her present and her future, but also taking her past, all those beautiful memories from the spring buried in a toxic swill of flashbacksfeaturing crash carts, and treatments that hadn’t worked, and scans that had spelled out more and more bad news.
“Here, let me get the—”
“I’ll get the door,” Daniel said firmly.
She stopped and waited for him to slowly move ahead of her, open things, and hold the panel wide. As she passed by him, his eyes stayed down on the tile, his dignity as a man ravaged by a cruel disease.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
Emerging into the garage, the motion-activated lights came on and she glanced at Gus’s Tesla, thinking of the gas-guzzling Harley. How was it possible that they’d just been together in that apple orchard? The quiet moment they’d shared seemed like something that had happened months ago, and she missed that time like it was a friend she hadn’t seen for years. Then again, for a short shining moment, she’d felt as though they had stepped off to the side of their situation and been what they’d been before.
Two people without a disease.
But like all vacations, you had to return to your real life. Even if it was a nightmare.
