“Gresh seems to have a lot to do with Eric’s involvement. It’s likely Hanson’s men put the word out, and that little shit overheard while perving on the dancers. He’s the sneakiest piece of crap I know.”
“We’ll discuss this more when we get to the compound. There’s no point trying to work things out without more information.”
I suspect Dax knows more than he’s telling me. When Aiden took charge back at Carlo’s house, Dax hadn’t questioned it. Not the decision to take my family away or whether I went with them. Both men just seemed to go along with an unspoken plan. I guess he already warned me they’d planned for everything. Seeing it in action, though, is both terrifying and impressive.
“We have one stop to make on the way, but you don’t have to come up. I’ll only be a moment.”
I don’t ask for details. I’m too consumed by the day. No, the lastthreedays that have somehow blended into one. I have a kaleidoscope in my head, rolling flashbacks around and around. It feels like the last seventy-two hours have been nothing but beatings and running away. It’s hard to see the golden moments buried in the mire of all the shitty ones. But I have to remind myself of them or none of this was worth it.
Saving Tom. Protecting my siblings. Having people who listen and care like Charlie and Koko and now Aiden and Dax. Finding people who can help. Realising that I’m not destined to become just like Eric. I’m not a Feelan and now I never will be. I have a father who one day might give a damn. The trip to the zoo. The kiss with Dax. The kiss with Aiden.
Shit. Those last two are going to come back to bite me on the butt. What must they think of me? Two guys—friendsfor god’s sake—in less than twenty-four hours. And sure, I can call it stressrelated stupidity, but let’s be honest. I like both. I want both.
I deserve neither.
The car shudders to a stop. “Okay, we’re here. I’ll be ten minutes. Lock the doors.”
I look around at the concrete pillars and grey. For a second, I can’t quite figure out where we are, and then I spot a sign next to the silver elevator doors.
“The hospital? Are you checking on Tom?”
“Yes, but I know you’ve had an exhausting day—”
Exhausting or not, I don’t want to be alone. I can’t.
“Can I come up? I’d like to see him. I have something for him.” I pull out my final remaining sticker and hold it tight in my fist. It’s a split-second decision, but it’s a good one. I might have screamed out my pain, but I also screamed out my hopes, too, and his recovery is one of those hopes. Tom may be the catalyst that set my life adrift, but when I finally find my place, it’ll be because of him and what I did that night, too.
“Sure.”
We ride the elevator in silence. The weight of the day is too much to shrug off in pursuit of polite conversation. At Tom’s room, Dax hovers at the door to debrief with the guards on duty, so I step inside and sit beside Tom’s still sleeping form.
“Hi, handsome. Your best buddy is here again.” I laugh at my own idiocy. “So, your brother is a bit of an arsehole. You never mentioned that. He kind of thinks he knows everything and makes sure I’m watched all the time. He gave me a phone too. It’s gorgeous.” I remember where I left it and frown. “Itwasgorgeous. It might even have been better than yours, so ask him for a better one when you wake up. He’s been so worried about you, I bet he’ll get you one without even thinking about it. Only, remind him not to put a tracker on yours…or maybe that would be a good thing? You seem to attract just as much trouble as I do.”
I look over to Dax, currently chatting with the doctors and Tom’s personal nurse. His eyes gravitate to mine repeatedly, so Iturn back to Tom to keep myself from getting distracted.
“I shouldn’t complain too much, though. He kind of saved me this morning. No big deal. Some guys on bikes showed up with bats and wanted me to go for a joyride. But I could tell it would be all ride and no joy, so I politely declined. Like most guys in the Vale, they didn’t want to take no for an answer. Dax and Aiden stepped in and put them to sleep. I wish I could tell you he lectured them on the necessity of understanding the meaning of the word ‘no’, but he actually took the old-fashioned route instead. Poisoned darts and blow pipes.”
Dax chuckles behind me. His feet shuffle and I feel the warmth of his nearness as he takes the chair to my right.
“After the excitement, we went to the zoo. We ate ass cream. My brothers bounced my sister into a wall, and she loved it. My bodyguard—I have one of those now—pulled off an amazing getaway in a mummy-mobile. Oh, and I screamed for you. They gave me a sticker for it, but I think you should have it.”
I open my fist and look at the last sticker, turning it over in my hands. The image shows a cartoon styled doe. Somehow it fits. I’ve never heard a real deer scream before. I likely never will, but it sums me up neatly. Hunted. Prey.
I place it on the cabinet beside his bed and stand up.
“I’ll speak to you again soon, Tom. Try to get better, though. One-way conversations are a little boring.” Dax stands and exits, telling me my time is up. I find it strange that he doesn’t spend any time with Tom or try talking with him. Or am I the strange one for having a one-sided conversation with an unconscious man?
I place my hand over Tom’s and squeeze. Tom’s fingers move. Just a flicker of movement where he catches his nail against my palm. I could be wrong, of course, but the radiating sting from my burns is all too real for me to have imagined it. I smile and say nothing.
I keep it just for myself.
*
We keep an anxious silence for the rest of the journey. Dax navigates roads I’ve never seen before, through the Vale, through the city district, beyond the ‘burbs, and out into the countryside, or purgatory as we call it in the Vale because it marks the boundary between the rest of the world and the hell we call home.
I never would have dreamed I’d get to see Harrison Heights no matter live there, even if only for a brief time. Where most people would relax and feel safe in the only part of the city untouched by crime, I’m even more on edge. Crime might be the currency of the Vale, but the bankers lived in the Heights. Dax might have hidden me from the lowlifes sent to find me, but he was hiding me in plain sight of Franz and the rich scum like him who lived out here.
There is a saying my grandmother would sprinkle into conversations like she was dusting us in wisdom.Life may take your things, but no one can take your moments.
