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I looked back at Eli, who was still staring at me intensely. “In this dream world of yours,” I continued. “If you lived here, I’d want us to be together but to live on our own for a while. I like getting to know myself.”
Eli smiled and pulled me in by the loops of my jeans. “I like getting to know you too, Grace.” I laughed as he kissed my throat.
“You already know me, Eli,” I said breathlessly.
“I like getting to know you more.” He said “more” so deeply that it almost sounded like a growl. My knees weakened.
“Come on Eli…” Eli kissed down my shoulder, exposing the skin. “Eli!” I pulled away, panting and glancing down the hallway for others. A sly grin played on his face. I glared, but I wasn’t angry. It was hard to be angry when he made me feel so good.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him off the wall. Together, we walked toward the only door in the hallway. I hesitated a moment, my fist hovering near the black wood. Even though Vic had offered the apartment, I still felt nervous accepting. Once my hand descended on the stained wood, it was only a few moments before I heard the telltale sound of foot falls and then the unsnapping of the lock. Here goes everything.
“I’m really happy you’re here, Eli,” Lennox said, ushering us inside. “I feel so badly about what happened.”
“Water under the bridge,” Eli said, waving a hand.
“Thank you so much for letting me stay in the apartment, Lennox.” My gaze drifted around the steely apartment. Even though only hours before I’d been a guest there, a member with my very own room and bed, I felt like an outsider once again.
“Oh, that was Vic’s idea. You should be thanking him.” Lennox’s eyes wandered to Vic where he sat alone on the couch. “He needed a bit of prodding to get over the little argument you two had, but once he came around he was full of ideas. It’s actually my old apartment.”
“Oh really…” I wasn’t sure what to say to her. First of all, “little argument” was not adequate to describe what had gone down the day before. Secondly, I’d tho
ught it was Lennox’s idea for me to stay. Finding out Vic had come up with the idea threw me for a loop. Every time I thought I had my brother figured out, he went and did something like that. Was he a jerk, or was he the big brother I’d always dreamed of?
I couldn’t ruminate on the thought much. My mind was quickly taken over by Vera, her recent call still fresh in my mind. Sitting casually on the couch, Vic read a magazine as if everything was normal. As if my closest friend in the world wasn’t missing. As if he hadn’t promised to find her while also showing me his secret lair in the process only hours before.
Sure, it had only been a day since our fight, but so much had happened. Vera had called me. Vic was supposedly hunting her and her kidnapper down, yet I hadn’t heard a thing from him. All he’d done was accuse Eli of working for Zero.
“Bug?” Eli touched my arm. “What are you thinking?” I briefly turned my attention away from Vic to Eli and Lennox, who were watching me intently. I shook my head at them. My thoughts were too full to convey. Instead of sharing, I marched up to Vic.
“Have you heard any news about Vera?” I asked, tapping his shoulder. “She just called me. She said she was okay and that she called the police but I don’t believe her. Maybe we can call the number back. It was unknown but, I don’t know, maybe we can call it back somehow and force her to tell us where she is.” The words tumbled out of my mouth like a rockslide. I stood in front of Vic now, oblivious to Eli and Lennox.
“I’ve located her,” Vic said casually, flipping through a magazine as if I weren’t even there.
“You have?” I exclaimed, shock burning my throat. “Where is she?”
“Louisiana.” Vic flipped another page in his magazine and I nearly snatched it out of his hands. “Hooked up with her old boyfriend, Zero.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” I insisted. “She left Zero.” Vera had made it very clear when we were roommates that she didn’t want anything to do with her old boyfriend. Now that I knew who her ex-boyfriend was, I could see why. There was no way in heck Vera would return to that creature willingly.
Vic set the magazine down on his coffee table with an almost exaggerated air, as if I was putting him out with my questions. “I have a friend looking into it.”
“A friend?” Lennox and I both exclaimed at the same time. I looked back quickly and saw her looking almost as shocked as I was at the way this was playing out.
“You wouldn’t know him,” Vic said, turning his attention to Lennox. “He used to work at the company.”
Lennox scoffed. “Hold the fucking phone. Since when do you have a friend?” Lennox pestered. “And since when can you leave the company?”
“Can we not do this right now?” Vic said, his words barely audible through gritted teeth. “I’m tired. I’ve been up all night looking for her”—Vic gestured at me—“flaky friend.”
“Vera is not flaky,” I said. “She was kidnapped!”
“No we’re doing it,” Lennox retorted, ignoring me. “You told me you can’t leave the company. That there is no out. But now you have a friend”—Lennox laughed bitterly—“and he’s left the company?”
“You want to know how Charlie left the company?” Standing up from the couch, Vic shot his words at Lennox. His words were like bullets; I wondered if Lennox would bleed. “He lost a leg and they kicked him out. So yeah, Lennox, I can fucking leave the company just as soon as I lose a limb.”
Lennox opened her mouth to say something but closed it. In place of whatever witty, acerbic comeback she was surely thinking, she instead chose to glare.
Vic turned to me. Instinctively I took a step back (I wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest, after all). “He’s checking out the town of Vera’s last call. If anything’s out of the ordinary, he’ll let me now.”
