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“‘Course I found her.” After regarding me with more interest than he’s shown this entire time, Mayhem leans in the open elevator door, looking far too pleased with himself. “That’s why I get Christmas Eve off this year, and you get the pleasure of eating the senator’s ass.”
Murder tenses, tilting his head toward me.
“Please,” Mayhem scoffs, “she saw us kill herdaddy.She’s gotta have a clue what she’s gotten into.”
“Mayhem.”
“Oh,what?” Mayhem huffs, the elevator door closing behind him and taking little bits of my sanity with it. “Boss wants the girl. Even if she is an attention seeking little—”
I open my mouth to tell him off, but Murder speaks before I can. I close my eyes and try to just breathe, to not let myself think. Not about how amazing it smells. Not about Ghost’s footprints, still damp from the city streets, on the stairs. Not about anything at all.
“Hey, hey.” Murder waves a hand to silence him. “Ghost doesn’t need to hear you being derogatory. He already ignored Eustice on his way upstairs. Let’s just get her up there and—”
“Derogatory?” Mayhem clutches his chest. “Pray tell, dear brother, what did you think I was going to say? She’s a delight. Aren’tcha, shnookums?”
I open my eyes again, finding Murder’s increasingly concerned gaze on my face.
“That looks like it hurts,” he says gently. “And you’re shaking… Sit down, honey, Ghost can come to you.”
“I’m fine.” I shake my head, nodding to the elevator. “This is fine. Can we just go?”
Murder cringes. “Let me get you something. Just hang there.”
He takes to the office behind the front desk, and Mayhem, the toolbag, trails after him. "Wait," he snipes at me.
Part of me wants to book it upstairs, and though I hit the call button, I find myself listening in. His voice is lowered now, like he doesn’t want me to hear. “Howbadis he?”
Murder just shakes his head, and I edge forward a little to eavesdrop. “Looked haunted, honestly. Why, uh…why’s she wet?”
“Some creep was in the bathroom with her when I got there,” he hisses. “I didn’t get a good look. He about beat the fuckin’ door down—she was nude and choking when I found her. Tub was still draining.”
Murder drops something in the closet. “Fuck. Ghost know?”
“Yeah, I didn’t think,” Mayhem says, and to his benefit, he sounds guilty. “He heard her coughing. I was gonna tell you to go get him from how he sounded on the phone. After the whole thing with—”
Murder shushes him. “Let’s just get her upstairs. We can worry about him after he’s slept.”
Slept? Has he still not been to sleep? No! He cannot have been looking for me this entire time! Oh, I should’ve left a note. Something to tell him not to worry, and I’d be back.
Though, I guess Mayhem is right. I might’ve never been back had he not shown up. Doesn’t mean he has to be so mean about it.
Ghost sounded fine on the phone. What are… Is he really worried aboutme? Not the money, not the clothes, butme?I understand how it all must sound, but it’s not the first time something’s happened in the bathroom. I know what it feels like when I need a hospital, and besides my hip, I feel fine.
I back away from them and head for the steps, done waiting for either of them to catch up.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Murder says before I even make it to the stairs. “Where you think you’re going?”
“I—”
“No, you’re not sneaking off again,” Mayhem snaps. “I will blow your kneecaps out before that happens.”
“I’m just trying to—”
“I don’t know why you ran off, okay, but we can get this all sorted if you just give us some time.” Murder again, palms out like he’s blocking me from the front door–even though I wasn’t even headed that way.
“Fuck that. I heard Ghost say you could sit on her. I’ll hold her down for you to do it.”
“I’m just trying to seeGHOST!”
