AllFreeNovel
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“Dinner?”
“Yeah. We have to eat. There was frozen pizza, so I tossed one in. Fridge is stocked with beer too. Felt like a good night for pizza and beer.”
“Right here in front of the fire sounds good to me,” he said.
Ayelish joined him with a couple of beer bottles pinched between the fingers of one hand and a full pizza pan in the other. She took a seat across from him and set out the spread.
“No plates?” he said. “Like a little picnic. I always knew you were a romantic.”
“Actually, I just hate doing dishes, but I like your way better.” She chuckled as he cracked open his beer and took a long pull. “That really hits. Thought while we were here, maybe we could go over everything again. Try to fit pieces together if we can. Need help openin’ your beer?”
“No. Those are both for you. You relax. I’ll stay sober and alert,” she said. “You deserve to cut loose a little.”
“You’re a damn goddess,” he said, taking another pull. “I need this.”
“I know you do.”
“Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong,” he said between bites of pizza. “Maybe we’re trying to dissect a bigger picture, and we don’t have enough of it yet to do that. Maybe we look at each piece a bit more critically before we start tryin’ to fit anything together.”
“Good idea,” she said. “Attack it all one piece at a time. It feels a little repetitive, but maybe the answer is right in front of us, and we just need to crack it open.”
Wit grinned and tossed the crust of his pizza into the fire. “And by crack it open, you mean me…”
“I…”
He leaned back against a nearby chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “It’s alright, darlin’. I was rackin’ my mind in the shower. Just thinkin’ over every little detail, the details in the images and video, and not one thing leads to another.”
“Too many random pieces,” she agreed. “Like we’re missingthe one. The key to it all. Like there’s a single detail that would bust this thing wide open. We can take each piece separate from the others and analyze the shit out of it. Maybe then we’ll see something we didn’t before if we’re hyperfocused on one thing at a time. Why the Keepers? Why Dirty Dozen? Who were those random agents working for? And why you?”
Wit nodded as he fixed his stare on the empty beer bottle in his hand while he peeled off the gold metallic label. “This here’s some fancy beer.”
Ayelish didn’t reply. It was clear he was thinking something through, so she didn’t interrupt. She watched him battle with whatever he struggled with. His head fell back, and he stared at nothing like he was warring with one thing or another –– perhaps heart and mind.
“Thisplaceis fancy. Look at that ceilin’. Have you looked at all those beams up there? This place is like a dream. The kinda home you dream about buildin’ for your special lady and raisin’ lots of babies in.” His focus returned to Ayelish, who smiled sweetly. “You wanna live in a place like this? Maybe have some li’l rug rats runnin’ around. A cat and its pet squirrel.”
“Your cat has a…pet squirrel?” Ayelish giggled.
“Sure does. Kept bringin’ that damn thing in from outside and settin’ it loose. I thought she was just bringin’ in her dinner, but nah… she just gave her homeless best friend a home.”
Ayelish continued to find him amusing. “You have a squirrel? Living in your apartment at Watermark?”
“Nah. That’d be just…silly. Duchess has a squirrel, though.”
“Duchess? Your cat?” Ayelish wrapped her arms around her midsection in laughter. “Your cat has a pet…”
“Oh, I don’t think Duke’s her pet. I think she just loves him somethin’ fierce. I mean, who am I to judge things I have no business even tryin’ to understand?” Wit shrugged.
“Duke?”
“Yeah, didn’t know what to call him. It just sorta made sense and all. That li’l guy has the best life. She shares all her spaces with him.” Wit went on. “Killion bought her some of those cat habitat things. He said it would help her adjust indoors and be a li’l less mean. Duke just jumps from cat tree to cat tree. Athletic little thing. Now Duchess is still meaner than a snake in a tar pit when it suits her, but she has lightened up a bit.”
“How did I not know about this? I’ve never seen it. I can’t believe the guys are fine with a squirrel in the building.” She laughed. “That’s hysterical.”
Wit set his empty beer aside. “Oh, they don’t know ’bout Duke. Figured that’s one of those things I’m gonna need to ease them into the idea of.”
Ayelish dropped her head in her hands in a fit of laughter. “I would pay to see that.”
“Well, I reckon we’re gonna miss that whole experience.”
