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Ryker stared after his car for a second before he answered me. “Why were you with him? Did you work this morning?”
“No, I spent the night at his house.” I headed toward the entrance.
“Wait. You didwhat?” Ryker caught up with me as I stepped inside the bar. Heads turned and people stared as I entered, but it wasn’t unusual. Maybe some people could hide their possession, but I wasn’t one of them. Everyone could tell, but the bar was owned by one of Ryker’s cousins, and they didn’t throw me out, which was nice.
We sat in our usual corner, and when I went to pick up the menu—I always looked, even though I always ordered the same thing—he grabbed it from me. “You spent the night with him?”
Oh, let’s make him sweat this out. Come on. Let me play with him.
I wasn’t in the mood to humor her. “Not like you’re thinking, I just slept. He wanted me to meet his sister, so we had dinner with her. It started snowing, so he offered to let me stay. Then he drove me here this morning. He’s just nice.” Their family was complicated, too, but there was no need to get into that with Ryker.
He blinked. “Oh. Yeah, I guess driving you home in the snow would be dangerous. You could have called me. I would’ve come with the plow.”
Ryker helped to run his uncle’s towing company. When it snowed, they made extra money plowing the driveways of private customers. The city took care of the roads, while he did the driveways. Aside from bringing in a huge influx of cash every year, it made him feel like he was doing a good deed. He was like a white knight with a tow truck.
“Hi there,” a voice said before Ryker’s girlfriend Jasmine—who smelled like vanilla all the time—slid in next to him. “I knew you two would be here.”
It wasn’t like it took a rocket scientist to figure it out. We had lunch there twice a week on the same days at exactly the same times.
“Hi,” I said as I tried to be polite. My demon started laughing and Jasmine’s vanilla scent hit me even harder—the demon being really shitty by amplifying the aroma. If she kept it up, I might not even be able to eat.
Ryker asked, “What are you doing here?” She kissed him on the cheek in response.
“Oh, I was hungry. I had to come and say hello, let you feed me, too. You will feed me, won’t you, Ryker? I missed you last night. I thought I wasn’t going to lose you to the snow plow again this year, and then it frickin’ snows again.”
Maybe I’ll eat something different today, I thought, scanning the menu.Like soup. I liked soup.Tomato soup and a grilled cheese. It sounded way better than my usual chicken sandwich.
“I missed you, too,” Ryker said softly. I raised my eyebrows and snuck a look at him over the menu. “But you know this is my time with Addalee. It’s not like we had plans last night.”
“Ryker John Williams, are you asking me to leave so you can have lunch with this demon-infested homeless girl?” she practically shouted. “I can tell you there isn’t a person in this room who wouldn’t rather see me sitting here than her. Your mother practicallybegsme to rid her from your life.”
Ryker’s lips thinned. “Don’t talk about Addalee that way. What happened to her could happen to any of us. It’s not her fault. She’s my best friend, and what the fuck, she’s not homeless.”
“Oh, but sheis.” Jasmine pointed at me. “I saw you. I drove past the tent city on Broad last week and saw you there. That’s where you’re living, right? Because you’re one ofthem.A dirty, nothing, homeless bitch who got possessed because there was something wrong with her. Now we’re all expected to be nice and kind and act like you didn’t somehow do this to yourself? Well, guess what? I’m sick of it, and so is everyone I know. All the violence? It’s people like you, but I won’t let you destroy Ryker.”
Wow. She’s really on a roll.
The sick thing was my demon really liked it. I wondered if she’d be nearly as proud of herself if she realized she pleased the demon.
Instead of pointing it out, I sat back and set down the menu. “Iamhomeless. I’ve been homeless for over a year now.”
Ryker widened his eyes. “You’rewhat? Why wouldn’t you have said something?”
“Because she’s a liar. All of them are.” Jasmine practically glowed with her pleasure in saying the words.
Okay, enough.The old me would have cried. Maybe, as Cruise put it, I cried on the inside still and didn’t even know it. Regardless of what soft feelings I had or might genuinely experience, my demon had enough of Jasmine. If this would be the last time I ever saw Ryker, I might as well go out with a bang.
“Thank you for continuing to be my friend when the whole world feels like she does about me.” I wished for whatever scent Cruise piped into his house, because it would be nice to have a way to push her back. Not that it mattered—in that moment, my demon wasn’t letting me feel any of it anyway. “I am lost. She’s not wrong. I’m all the things she says I am and worse. Last week, I helped rob a liquor store. My demon just wanted to do it. I don’t even drink.” I shrugged then leaned forward. “But I’m carrying around ademon, you fucking bitch. So if you want to play, you get to play with her. Trust me on this, you really don’t want to piss me off, Jasmine.”
I closed my eyes and blew out a breath. Whatever happened next, I figured it still would be the last time I would ever get to eat in Ryker’s cousin’s bar.
All of mystuff bounced along with me on the city bus. I held my hair in my left hand and brushed against my bag as we hit a particularly aggressive bump. I looked down.
Oh, what the fuck?I looked around.Okay. I lost time.The sun hung low in the sky.Quite a lot of time, actually.I might have wreaked havoc on the whole city. Was I running from the police?
I’d never let that happen. I have no interest in jail.
Was she going to tell me what happened? Crickets met my thought, so I sat back.Okay. Where am I?I recognized Grand Avenue out the window. If I got off there, I could walk to the northern tent cities for the night. I reached in my pocket, happy to find the money still there. I blew out a relieved breath and my stomach growled. I clearly didn’t eat while I was out of it.
