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Slowly, controlled, she brings her gaze back around and nods. “Um… some. Yeah. My mom and dad are traveling right now, but Eli will be freaking out.” She hunches forward and rests her elbow on the bed beside Minka. Then she takes her hand, the way I have, and holds Minka’s. “Slade made us put our phones in a bag,” she rasps. “So Eli won’t be able to reach me. And I haven’t called him yet.”
“Your brother?”
Aubree nods. Solemnly, gently, so she doesn’t bump Minka. “My oldest. He’s the caretaker,” she adds. “He’ll be so worried.”
“They won’t let him in here to see you,” Tim considers seriously. “This place is locked up tight.”
“I’ll call him soon,” she says. “I promise. Then he can tell the others.” She allows her gaze to sweep over Minka’s face. “What did the nurse say?”
“Just that she’s sleeping, and she’ll wake up when she’s ready.” I drop a kiss to the bright blue veins visible on Minka’s wrist. The blue is good, I guess. It means she’s flowing with enough blood. Full, and healing. “Nurse said she’ll wake in pain, so we gotta pump the meds even if Minka doesn’t ask for them.”
“We’ll make sure it happens,” Aubree agrees. “No more secrets about her medical stuff. No more secrets at all. I’m sick of finding stuff out after the fact, when knowing beforehand could have helped her. And that includes telling us what the hell is going on between you and Fletch.”
Is this the part where I reveal that Minka is the vigilante? A killer. Is this where I betray my wife’s trust, and tell her closest and dearest friends a harsh truth they may never understand?
It’s a secret, after all. And revealing the truth once has already destroyed a friendship I thought to be unbreakable.
Fletch and I were more than just brothers or partners or friends. We were the kind of family that can’t be fucked with. But here we are anyway.
He’s not here when I need him.
Instead, he’s out there, alone, where I can’t protect him from the killer currently walking the streets.
“Fuck.” Shaking my head, I let it drop, and press mine and Minka’s joined hands to my cheek. To my eye socket. To keep her close, and her secrets locked down tighter than this hospital.
Was it only yesterday we were thinking about Mia’s birthday party? And Jada’s presence in our lives? Care Bears, and a sandwich shop owner gone rogue?
It all feels so trivial. So… far away.
Exhausted, I reach up with my free hand and slip my finger through the wedding band dangling from my neck. Then I squeeze my eyes shut and think of me and Minka. Just the two of us, on a tropical island somewhere no one can find us. Naked. Happy. Safe. Everything back home is fine. Our friendships are intact. And for as long as we’re vacationing, nothing bad can happen.
“I wish I’d gotten her wedding band back,” I rasp for whoever is listening. “I wish I’d grabbed it for her.”
“We can get her a new one,” Aubree whispers in the quiet. “Eli made the first. He can easily do it again.”
I keep my eyes shut. My stomach tight, because if I don’t, I might lose whatever paltry meal I ate last. But I nod in acknowledgment, and drag my bottom lip between my teeth to trick my brain into feeling pain somewhere else,anywhereelse, except my heart.
FLETCH
My life is on fire. My career. My friendship with Arch. My relationship with my ex-wife. The feelings I have kindling low in my stomach for another woman. Even my connection with my daughter… who cries at the door as I leave my apartment, because I haven’t been home all night, or yesterday either, and she misses me.
I made promises when I took over her care that our new life together would be better. That I’d be home more. But now I’m walking out once more, and my poor elderly nanny is forced to hold her back.
“Daddy!”
“I’ll be back tonight, Moo.”
Jada’s footsteps echo in the stairwell, rushing dangerously fast in her escape. But I study my baby’s beautiful eyes, and crouch to be on her level. “Mia, honey.” I reach across and cup her sweet face. “Daddy has to go to work.”
“But you worked all night!” she sobs.
She’s just a child. A toddler. She can’t possibly understand the complexities of grown-up issues. But as I push up to stand and leave her, I feel guilt settle in my gut at the way she’s forced to live with the consequences.
“Daddy has to go, Moo. He has to make sure people are safe.”
“Just go, Mr. Fletcher.” Penny, my nanny, wrestles Mia back and holds her in a bear hug that hurts my heart. “She’ll settle once you’re gone.”
“Daddy!” she throws her arms and legs out in a tantrum.
