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While she leaves me to my devices, I lie back on my old bed, doing my best to ignore the memories associated with that piece of furniture, and let my mind wander to the future of the Burrow.
Once I’ve found the others, we’ll have to set up somewhere new. I refuse to let my sanctuary be destroyed completely. No, I’ll resurrect it elsewhere in Summer City. There are plenty of old apartment buildings, factories, and office spaces gathering dust and graffiti in town. Any one of them could become the future Burrow with a little work.
Sleep finally beckons to the point where I can’t deny it. I let it claim me, eager to transition to tomorrow so I can get started.
Chapter 21
Keys
This is so fucking frustrating.
Mama Navid does her best to help me out. My coordination is shit, though, and despite the fact that Kendrick says I’m getting better, I still can’t find the right words to save my life. I still crave a cigarette even with a lollipop in my mouth.
Through some random stroke of luck, Mama Navid’s son has a computer, and he playsBattlemages Unleashed. I finally remember my username and password on the tenth try, and I log in on Bunnyluv to see if I can find Neil. My brain might still be fuzzy, but I remember Neil. I remember Bunny.
What I don’t remember is whether or not I tracked the hacker who got into the Burrow before we got blown to next Tuesday. I don’t remember how much access they managed to get before I shut the Burrow’s systems down. I don’t remember if they’re still a threat.
At least we were smart enough to keep our safehouses off the electronic record. No one should connect the holistic center to us or think to come looking for us here. We hope, anyway.
Neil’s not online. Not the first time I check, nor an hour later, nor an hour after that. He might be in one of our safehouses that doesn’t have a computer, or he might be …
No! I can’t think like that. He’s alive. He has to be.
Besides, Neil was with Doc when shit went down. He’s probably better off than I am, that’s for sure. Doc knows what to do in an emergency, and if Neil got hurt in the blast, there’s no better person for him to be with.
Not that Kendrick isn’t taking care of me. He risked his ass to get me checked out at the hospital, and that still blows my mind. Kendrick despises me. Why did he go to the trouble?
I try to ask him about it, but he just grunts and changes the subject. From the way the big, muscle-bound man wrings his hands and scrubs his bald scalp as he paces back and forth across the room we share in the holistic center, I almost think he’s worried. Scared, even. It must be the head injury playing tricks on me, though, because Kendrick isn’t scared of anything. Fear itself is scared of Kendrick, not the other way around.
Mama Navid hooks us up with some extra clean clothes and a decent meal. I don’t know how long Kendrick plans on hiding out here; in my opinion, we should be out looking for the others. He says I’m not ready, though, that I need to recover a bit more before we even think about moving.
I think it’s a bullshit excuse. I’m fine. Sure, I forget words every now and then, and I trip over my own feet occasionally, but so what? We’ve got to find Bunny, Neil, and Doc. End of story.
Except I can’t get out the door to go looking. Not with Kendrick blocking it every time I try.
On my third attempt to sneak past him when he’s distracted, he shoves me back so hard I trip and land on my butt on the cot Mama Navid gave me for a bed.
“We’renotleaving yet, Keys,” he says in that gruff, irritating tone of his.
“Wh-what if Neil needs us? What ifBunnyneeds us—or Doc?” That should kick his ass in gear. Mention Bunny and Doc, and he’ll listen to reason. He has to.
He crosses his arms over his chest and plants his feet wide, completely blocking the doorway. “No.”
“Please, Kendrick? Even if you don’t want to go, let me. I have to find my … my …”
He rolls his eyes with a huff. “Your what? Boytoy? Fuckbunny?”
“Loves.” The word feels strange on my lips, and I don’t know if that’s from my brain getting scrambled or because I’ve never admitted how I feel for them out loud to anyone else. It felt strange enough to say it during our sexcapades, but here? To Kendrick? It’s like I’m speaking a foreign language.
Kendrick freezes, and a weird expression crosses his bearded face. His muscles relax just a bit, and he pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re just going to run off the second I fall asleep or go to take a piss, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” No sense lying to him. Even Kendrick has to sleep at some point. He can’t exactly do that standing in the doorway.
He sighs. “Fine. If I agree to take you to find them in the morning, will you quit trying to run off on your own?”
It takes all I have not to run over and hug Kendrick. He’s not much of a hugger, anyway.
Something about this still bugs me, though.
