Diana Rowland - How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back

“Why—” I needed a couple of seconds to completely shift my thinking. Not that it helped. “Why the hell are you at my Nick’s house?”

My dad took a deep breath. “’Cause he came to our place to check on me ’cause of the fake lawyer and your phone, then there was a car out front that left when a cop car drove by, so I came here.”

I fought to understand any of that but finally seized onto the “phone” part. “Oh! My phone! It made it to the coroner’s office? And what fake lawyer?”

“The fake lawyer that came looking for you at work. Supposedly she wanted to give you a bunch of money from a trust fund or some shit like that, but because your phone rang, the other guy, um,” I heard someone speaking in the background, “Huh? Oh, okay. Allen. Yeah, Allen didn’t fall for it and didn’t tell her nothin’.”

With anyone other than my dad I’d have thought they were fucking with me. Once again I dug through the nonsense. “Someone was looking for me? And what was the deal with the car and the cop?”

He made an exasperated noise. “You’re makin’ this hard, Angel,” he said, and in that moment it was a damn good thing he was over a thousand miles away. “Your phone rang in the box and they figured something was wrong, ’cause phones don’t usually show up in the mail there. When the fake lawyer turned up, Allen saw right through it and didn’t tell her shit. Then Allen and Nick figured someone should check on me, so Nick came out. That’s when the car stopped out front being all suspicious and mysterious-like, and Nick called the cops. With the, er, trouble going on and everything,” he cleared his throat, “y’know, I figured I needed to get outta there. I was gonna go into town, but Nick brought me here instead.”

“Oh.” Holy shit, I actually understood him. “You’re staying with Nick?” And I still sounded like an idiot. “That’s really cool. Can I talk to him?”

“Sure. He’s right here.”

I heard some rustling and then, “Angel?”

“Nick!” The homesickness ratcheted up a notch. “What’s the deal with my dad?”

“I went to check on him, and a suspicious car stopped out front,” he said, automatically slipping into the cadence of giving a report or testifying. “He told me there’d been trouble before, and with you mailing the phone to yourself, and the woman looking for you at work, I thought it best to bring him here.”

“You’re so fucking awesome,” I said with a smile. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this. What did the woman look like?”

He cleared his throat. “Athletic-looking black woman with braids that reached to mid back. She had a business card, but there’s no firm by that name.”

Rachel Delancey, Tribe security second-in-command. Not a Saberton person. “Okay. I know who that is. I can’t imagine you’ll have any more trouble from her.” I doubted Rachel would do anything to hurt my dad. She was after Kyle, not me. “Are you sure you’re okay with my dad staying with you?”

“It’s no trouble. I have plenty of room.” Nick paused. “Are you okay? Your dad won’t tell me anything.”

Relief and regret coiled together. Nick was a good guy and would watch over my dad like his own, but there was no way I could let him know what was really going on. “I’m okay,” I told him. “I promise. I’m here with some other people. And, well, I can’t talk about it. Sort of a nondisclosure thing, y’know?”

“As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters,” he replied, voice upbeat but with a layer of stress and worry he couldn’t completely hide. “And you’re going to stay okay, right?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I will, I promise.”

“Good. Dr. Leblanc misses you, so come back soon.”

“As soon as I possibly can.” The homesickness swelled up again, and I had to quickly scrub at my eyes. “I miss you guys too.”

I caught a whiff of the scraggly druggie even as I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and only my zombie reflexes made it possible for me to twist away before he could snatch my phone. “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, YOU GODDAMN LOSER!” Growling, I slammed the palm of my other hand into his chest to send him staggering back to fall on his ass. “And take a fucking bath! ”

I heard someone frantically calling my name then realized it was Nick. I yanked the phone back up. “Hey, sorry about that, Nick.” I raised a fist and took a threatening step toward the druggie as he scrambled up. He backpedaled, then finally had a smart idea and hurried off. “Some dickwad here, uh,” I quickly shifted what I was going to say since telling him that someone had tried to steal my phone probably wouldn’t go over well, “he, um, keeps wanting a handout.”

“Angel, where are you?” he asked, worry thick in his voice.

“Across the street from my hotel,” I said glibly, avoiding a direct answer. “It’s all cool. Can I speak to my dad again, please?”

“But . . .” He sighed. “Sure.”

My dad took the phone. “What happened?”

I scowled. “Some fucking druggie tried to take my phone, so I knocked him the hell down. Stupid jerk.”

“Kick his fuckin’ ass!” He gave a quick cough, and I easily pictured his guilty glance at Nick. “I mean, that’s what he deserves, y’know.”

I laughed. “I got it covered. Don’t worry.” I wanted to tell him how messed up everything was, but I knew it would only worry him more. “It’s really good to hear from you. I love you and miss you.”

“Love you too, Angelkins,” he said, with a rich warmth in his voice that brought tears to my eyes again. “You know when you’re coming home?”

I winced. “No. Not yet. I’m sorry.”

“You call me again soon, y’hear?”

“As soon as I can.”

I hung up after we said our goodbyes then made my way across the street again. To my surprise the doorman gave me a very nice, “Good evening, ma’am,” as he opened the door for me, and didn’t bat an eyelash at my bedraggled appearance. Made me wonder what the hell would earn an eyelash-bat.

Yet, as I entered, I caught a glimpse of a shadowy figure leaning against a building about half a block down the street. Kyle, who’d obviously seen my complete lack-of-common-sense park visit and had stuck around to be sure I remained in one piece. I smiled and continued inside while Kyle pushed off and headed the other way.

Naomi was in the process of hanging her jacket in the closet when I came in. Her eyes swept over me and widened in shock. “What the hell happened?” she demanded. “I thought everything went down as planned. Jane came out, and then we got the signal to return to base.”

I trudged toward the bathroom. “Well, the good news is that I found Brian,” I said, peeling off the fucked up dress as I went, noticing barely in time that Philip was in the room as well.

“What?” Naomi hurried me into the bathroom then helped me with the zipper. “Did you take him out?”

I explained what happened as I stripped down and scowled at the various scrapes on my forearms and knees. “And now I need to get cleaned up so I can go talk to Jane even though it’s late as hell.” I grimaced. “Sorry about the dress. And, I lost the shoes when I was making a run for it.”

She peered at the ruin of the gown. The rip at the knee could maybe be dealt with by making the dress a lot shorter, but the stain on the front was such a combo of street-grime that I doubted there was any way to get it out. “Yeah, you sure did a number on it.” Then she smiled and shrugged. “No worries. You’re in one piece, and that’s way more important.”

She gave me a quick hug, then went out to get a change of clothes and a slice of brains for me. About the time I finished cleaning up, Kyle returned with a brown paper bag containing a big jar of loose algae and two bottles each of algae capsules and Vitamin C.