Jessica Clare - Last Breath

“R and R is fine,” Regan says, smoothing a lock of hair from my forehead in a possessive gesture. “I just want you to know I’m with you. We’re a team now, right?”

I squeeze her tight and drop a kiss on the top of her forehead. “We’re a team.”

“So . . . what does this team do now?”

With effort, I stand up and grab my pack. Holding out my hand, I say, “We go home."

Regan

I’M HOLDING DANIEL ’S HAND AS we get out of the taxi and approach the run-down apartment building. It’s . . . kind of a dump. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

“It’s the address Nick sent me, yeah.” He checks his phone again, then shrugs. “He’s Ukrainian. Maybe he thinks this is high on the hog.”

I wrinkle my nose, but in reality, it’s not that bad. It’s clean, the roof is all one piece, and there’s no trash in the streets. That automatically makes it better than most favelas . “I thought it would be . . . I don’t know. I can’t imagine Daisy in here.” Sweet, adorable little Daisy with the innocent blue eyes that went so wide every time something broke down in our old, beat-up apartment.

“He said it was a fixer-upper,” Daniel says and releases my clinging hand to sling both of our bags over his shoulder. Then, he takes it again because he knows I need him. His touch grounds me.

We’ve been out of Rio for about two days now. Two days of travel, staying in hotel rooms, and more travel. I’m not entirely sure where we’ve flown; all I know is that it wasn’t a straight line. Something about not being obvious and avoiding the wrong people. I don’t question. Daniel knows the slippery side of the law better than anyone, and I trust him to keep me safe. I’m still having nightmares, though. It’s like now that I know Hudson is dead, he’s haunting my dreams. Daniel holds me close and tells me it’s normal after what I’ve been through. He never lets me go.

He’s exactly what I need to make me feel whole again.

We head inside and no sooner do I step into the foyer of the apartment building than Daisy’s barreling down the stairs and running for me, arms outstretched.

“Regan!” she squeals in a high pitched, happy tone, and she’s on me and hugging me close before I can tell her that I don’t like to be touched by anyone but Daniel.

“Daisy,” Daniel begins, “Don’t. . .”

But it’s okay. It’s just Daisy, fragile little Daisy with her big cornflower blue eyes and dark hair and round, innocent face. Daisy, who looks like she should sing in a church choir and says sweet little prayers before bedtime. Daisy, who fell for a hit man and got me into this mess. I shove the bitterness down and hug her back. It’s not Daisy’s fault that any of this happened. And while I’m not glad I was sold into slavery, I have Daniel now. And Daniel’s all that matters.

He’s giving me faintly concerned looks as I hug Daisy for a long time, checking to see if I’m okay. I nod at him and hug Daisy back. She smells clean and fresh and as wholesome as ever; and I feel a little better knowing that through all of this, Daisy has remained as innocent and as lovely a person as she ever was. I’m glad, and I mean it.

“It’s good to see you,” I tell her softly.

She pulls away, tears brimming in her big eyes. “I was so worried about you. But Nick said we sent Daniel, and Daniel’s the best there is, so . . .”

“Daniel is the best there is,” I agree and swat Daniel when I see him begin to make a lascivious face out of the corner of my eye.

“Come upstairs,” Daisy tells me, so excited she’s practically bouncing like a puppy. “Nick’s making dinner.”

“Oh shit,” Daniel says with a grin. “Now this, I’ve got to see.”

We head up the main stairs of the apartment building. Daisy says that the elevator’s busted at the moment. Apparently Nick was trying to fix the wiring, got pissed when it shocked him, and took a sledgehammer to it in retaliation. Daisy looks a little disgruntled at the situation, and I see Daniel smothering a laugh behind her. “He’s not very good at being domestic,” she tells me, her cheeks glowing.

“And you’re letting him make dinner?” I ask, trying not to giggle, myself. It feels so good to have Daniel behind me, his hand on my back to let me know that he’s here, and Daisy chattering away in front of me. The stain Rio left on me is falling away like it never existed.

“He insists that he wants to help out,” Daisy says with a helpless shrug. “It’s so cute. One day, I came home from class and he was making Hamburger Helper. ‘I do not understand what it is helping the hamburger to do,’ he tells me. I lost it.” She giggles even now, thinking about it.

Daisy gives us a quick tour of the apartment building as we walk. There was water damage on the top floor, so most of those apartments are still being worked on. They’re redoing the tile on the bottom floor, and she and Nick are on the second floor, along with an apartment for her father if he ever wants to visit. He doesn’t leave his farm much, Daisy tells me, but the fact that he leaves it at all makes her happy.

“And there’s an apartment for you,” she says, pulling a key off of the key ring and holding it out to me.

“Me?” I’m surprised. “Why?”

“We lost the other apartment,” she says in an embarrassed voice. “By the time I got back, there was an eviction notice. All I could do was grab everything, and so we moved here.”

“Oh,” I say, and my voice is smaller than I’d like. Of course we lost our apartment. I’d been scraping by with scholarship funds before Daisy moved in to pay her share. But for some reason, I thought my apartment would always be there, waiting for me to come back to it when I was ready.

The fact that it’s not there kind of rattles me. The world went on while I was gone. Like I never existed. I think of Mike and Becca, and I swallow hard.

“You doing all right, sugar tits?” Daniel says in my ear, his breath warm as he leans in.

Daisy turns and gives us both a horrified look. “What did you call her?”

For some reason, I erupt into giggles. Maybe it’s Daisy’s aghast expression or the fact that Daniel’s so naughty to call me that in front of her, but I lose it. Hysterical, silly laughter bubbles up, and I have to hold my sides, I’m laughing so hard. Daniel chuckles and his fingers brush my cheek affectionately while Daisy looks at me like I’m crazed.

I finally get control and wipe tears from my eyes, still giggling. “It’s an inside joke,” I tell her since she looks ready to wag a shaming finger in Daniel’s face.

“I’m . . . going to go check on Nick and dinner,” she tells me and reaches out to wrap my fingers around the key she gave me. “Why don’t you check out your apartment? Take your time. We’ll keep dinner warm for you.” The look on her face is kind and sweet and so totally Daisy that I want to hug her all over again.

I don’t, but I think she’d understand why. “Thanks, Daisy.”

“We’re in 2A,” she tells me. “Come by when you’re ready.”

Then Daisy heads down the hall, and I’m alone with Daniel and my new apartment key. I stare down at the key for a moment, then look over at Daniel. “Sugar tits again, huh?” My lips twitch with laughter.

“Great conversation starter, ain’t it?” he drawls.

“I need a conversation starter of my own,” I mutter as I put the key in the door. “Like ‘sweet dick’ or ‘pork and beans.’”

“Do I get a vote?” he asks. “Because I’m partial to ‘big Johnson’ or ‘Goddamn-Daniel-Your-Dick’s-So-Huge’.”

I snort and push the door open, trying not to giggle again.