Jocelynn Drake - Dead Man’s Deal

“Everything good?” he asked from the doorway as I took my first sip.

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh as my grumbling stomach accepted my peace offering of heat and caffeine. I’d appease it with actual food when I made my way to the parlor.

“How long have you two …?”

Robert’s voice drifted off and I smiled. I had never let myself imagine this day. I never thought I’d see him standing in the kitchen with me while we drank coffee. I never thought we’d talk again.

“I’ve known Trixie for a couple years, but we’ve been dating only a couple months.”

He grunted and took another drink of his coffee. Last night he’d told me that he was divorced and had no kids. We had learned odd facts and collected strange stories about each other’s life, but there were big gaping holes in his past that I was waiting to have filled in.

“I want you to stay in my apartment,” I said before draining the last of my coffee.

“Why?”

I walked over to the faucet and rinsed out my mug before putting it in the sink. “It’s safer. I don’t know who else knows about the information Reave’s trying to move or if anyone knows you’re involved. We need time to think and plan. No one knows we’re related, so they won’t think to look here.”

Robert frowned at me, looking as if he was ready to argue.

“Just for a few days. It won’t be bad. I’ve got cable, Internet, video games, and food in the fridge. You can spend the day eating, gaming, and watching Internet porn for all I care. Just stay here.”

“Can I at least go back to my place and get some clothes?”

“Fine. Be quick and don’t make any calls. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” he grumbled, leaning against the counter across from me.

I pulled open a drawer and grabbed a spare key to my apartment. Tossing it to him, I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. “I’ll be at Asylum until dark and then Trixie and I have to run an errand. I should be back here near midnight,” I said as I picked up my keys, wallet, and cell phone from the coffee table and shoved them into my pockets.

“Anything else, Mom?” he asked with a sneer.

“Yeah, don’t do anything stupid.”

Robert flipped me off, but he was smiling when he did it. I flashed him dual birds in return and then headed for the door. I needed to get to Asylum. I did my best thinking in the parlor.

“Hey, Gage.”

Robert’s voice stopped me as I pulled open the door. I turned to look back at him and frowned. He looked genuinely uncomfortable and for a moment I thought he was going to tell me to go on.

When he spoke, his voice was gruff and halting, as if he was afraid to speak. “That nightmare you had. Was it about when you were in the Towers?”

I quickly glanced out into the hall and was relieved to find it empty. My nosy neighbors didn’t need to know I was an ex-warlock.

“Yeah,” I said on a sigh.

“Was … was it bad there?”

My eyes fell closed for a second. Robert and I had never discussed my time in the Towers. I never discussed it with anyone. They were dark, ugly memories, for the most part filled with pain and screams and someone somewhere dying.

“Yeah, it was bad.”

“I’m sorry. When you were taken, I made all kinds of plans on how to rescue you. But I guess after about three years, I finally figured out that I couldn’t rescue you. No one could.”

I smiled weakly at my brother. He was leaning against the wall, his hands fisted at his sides as he stared at the floor, lost in the pain of an old memory. “The Towers are a bad place, but I don’t entirely regret it. If I hadn’t learned to control my powers, I could have hurt you or Meg without meaning to. I could never have lived with that.”

Robert nodded, but remained silent. I waited, not sure if he had anything else to say. I felt like we were both treading on eggshells. A sigh escaped me as I started to leave again.

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