Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“Ugh.” I put the bottles on the bar. “How’s my face?”
When he tapped one cheek, I used a paper serviette I found on the bar to wipe it off.
“You going to open up one of those?” he asked while I finger-combed my hair to get rid of the cobwebs. “I’ll try it with you.”
“I thought I’d wait for Darcie, make sure I haven’t accidentally taken a thousand-dollar bottle.” I halted, stared at him. “How long do you think everyone will be gone?”
He went motionless, the tumbler held partway to his lips. “No idea.” Lowering his glass to his lap, he said, “But it might be long enough for you to go out and get some photos even if we can’t look at the goods themselves.”
I was outside less than a minute later. Rain fell in a torrent, but it wasn’t angling in under the overhang despite the wind that slapped me in the face like a living hand. The world turned invisible a bare few steps out from the house, nothing but roiling black cracked with flashes of broken white fire.
Despite the angry downpour, the light that fell from the house was enough for me to find my way to where I’d stashed Kaea’s boots. I quickly took multiple high-definition photographs, hid the boots again, and was on my way back across the wooden boards of the veranda when Phoenix appeared out of nowhere.
I screamed and stumbled backward onto the veranda railing. It creaked under my weight. “What the hell, Nix!”
Wincing, he held up his hands. “Sorry, sorry.” A second later, he opened his mouth while leaning way too close to me. “Can you smell it?”
About to ask him how much he’d already had to drink, I suddenly had a brainstorm. “Have you started smoking again?” I asked in a harsh whisper. “Oh my God, Nix! V will bug out!” Her father, a longtime smoker, had barely survived lung cancer and it was the one vice about which she was not in any way rational.
“I tried really hard not to”—he shoved his hands through his hair, pulled at clumps of it—“but fuck, sometimes I feel like my head will explode.”
Dropping his hands, he began to pace back and forth but only went about three steps before repeating the loop. A mouse in a trap about to gnaw off its foot to escape. Worried now, I tried to stop his pacing by touching his shoulder, failed. “Nix, what’s going on?”
21
Instead of answering, Phoenix pulled out a travel-size bottle of blue liquid that I recognized as high-strength mouthwash. “I brought this along to try to get rid of the smell. And I’ve mastered it so that the smoke doesn’t come toward me or sink into my clothing. Lu, please, will you sniff me?”
That was the last thing I’d ever thought Phoenix would ask of me, but I did it. “A touch of smokiness, but that could be from the fire. You’re safe.” Stepping back afterward, I said, “You know I have to tell her. She’s my best friend. I can’t be keeping secrets from her.”
“She hates smoking. I gave up the smoking or I gave her up, that was the deal.” More pulling at his hair, more jagged pacing. “Can you give me this week? I’ll sort it out with her, tell her everything.”
Since I had no desire to get in the middle of their marriage, I nodded. “She knows something is wrong.” And no matter her antipathy for smoking, she might well be relieved that it was only him sneaking cigarettes. But still . . . “You know how she is about honesty in a relationship.”
“I promise I’ll fix it.” He stared at me, seeming to realize the incongruity of my presence for the first time. “What are you doing out here? Don’t tell me you’ve taken up smoking, too.”
“Hardly.” I held up my camera. “Was hoping to take a set of storm pictures, but the light’s no good for it.” The lie came out smoothly; it was one I’d used often over the years when discovered in a place I wasn’t supposed to be.
Of course it wouldn’t have worked had Darcie figured out I’d broken into her place to look for Bea’s doll, but other times? It was astonishing how often people just took others at their word. I could’ve pulled off many a heist by now if I were so inclined, but I wasn’t about stealing.
I was about watching.
“We should get back inside.” Phoenix swept his hand through his hair, his movements firm now as he tried to tidy himself up. “Kaea mentioned doing a toast, so they’ll notice if we’re not around.”
* * *
—
As it happened, we weren’t the last ones to arrive. “Where’s Darcie?”
Ash glanced over with a frown. “I figured you knew.”
“What? Why?”
“You two went off together.” Abandoning the drink he’d been making, he walked around the side of the bar.