“You cannot leave this house,” I ordered. “I’m sorry, I know in the grand scheme of things we haven’t known each other that long but I love you like a mom. Not only that, but Ven—my dad was clear that he wanted to take care of this on his own. We should trust him.”
“I do, Deon, but I’m panicking now. Every day I think I’m gonna wake up and find you dead in your bed or hear that Venom’s been shanked behind bars.” Felicity’s eyes were low and her voice was strained. “I need to protect my family, you included. Besides, Nico and I… let’s just say we go way back. He wouldn’t hurt me, and he wouldn’t let anyone else hurt me. I’m going straight there and coming straight back, that’s it.”
I didn’t know what to say or do. Felicity seemed so determined, but if Venom found out that I let her go, he’d be the one trying to kill me. “If he asks me, I’m not going to lie to him,” I said.
She scoffed. “You’d sell out your own step-mother?”
“To not get my ass kicked? In a heartbeat,” I said, then I smiled a bit and Felicity returned the sentiment. “I just want you to be safe.”
“And I will be,” she replied. “I called him while I was walking Concrete and set up a meeting for later tonight. You’ll be on your own for dinner, but there’s still leftover lasagna.”
“I mean… there isn’t, because I ate that already, but I’ll figure something out,” I said.
Felicity nodded. “Thanks.”
The rest of the afternoon was tense as Felicity showered, cooked me dinner despite the fact that I told her I could do it myself, and then got ready to go. She wore something much more enticing than I was expecting her to for such a visit. She had on skintight, dark blue jeans, a black crop top, and wore a magenta, sleeveless, anorak-style parka over it, with black stilettos to finish the ensemble off. The outfit showed off lots of skin and she pulled her braids down so that they hung partly in her face. She looked more like she was headed out for a date than to a shady meeting.
“You look good,” I said. “Do you usually put this much effort into back-alley conversations?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “It’s like I said, Nico and I go back a ways. I haven’t seen him in a while, but I’m hoping our… history can work to our favor.”
I didn’t like the insinuation in the way she murmured “history,” but I didn’t pry for anymore information. I wanted to have plausible deniability if something came out later. Felicity gave me a quick hug, promised to be back in two hours tops, and then walked through the door to the garage and out of sight. I listened as the garage door opened and her car started, then it closed again, and I was alone once more.
I did just about anything I could think of to busy myself while I waited. Deep cleaning the house and playing video games were two of the things on the list, but those got old fast. Needing something to take my attention for a long time, I decided to try my hand at making a white chicken chili recipe that Felicity had taught me, then I packed the chili into containers and froze it for eating at a later time. Of course, I worked out, but that got old too, and eventually I found myself on the computer, flicking through the social media accounts of The Royal Court once again.
It was white noise across the board as far as they were concerned—a post here and there for optics, but otherwise no activity. Nathan must have instructed them to mostly stay off of social media in case Connor was watching. Smart. I would have done the same thing. My head started to droop as I looked through the accounts, and eventually landed on Avery’s page. She had posted recently about college and her future, and it made me wonder.
What did my future look like?
If I could get out from under Connor and get back home, what did the days ahead hold for me? I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes and tried to imagine it. College didn’t entirely seem like the right path for me, but that could just be because I’d never considered it before. Cherri was in my future, obviously, but was there anything in particular that I wanted to do?
“Deon?” a voice called out.
I opened my eyes and looked around. “Fel—”
I wasn’t at the kitchen table anymore. Somehow, I was in bed, but not the bed in my room at Felicity’s house. The room I was in was decorated with plants and I was laying in a sleigh bed that I didn’t recognize. My heart started to thump faster.
Did they get me?
The door to the bedroom opened and a head peeked in. “Deon?”
My jaw dropped. Cherri was looking around the door. Her long blond hair flowing down over her shoulders, and a bright smile on her face. “Cherri?”
She giggled. “Were you expecting someone else?”
It was Cherri, it was really Cherri. Was I imagining things? Did I get drunk and not remember? How was I suddenly in an unfamiliar home with Cherri smiling at me like everything was fine.
“N-no,” I replied.
“Well, you slept through your alarm, so you’re running late. I’m working on breakfast; you get up and get ready for work,” she said, and then she disappeared from the doorway. “Nathan will be here to get you in like ten minutes, so hurry,” she called out as she retreated.
“Um… what?” I said to no one.
Alarm? Work? Did I set an alarm? Where did I work? Nathan was coming to pick me up?
Uncertain, I climbed out of the bed, and though my mind had no idea where I was or what was going on, my feet moved with confidence into a walk-in closet. There were suits hanging from white racks fastened near the top of the closet and I reached out and grabbed one. It felt like I didn’t have control of the body I was in, so I just relented to its movements. I pulled a tie and socks from a dresser closer to the door of the closet, then walked out and into the bathroom. I took a shower, washed my hair, and then finally got a glimpse of myself when I got out.
My face was totally shaven, and I was back to how I looked before I even went to prison. I touched my face with some trepidation, but my reflection mimicked me and I could plainly see it was me.
What was going on?
“Deon!” Cherri’s voice called back into the room. “Nathan’s here!”Again, the body moved without my command, out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and down a flight of stairs into a foreign kitchen. Nathan was sitting at a kitchen island working on a plate of breakfast foods that had been placed in front of him, and Cherri was in the act of setting another one down on the counter. “Good morning, baby. Breakfast. Hurry so you two aren’t late.”
Nathan smiled up at me. “Hey bro.”
“Hi,” I replied.
He was dressed in a suit similar to mine, but didn’t seem nearly as put out as I felt. I sat down next to him and started to eat the food Cherri had provided for me. All I could do was watch her as she flitted around the kitchen, and finally, I smiled.
Maybe it had all just been a horrible, drawn-out nightmare.
“We have the board meeting today, remember,” Nathan said. “God, I don’t want to.”
“You say that about literally all of your meetings,” Cherri responded. “I thought you liked your job?”
Nathan shrugged. “Sure. I like the job itself and working with my brother, but those meetings are so boring. Right Deon?”