Floating place.
What the hell was the floating place? The static?
At her room, I got inside and found her sound asleep. She didn’t even stir when I got over to the bed. Asleep or not, I undid the restraints. We always had to put them back on and while she didn’t seem to mind, I hated them.
I still didn’t get it. What had she done that required she be restrained? The more I thought about it, the more I had to wonder about the records. Maybe I should stop into the doctor’s office or get into one of the computers.
Right. Because hacking was something I could do. I’d had dumb luck with the phone. It had a four-digit pin number passcode one. 1-2-3-4 worked. Not everyone was that dumb.
My eyes were gritty, but I didn’t let myself go to sleep. I needed to plan. I needed to sit here with her so that if she did wake up, she’d find me here.
I drifted off a couple of times, but snapped myself awake. Soon, Boo-Boo, I promised. Soon.
Bodhi was back in group therapy the next day and in the community room. He was in a good mood too. I didn’t ask him about Amber and he didn’t offer anything. At the same time, we were both working on the puzzle and I kept waiting for Boo-Boo to show up.
When the time she usually arrived came and went, I tried not to fidget. Bodhi had started putting our puzzle together face down. We were matching shapes, not the picture. Well, Boo-Boo had actually started that. We just kept going.
One hour late.
Two hours late.
At the three hour mark, I slumped back in the chair. She wasn’t coming. Was she in the floating place? Or the static one?
Broderick the Ox was in today or I might have gone wandering during daytime. They weren’t really paying attention to us.
“Bodhi?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to break out of here and take Boo-Boo with me.”
The other man nodded, didn’t even slow down putting the pieces together on the puzzle. “Okay.”
“I need to borrow that phone back.”
Bodhi slid me a look. “I like you.”
“I know.”
“But I want the phone.”
“You can keep it. I just need to call someone.”
He scratched his chin. “I’ll think about it.”
“Thanks.”
“Yep.”
The rest of the afternoon passed with agonizing slowness. It was almost time for us to leave the room for dinner. She never showed up.
“You think I’ll get to kill someone on the way out?” Bodhi asked.
“Oh yeah,” I told him. “There are a lot of people here who can die.”
He nodded again. “Sounds like fun.”
I hoped so. “Just have to find Boo-Boo first.”
“When?”
I wanted to say tonight. “Tomorrow night.” If she was too out of it, I didn’t want to risk her if we had to carry her. I liked Bodhi, I really did. He wasn’t gonna be touching Boo-Boo.
Yeah, that was a hard nope.
“Sounds like a party.”
CHAPTER 27
DOC
“Any news?” The fact Milo was at the clubhouse without any of the others suggested otherwise. I’d sent Liam one text to check on their status. Still waiting. His two word answer hadn’t exactly been enlightening. Then again, maybe he hadn’t known much more. The only read I had on Pinetree involved its exclusivity and the fact it catered to a very particular class for its clientele.
Beyond the brutal suppositions Lainey Benedict offered, and what detail I’d been able to turn up, I didn’t know enough other than a shady medical operation was a shady medical operation. Little Bit was right in the middle of that.
Milo shook his head. He was flat on his back on the sofa, an arm over his eyes and an open beer on the table.
“Problem?” I asked when he offered up nothing else.
“What could possibly be wrong?” The dry as the desert tone didn’t help, despite the nature of his rhetorical question. “Everything’s just fucking fine.”
“Good. I thought we were having a pity party in here and I was about to worry.”
The words did what little else had managed, Milo went from his prone position to sitting up. A red mark decorated the corner of his eye, a fresh bruise. The glare on his face, though, that was all him. “What?”
So was that snarl.
Right. Folding my arms, I studied him. “Spill.”
“Fuck you, Mickey.” He picked up his beer and took a long pull.
“You’re not my type,” I reminded him.
“No, but I bet my sister is.” The dark accusation scored deep.
Thankfully, he wasn’t looking at me when he said it and I had a second to get a grip. Locking my expression was an old habit and when Milo finally met my gaze, I just raised my brows.
“What? You have to have noticed. Every damn one of them is after her. Every damn one of them and…” He didn’t finish the sentence, just stood as he drained the beer. “Look, if all you came for was an update, then I’ve got nothing for you. Liam’s being circumspect. Rome isn’t answering. Freddie’s actually inside that place.”
“That explains why you’re in a shit mood.”
“I’m not in a shit mood,” Milo practically growled. “I’m fucking tired.”
“Then take a nap,” I said. “Take a shower. Shoot some caffeine instead of some beer. Whatever the fuck you need to do to get your head out of your ass and stop this moping, do it.”
Disbelief morphed over his expression. “Jesus, Mickey. What the hell?”
“My question exactly,” I told him. Arms folded, I studied him. “Kid, I’ve given you a lot of leeway since you got out. It’s an adjustment. You shouldn’t have been in that place—”
I held up a hand the moment he opened his mouth to argue. A quiet kind of rage burned in his eyes. The kind that consumed a person from the inside, hollowed them out, and left a shell behind. I’d seen it overseas. I’d felt it in the burn ward.
Sometimes, I saw it in the mirror.
There was a reason I focused on healing others. Because destroying them would be so much easier.
“As you’ve stated,” I continued when he listened and didn’t interrupt. “You had your reasons. You haven’t chosen to share those reasons. That’s your call. You were always the kid with a dozen irons in the fire and this time—one of them burned you. I’m not the guys. You’re not going to intimidate me into backing down. Lash out all you want, I’m not going anywhere.”
Milo drained the last of the beer, then he stared at the glass bottle for a long moment. It was like he questioned why it was even in his hand. In the next moment, he turned and threw it at the wall. The glass shattered, raining down the broken bits and what few drops of beer remained.
I said nothing as he sucked in one breath after the other. He flexed his hands as if he was torn between lashing out and sucking it all in.
“Does it stop?” he asked finally.
“The buzzing beneath your skin? The agitation in your blood? The desire to destroy it or fuck it and you can’t tell which would be more provocative?”