Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DEZ
Larke, standing at the edge of the river, waved her arms. “Hey, Memphis! I think we have more than enough. Gage said we’re just about at the end of fishing season, so what we have is probably all we’re going to get.”
Memphis surfaced.
The water had to be at least in the thirties, but he was shirtless.
Although he’d toned down his obsession with Larke over the last few weeks, he continued to be mesmerized by her, and Larke didn’t make things any better by being nice to him.
Then, both Tamra and Sabine spent roughly ninety percent of their time at camp physically running away from Dallas.
So, for the moment, Memphis had no alternative outlet for his fixation.
Memphis swam to the riverbank and pulled himself up out of the water as if in slow motion, his eyes on Larke.
I almost shot him.
However, we’d agreed to preserve bullets.
“I was lookin’ for a little fish for Baby Thandie,” he said. “I’m thinkin’ of teachin’ her how to fish. Dallas made her a little fishin’ pole and everything.”
“She has a father, you know,” I pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but she can have as many uncles as she likes. There’s also the option for me and Larke to go half on a bab—”
He hopped backward.
But it wasn’t like the bullet would have hit him.
“Can I say how much I enjoy havin’ friends just as crazy as I am?” he said. “Me and Dallas ain’t never felt so much at home.”
Larke shook her head. “Nuh-uh. No, baby. Nobody but your brother is as crazy as you are.”
Memphis got that look on his face.
The one I hated.
The one that said I was about to waste another bullet.
“Nobody ain’t never called me ‘baby’ before. Not all sweet like you just did. You got some more honey in there? I’ll suck out every last drop if you ask me to.”
I aimed the gun at his head. “Memphis, what the fuck? Don’t you know that if you push me far enough, I’ll shoot you?”
“Yeah, but you’re a good shot. You’re tryin’ not to hit me. When you want to, you will. Me and Dallas, our daddy was a shit shot, but he was on at times.”
Chuckling to himself, he grabbed the bucket of fish from the day’s catch and headed back to the camp.
Larke watched him go.
“Don’t start feeling sorry for him and giving him any more attention than you’ve been giving him,” I warned. “We need to wean him off of you.”
“Are you mad at me?” she asked.
I tucked away the gun and scooped her up off her feet. “I’m annoyed. I want to shoot him, but no, Dez has to have a conscience.”
“I’ll let you suck the honey from my body. Would that make you feel better?”
“Maybe.”
“What if I suck the honey from yours?”
We beat Memphis back to camp.
On my way to take Larke up on her offer, Omar let me know that Gage needed to see me, and that it was an emergency. Annoyed once again, I set Larke down.
“It’s not like I’m going anywhere,” she said. “Don’t look so grumpy.”
“Larke, the entire way back, you kept talking. If you think using phrases like ‘spit on it,’ ‘choke on it,’ and ‘suck the tip,’ and me now having to wait for all of the above, won’t make me grumpy, you don’t know who you married.”
“Then I’ll be naked when you arrive, Captain.”
I seriously contemplated going later to see what Gage wanted, but he peered out into the hallway from one of the hospital rooms.
“Dez,” he called. “In here.”
I gave Larke a quick kiss before joining him.
He and Julien were standing on one side of the room. An elderly man lay on a hospital bed, thrashing, his eyes wild. While Tayler prepped something in a syringe, Memphis and Dallas held him down.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Listen to what he’s saying,” Julien said.
“Never seen…nothing like it. Demon, monster. All dead. They’re all dead.
Demon, demon. Blood…everywhere. Knife-heart, knife-eye, knife-face, knife-throat.
But not everybody was bad. I didn’t try to hurt her.
It wasn’t me. Everybody wasn’t bad. But he didn’t care.
Knife-heart, knife-eye, knife-face, knife throat. And that voice, that voice.”
Tayler pressed the syringe into the man’s side, down near his hip. Soon after, the man’s eyes closed, the thrashing stopped, and his breathing settled.
Me, Gage, and Julien faced each other and said, at the same time, “So, Giorgio’s alive.”
Thank you for reading.
xoxo,
K. Alex