Chapter Thirteen #3
Alice smiled wistfully. “That was very thoughtful of them.”
“See? There’s your streak of innocence at work again. Both men were supposed to make sure you stayed locked up at Serenity Gardens.”
“They helped me escape, you know.”
He smiled. “I figured that out pretty quickly.”
“So how did you find me?”
“You made one mistake when you moved to Illusion Town.”
“What was that?”
“Instead of using your diabolical talent to work as an enforcer for one of the casinos, you went back to your old career. You got a job at a street clinic helping people with their troubled dreams. After I concluded that you had probably gone to ground in Illusion Town, all I had to do was make some phone calls. It wasn’t hard to find a woman who fit your profile. ”
She briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked resigned. “You’re saying my big mistake was not using the dark side of my talent to work as a casino thug?”
“Even under extreme stress and even though you had every logical reason to use it because the pay is much higher, you didn’t go there,” he emphasized.
“So that’s my weak point? A reluctance to use the full power of my talent in a negative way?”
“It’s not a weakness,” he said. “It’s a sign of your—”
“Don’t say it.” She raised one hand, palm out. “If you accuse me of being an innocent one more time, I will feel obliged to demonstrate the dark side of my talent, and I can guarantee you won’t like the results.”
“I wasn’t going to call you innocent again,” he lied. “I was about to say that you radiate a lot of positive energy.”
“Ghost crap. I don’t believe that, not for a minute. I know what you were going to say, and I’m warning you right now, don’t go there.” She paused, frowning. “What makes you think you’re qualified to identify an innocent person?”
“Turns out it’s easier to recognize innocence in another person if you’re not innocent yourself.”
“So you’ve diagnosed yourself as a non-innocent?”
“I prefer to think of myself as realistic. Realists can’t afford the luxury of innocence.”
“I imagine that, after some of the things you’ve seen in the course of your work, you feel like you’ve lost your own innocence.”
A roar of laughter from the vicinity of the bar stopped him before he could respond. He got a ping and glanced at the empty glass that had once been filled with a blend of sparkling chartreuse and pink sodas. There was no sign of Sebastian.
“We may have a new problem,” he warned.
Alice followed his gaze and gasped. “The Harmonic Sunrise. I didn’t allow him to have caffeine or alcohol, but I forgot how buzzed he gets on sugar.”
She leaped to her feet and headed toward the bar.
Another round of laughter erupted. Owen looked in that direction and saw Sebastian.
The dust bunny was on the highest rung of the ladder the bartenders used to reach the most expensive spirits on the top shelf.
It was clear he was after the elegantly curved glass bottle filled with an acid-green liqueur.
The two bartenders watched uneasily. It was obvious they were unsure of how to handle the situation.
Everyone knew dust bunnies could become dangerous if they were provoked or annoyed.
This was not going to end well.
Owen got to his feet.
“Hey, little buddy,” one of the bartenders said to Sebastian in cajoling tones, “that’s Alien Dream Absinthe. Pretty expensive stuff.”
“Ten bucks says he drops the bottle,” a man perched on a barstool said.
“You’re on,” someone at the other end of the bar called out.
“I’ve got twenty says he doesn’t drop it,” a woman announced.
Sebastian chortled and reached for the bottle with his two top paws.
Alice had arrived at the far end of the bar, but it was the wrong end, the one without the swinging gate that the staff used to come and go. She was trapped, unable to reach the ladder.
“Push the ladder out of the way so that he can’t reach that bottle,” she said to the bartenders.
One of them leaped into action and gave the ladder a strong shove that sent it sailing down the full length of the bar. Sebastian clung to the top step and chortled exultantly.
Unfortunately, he had managed to grasp the bottle of Alien Dream Absinthe before push-off. It was obvious that he was struggling to maintain a secure grip on the ladder and hold on to the heavy bottle at the same time.
Owen made it through the swinging gate just as the ladder carrying Sebastian and the absinthe flew toward him.
Sebastian dropped the bottle so that he could get a more secure grip.
Owen caught the absinthe and set it down on the backbar with care.
“Great save,” the woman yelled, triumphant. “I win.”
“No way,” someone else declared. “The little sucker dropped the bottle. Sure, that guy caught it, but it doesn’t matter. The bottle was dropped. I’m the winner.”
Sebastian, chortling with glee, vaulted down onto Owen’s shoulder.
Both of the bartenders looked at Owen.
“Probably be a good idea for you and the lady and the lucky dust bunny to go somewhere else,” one of them said quietly.
“An excellent plan,” Owen said.