A Friend in the Dark by C.S. Poe

Author:C.S. Poe [Poe, Gregory Ashe, C.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emporium Press
Published: 2020-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

In the dark coils of the Ramble, Sam processed what Juliana had just said: Jake’s partner. Had Lampo come to Juliana for the same reason Sam and Rufus had? To find out what had happened to Jake?

Footsteps moved somewhere close to them, and then a low exchange of voices. Sam came back to himself with a start. He packed up the revelation, caught Rufus’s eye, and nodded the way they had come. “Is there a shorter way back? Or are we taking the scenic route again?”

Rufus pointed in a different direction, opened his mouth, but his stomach let out an audible growl before he spoke. He snapped his jaw shut and rubbed sheepishly at his belly.

“Really?” Sam asked.

“Sorry. If we follow this path, we’ll get to Central Park West quicker than going back over Bow Bridge.”

“Romantic Bow Bridge,” Sam said, not even sure why he fucking said it. Then, hurrying on, “And when I said, ‘Really,’ I meant, ‘Really, you’re hungry again?’”

“My metabolism is a wild animal.”

Making a gesture up the path, Sam tried not to smile; he thought he did a decent job. “Food, then. And then back to Jake’s so we can figure out what the fuck is going on. Let’s go, fearless leader.”

Rufus led them out of Central Park, and he’d been telling the truth: they had taken the long way to get to the Ramble, and, yes, it had been a much nicer view of the park. Not that this second route was bad, it just wasn’t….

Romantic? Sam heard in his head.

He told that little voice to fuck off. It’d been cute, the way Rufus had said, The scenic route, as though he could squelch the little blush that had come into his cheeks. Sam liked that little blush. He liked the way Rufus’s eyes got wide and outraged at half the things Sam said that seemed, to him anyway, perfectly common sense. He liked the way Rufus’s ears got pink when Sam said things that Rufus liked but was embarrassed about. He liked that Rufus wore his heart on his sleeve in a million ways, hurt and happiness and excitement and amusement all right there for Sam to see, even though Sam knew that the real Rufus, all the real Rufus things, were locked away. Maybe hadn’t been shared with anyone. Ever.

The branches of a massive oak creaked overhead as a gust of warm, humid air swirled past them, winnowing the grass clippings along the curb and fanning them across the asphalt. A shadowed pair stumbled into an intersection of paths ahead of them, pausing, leaning against each other, whispered consultations that erupted into giggles and then a long, sloppy kiss before the pair staggered off again. Sam’s heartbeat climbed into his ears, drowning out this noisy, impossible-to-escape city for a moment.

He knew he should be thinking about Jake, Marcus, Heckler, Juliana. About kids dragged here from around the world, trapped, used. He knew there was so much on the line—more than he had thought possible when he’d come to learn the truth about Jake.

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