Critical Point by S. L. Huang

Author:S. L. Huang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

twenty-three

WE MADE it to the hospital—after what felt like an eternity—and I immediately tagged out Rio, who’d been standing sentry outside Arthur’s room.

“I have another apartment with an intact door about a twenty-minute drive from the old one,” I told him. “You can move Simon there. Get him back on his feet and…” Fuck, there was something they had to do, wasn’t there?

“We shall attempt to track down Oscar.”

“Yes,” I said. “That. Do that.” Right now, he might be our best lead on finding D.J. and ending all this.

Rio nodded at me and left. Jesus, Simon was like radioactive waste right now, leaking stray thoughts all over the place. Thank Christ Rio would be able to handle it.

The whole family plus Pilar was inside the room visiting with Arthur, and Checker had beelined in right away without a word to me. I neither felt like I fit in with their whole big happy family nor particularly wanted to talk to Arthur at the moment—now that he was safe, I was still really fucking pissed at him—so I slouched in a plastic chair in the hallway next to Diego.

Who was also not visiting with Arthur.

“How are you, Miss Russell?” he asked courteously.

“Just peachy.” Abandoned by my so-called friends, obligated to a man who was likely too far gone to help, under threat by a power-hungry egomaniac bomber and officially past fifty hours without sleep. I sighed. “You can call me Cas, you know.”

He nodded, and we sat for a while. Christ, I wondered if the kids were determined to spend all day fawning. Not that I had anything better to do than be stuck here as a guard dog. Unless it was attack the mountain of digging that needed to be done to track down D.J., or maybe get three minutes in a reasonably secure place where I could close my eyes … I catalogued all the hospital exits seven times over and distance over human running speed equaled time to get everyone out, then added error margins for the kids tripping over one another or freezing like fearful deer.

Fortunately, I had a lot of ammunition in my pockets. I wondered what Diego would think of me then—I’d probably be putting my life on the line for his kids, so he’d better fucking thank me.

I broke the silence far more out of a pissy itch to be nosy than any desire to make small talk.

“So, what happened between you and Arthur?”

He didn’t say anything for long enough that I knew he was annoyed with me for asking. Finally he said, “A marriage license and then a divorce lawyer.”

I thought about making a joke about a mathematician’s answer, but I didn’t think he’d get it.

“And how did you meet Arthur and Charles?” Diego asked with almost too-careful politeness.

“A case.” I didn’t elaborate. I wondered what he’d think if I added the part about taking down a global network of telepaths.

We were saved from continued screaming awkwardness when Arthur’s door opened and Willow Grace slipped out.

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