Dry Run by Lolly Walter

Author:Lolly Walter [Walter, Lolly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Awl Collaborative Press
Published: 2018-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

Seven

Insistent pounding woke Joe. Early morning light streamed through his windows. The familiar weight of Devin’s torso bound him to the bed. Joe raised his head and slicked his hand down Devin’s sweaty back. He wasn’t sure how they’d manage when the summer came; they both gave off so much body heat. They’d be puddles, but he wasn’t about to change the way they slept. Waking to Devin’s head on his chest, leg between his own legs, and heavy morning wood pressed into his thigh was worth a lake of sweat. His head dropped back to his pillow while his hands traveled over Devin’s expansive shoulders.

His eyes fluttered shut, and he drifted, thinking about how he’d be able to kiss Devin sometime today, how he’d make it better than it had been last night.

Someone was calling his name. On top of him, Devin shifted and kissed his chest. The pounding came again. On his door. Someone was pounding on his door and calling his name. Joe hugged Devin closer.

“Joe, get out here!”

“Go away!” Devin yelled.

The banging didn’t stop, though. It got louder and more frantic. Joe woke enough to roll out from under Devin and grab his jeans from the night before.

“Ignore them,” Devin mumbled, but he was crawling off the bed and onto his feet, too.

Joe unlocked the door and opened it as Devin hitched up his jeans and scrambled behind him. As Joe heard the zipper rise, he found himself face to face with Bea.

Her curly blond hair was free-flowing and wild, and her mouth was set in a grim line. “Nina’s gone.”

She grabbed Joe’s wrist and pulled him into the main room. When they’d reached the room’s center, she dropped his hand and stepped away.

“What did you say?” Devin asked.

Bea repeated it, but Joe didn’t need to be told twice. He swept the room, where most of the runners milled about, tight-bodied and whispering. Ebony, huffing and sniffling, her arms crossed over her chest, sat on her bed being comforted by Roxy and Marcus.

Joe knelt in front of her. “What happened?”

“Someone took her, Joe. I don’t know. Oh, my God, please, please help me find her.” Ebony launched herself forward and latched onto Joe’s upper arms. Her red-rimmed eyes, desperate, wild, darted everywhere. “You know who did this. Get her back.”

He had a sinking feeling Ebony was right; he knew who had taken the baby. “Have you checked the other rooms, the other floors?”

“Zeke and Trig are checking everywhere now, going to all the other floors,” Marcus said, his round brown eyes shifting restlessly from Joe to Bea and back again.

Joe patted Marcus’s knee. In the harsh grip Ebony had on him, he couldn’t stroke her hair like he wanted. He settled for cupping the back of her arms. “When was she taken?”

“During the night, I was walking her because she wasn’t sleeping. I took her in the hallway, down to the cafeteria. All I remember is someone coming up behind me, putting a rag over my face.

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