Desperation in Death--An Eve Dallas Novel by J. D. Robb

Author:J. D. Robb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

13

Dorian woke in bed with sunlight streaming through the privacy-shielded window. It took her a moment to orient herself, then she realized she must have fallen asleep on the couch downstairs with Sebastian reading. And he must have carried her up to bed.

The idea felt odd and oddly … nice.

Why couldn’t someone like him have been her father? Did she even have a father? It didn’t feel like it, or how come she ended up hurt and hiding?

Why couldn’t someone like Sebastian have taken her away from all the crap and into the nice?

Because things didn’t work that way, she decided. Maybe she didn’t remember lots of stuff, but she remembered that. Never had, never would work like that.

Not for somebody like her.

Still, she lay there a few minutes fantasizing about it. She couldn’t remember if she’d ever lain around in bed before on a sunny morning.

Get your lazy ass up!

She heard the voice clearly inside her head. A woman’s voice, harsh and raspy. Mother? Yeah, yeah, mother, because the face started to come clear, too.

She didn’t want to hear it, see it, so she just blocked it out.

Because she could stay here now, Sebastian said so, and nobody seemed to care if she remained in bed awhile in the morning. He could be—sort of—her father, couldn’t he? As long as she stayed.

So she lay there for a bit and took inventory. Her head didn’t hurt or feel wrong anymore. Her ankle felt sore, but not as bad. Same with her knee.

Maybe they felt a little twingy when she got up, but she could walk okay. Nobody had said she couldn’t take a shower, and she wanted one. She had the little bag—toothbrush and stuff—Mouser had brought her, so she went to the bathroom she shared with Chi-Chi and some other kids.

It felt so good to wash, to put on clean clothes, even if the pants were a little too big and a little too short.

Hungry, she started downstairs. She could hear people talking, hear at least somebody playing a game. She thought she’d get something to eat and see what chores she had to do.

She’d be happy to do them—if she did her chores, didn’t bitch and whine, she could stay. Stay with Sebastian and Mouser, and all the other kids. She’d always have somebody to talk to, to hang out with.

Then, when she did whatever Sebastian said, maybe Mouser or Chi-Chi or somebody wanted to go out for a while. She wanted to see the city.

She had little flashes of it—icy cold, lots of lights and people—and wanted to see if she made them up or remembered something.

Maybe she didn’t want to remember the woman with the angry voice, or why she’d had to hide in the dark, but this was different.

She liked having her name—Dorian—and she liked being here. She felt sure she liked being in New York even though that was blurry and cold.

She saw Sebastian in the family room, just like the night before, but

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