Don't Let the Devil Ride by Ace Atkins

Author:Ace Atkins [Atkins, Ace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

20

Libby

Libby would never ever talk about Addison behind her back.

However, Addison had been acting very weird since Dean left on his trip to London. She’d actually gone downtown to his old office and become convinced that he’d been lying to her for years instead of the likely explanation that he’d rented a new space and she hadn’t noticed. She’d gone too far when she got herself arrested and then later showed up at the Club with some Black detective she’d probably picked right out of the phonebook to interrogate Jimbo Hornsby. Libby thought Addison at least would’ve calmed down with Dean safe and back home—how tragic that he’d been mugged on his trip—but instead she’d only grown more paranoid and weird, so damn chatty after they’d dropped the kids at school and met up at the walking trails at Overton Park.

“You’ve been through some real shit,” Libby said.

They walked at a nice, fast clip. Libby hoped she’d burn off the generous slice of cheesecake from last night, regretting it as soon as Branch had brought it home to her.

“It’s not every night that you walk into your kitchen and find a one-armed man raiding your fridge.”

“Right,” Libby said. “I’d forgotten about the one-armed guy.”

“And then Dean decides just to show up in our shower.”

“Where else would he have shown up?”

“Duh,” Addison said, walking nearly shoulder to shoulder with Libby. “How about you call first? He had to have woken up, been discharged from the hospital, met with the people at the embassy like he says, and then flown all the way home. Somewhere along the line, maybe he would’ve thought to check in with me?”

“Branch saw where he was stabbed,” she said. “He said it was really nasty.”

“Branch would want to see that.”

Libby ignored the dig, Addison obsessed with the idea that Branch was secretly gay. She loved to tell the same story at Thanksgiving about how Branch used to pretend he was the Bionic Woman when he was just five, making the bionic noises when he practiced tennis and acting like he had super hearing.

“I’ve been drinking since I woke up.”

“Ha ha,” Libby said.

“No,” Addison said. “I’m serious. I had a double Bloody Mary before I took the kids to school. I thought it was bad when Dean was gone, but my nerves are totally shot since he got home. He’s on the phone constantly and then leaves for a big part of the day. I have absolutely no idea where he goes and he won’t tell me.”

They walked up and over an old stone bridge, the faint smell of the nearby zoo in the air. Elephant shit and all that. The leaves crunched under their feet as they walked, Libby and Addison looking like twins in their black Patagonia vests, black leggings, and black baseball hats, being passed by joggers and the occasional asshole on a mountain bike. On your left!

“He’s a businessman,” Libby said. “He’s doing business. I’m sure that horrible thing in London really set things back.

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