Sea Castle: by Andrew Mayne

Author:Andrew Mayne [Mayne, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

Gwen is pacing around the top of the parking garage, sucking on a vape pen I’d never seen her use before. She’s still worked up and muttering to herself.

“Those Neanderthals. Those corrupt, side-dealing mothers,” she growls.

I lean against the wall and let her work this out.

She raises a middle finger at a heavyset man getting into an unmarked police car.

“Fuck you too, Gwen,” he shouts back at her.

She breaks into a smile. “That’s John Lacroix. One of the only good ones,” she tells me.

It seems there’s a fine line between friend and enemy with Gwen.

“Here’s the way it’s going to work,” she explains. “I’m going to yell a lot. Sometimes at you. I might kick you out of my office or hang up on you. And maybe you’ll yell back at me and call me psychotic. But I’m always, always, going to have your back.”

“Unless you think I screwed you over,” I reply.

“Well, of course.”

“That’s the problem,” I tell her. “You can stand here and tell me that you’re going to trust me—but what about when you’re . . . angry?”

“You’re different, Sloan. You get me. Nobody else does,” she says.

“Do I?” I ask hesitantly.

Gwen fixes her gray eyes on me. “We’re more alike than you realize.”

Take it back! I scream inside my head.

“Okay. Maybe I’m a little more intense,” she concedes. “You have more restraint.”

“Solar might say otherwise,” I reply.

“Solar . . . there’s a cop,” says Gwen. “And a man.”

I’m a little uncomfortable at the way she says the last line. I’d feel the same way if she’d said it about my father. Which probably explains loads about my interpersonal dynamics with Solar.

“I promise you, Sloan. I’ll do better,” she says.

“I think we’ve had versions of this conversation,” I remind her.

“Yes, but you keep forgetting something.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m crazy. I know this. You know this. Well, everyone knows this. The difference is they’re afraid of me and you’re not,” she explains.

“Don’t be so sure about me not being afraid of you,” I reply.

“We can make it work.”

“Not if we’re always at each other’s throat. Carla Burgh has maybe three days left. I don’t know if we’re any closer to finding her,” I respond.

“Let’s at least try. We’ll figure it out,” she says.

“We don’t exactly have the support of everyone else,” I point out.

“It’s better this way. We can move faster and . . .”

I think she’s about to say “break the rules.”

“. . . get things done,” she finishes.

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