The Last Breath by Danny Lopez

Author:Danny Lopez
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2018-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

THE YOUNG MAN behind the bar came over and gave me a fake smile. “What can I get you, pal?”

I nodded to the taps. “A glass of that Big Top.” I looked up and down the bar, populated by the same customers, tourists, a few scruffy old fishermen. No sign of Tessa.

The young bartender came back and set my beer on the counter. “Wanna see a food menu?”

“I’m good,” I said. “Where’s Tessa?”

“She went home. Wasn’t feeling too good.” He pointed at my beer. “You wanna start a tab?”

* * *

I left the Old Salty Dog without finishing my beer, walked quickly through the Village in a blur of neon lights and pastel colors and the smell of suntan lotion and booze. The Siesta Key Oyster Bar was packed. Someone—I imagined Cap’n Cody—was playing the guitar. The Daiquiri Deck had pulled down plastic shields along its outside deck to cool their guests with AC. Tourists strolled up and down the sidewalk, flip-flops, t-shirts, glowing red faces, kids chasing lizards. The Beach Club was jamming. A light breeze picked up just enough to warn of a coming storm.

I could feel my emotions getting the best of me. I felt like crap about Jaybird. Maybe it was because I’d thought he was the key to Liam’s murder, or maybe it was because he came across as such an innocent man—someone who was ignorant of the world around him. But there was also Tessa. Maybe I was reading too much into her body language, the way she touched my arm, how she tossed her hair to the side, laughed at my stupid comments, how she looked at me—her beautiful brown eyes cutting into a part of me I usually kept guarded. Maybe my feelings were getting in the way of my objectivity and that was why I wandered to the blue apartment building, walking around it twice before going up the stairs and knocking on apartment number 8.

Tessa opened the door and looked through me, her eyes red and distant. She had an odd expression, one of either absolute relaxation or absolute exhaustion. Or, she was stoned.

“You okay?”

She nodded and moved aside to let me in. I walked past her. She turned and kept her eyes on me. In the soft light of the apartment, it was clear she’d been crying.

I went to her. She raised her hands to hold me at the same time that her lower lip trembled and her mouth twisted letting out the first of many sobs.

I held her. She leaned her head against my chest, arms around my neck, tight, cheek pressed against me. And she let it all out: the fear and the anger and the sadness of everything that had happened in the last two and a half weeks. She cried like a child alone in a room with her pain. It tugged at my own feelings more than I cared to admit even to myself. So much so that I clenched my jaw as tight as I could and swallowed the tight ball that was rising in my throat.

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