Windfall (4) by Caine Rachel

Author:Caine, Rachel [Caine, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, General, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451460578
Publisher: Roc
Published: 2005-04-15T07:00:00+00:00

It was a long night. Kevin went to the Emergency Room, who diagnosed anemia and said he was running a quart low on blood despite the healing David and Lewis had put into him. We spent most of the wee hours watching blood drip from a bag into his veins. Rodriguez kept his mouth shut about the whole standoff issue, mostly because he couldn’t understand what had happened enough to try to explain it, and none of us were talking. Lewis stayed close to me, whether looking for protection or offering me his own was not clear.

We managed, somehow, to avoid the press, who were scurrying all over the story of sinkholes on the beach. IS YOUR CHILD SAFE? Film at eleven . . . by the time we made it back to my apartment, I realized that my life was well and truly out of control. Bad enough there was the whole job situation, but now there was Sarah and her boyfriend, and Lewis, and Kevin, and the Djinn War, and a cop from Las Vegas who was turning out to be kind of cool, actually.

And my feet hurt like hell.

Rodriguez insisted on coming in and checking out the apartment. Eamon and Sarah were not in immediate view, but her bedroom door was closed. I didn’t, ah, inquire.

“Right,” I said, and looked at my little flock. “Kevin, Lewis—sit down before you fall down.”

Lewis was already lowering himself to the couch, but he shot me a grateful look. Rodriguez leaned against the door, arms folded, and frowned at me. Kevin, who should have been out on his feet from the painkillers, shuffled around the apartment, ragged black jean hems dragging the carpet, and fondled my stuff. Ah, yes. I remembered his great respect for personal boundaries. Even his brush with death hadn’t dampened his enthusiasm for that.

I sucked in a pained breath as I put my feet up on a battered hassock and let myself relax, just a little, for the first time in hours. “I don’t suppose you have anyplace to go,” I said to Lewis. Who shook his head. “Fine. You’re staying here. Kevin, you too. Um . . .”

Detective Rodriguez arched his eyebrows. “I have accommodations.” Yeah, the White Van Hilton.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For leaving?” He sounded amused.

“For staying when you didn’t have to. When things didn’t make any sense.”

He shrugged and gave me a wintry smile. “I’m just saving my interrogation for later. Tonight, I’m just having a drink and trying not to think about it.”

“Good plan,” Lewis said. “I could use a beer.”

I took the hint, went into the kitchen, and popped two Michelob Lights, carried them out along with a Coca-Cola, which I handed to Kevin. Who gave me a filthy look.

“Underage,” I said. “And way too unpredictable to give beer to, anyway. And do we need to talk about painkillers and alcohol?”

He kept glaring.

“Take it as a compliment that I don’t still want you dead.”

He didn’t, but he drank the Coke anyway. I held up another Michelob for Rodriguez’s inspection; he accepted without a word.

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