Part 4 (2/2)
It was a risk, taking him out of school. Something de la Fuentes might notice if he was keeping close tabs on his messenger of death. But surely he would not raise the alarm to critical over one missed Friday. When Daniel showed up intact Monday morning, the drug lord would be rea.s.sured.
She took the phone from Daniel and pocketed it.
”I'll hold this for you, okay? You look unsteady and I don't want you to lose it.”
”Okay.” He looked around again and frowned at the giant concrete ceiling arcing overhead. ”Where are we going?”
”My office, remember? We're going to get on this train now.” She didn't see any faces from the other train in this car. If they were following, they were doing it from a distance. ”Look, here's a seat. You can rest.” She helped him settle, surrept.i.tiously dropping his phone by her foot and then nudging it farther under the seat with her shoe.
Tracking a cell phone was the very easiest way to find someone without having to do any work. Cell phones were a trap she'd always avoided. It was like volunteering to tag yourself for the enemy.
Well, she also didn't really have anyone to call.
”Thanks,” Daniel said. He still had one arm around her, though now, with him sitting and her standing, it was at her waist. He stared up at her dizzily and then added, ”I like your face.”
”Oh. Um, thank you.”
”I like it a lot.”
The woman sitting next to Daniel looked over at Alex and examined her face. Great.
The woman seemed unimpressed.
Daniel leaned his forehead against her hip and closed his eyes. The proximity was disconcerting on a few different levels, but also oddly comforting. It had been a long time since any human being had touched her with affection, even if this affection had come out of a test tube. Regardless, she couldn't let him fall asleep yet.
”What do you teach, Daniel?”
He angled his face up, his cheek still resting on her hip.
”Mostly English. That's my favorite.”
”Really? I was horrible at all the humanities. I liked science best.”
He made a face. ”Science!”
She heard the woman beside him mutter, ”Drunk,” to her other neighbor.
”Shouldn't have told you I was a teacher.” He sighed heavily.
”Why not?”
”Women don't like that. Randall says, 'Never volunteer the information.'” The way he said the words made it clear he was quoting this Randall verbatim.
”But teaching is a n.o.ble profession. Educating the future doctors and scientists of the world.”
He looked up at her sadly. ”There's no money in it.”
”Not every woman is so mercenary. Randall is dating the wrong type.”
”My wife liked money. Ex-wife.”
”I'm sorry to hear that.”
He sighed again and closed his eyes. ”It broke my heart.”
Another twinge of pity. Of sadness. He would never say these things, she knew, if he weren't high on her Ecstasytruth serum hybrid. He was speaking more clearly now; the drug wasn't wearing off, his mind was just adapting to working around it.
She patted his cheek and made her voice cheery. ”If she was that easily bought, she probably isn't worth crying over.”
His eyes opened again. They were a very gentle hazel, an even mix of green and soft gray. She tried to picture them intense-fitting under the baseball cap of the self-a.s.sured man meeting with de la Fuentes in the photos-and failed.
She didn't know what she would do if he actually had dissociative ident.i.ty disorder. She'd never worked with that before.
”You're right,” he said. ”I know you are. I need to see her for what she really was, not what I imagined she was.”
”Exactly. We build up these ideas of people, create the one we want to be with, and then try to keep the real person inside the false mold. It doesn't always work out well.”
Gibberish. She had no idea what she was saying. She'd been in one semiserious relations.h.i.+p in her whole life, and it hadn't lasted long. School had been prioritized before the guy, just like work had been prioritized before everything else for six years. Like how she now prioritized breathing over everything else. She had a problem with obsessiveness.
”Alex?”
”Yes?”
”Am I dying?”
She smiled rea.s.suringly. ”No. If I thought you were dying, I would have called an ambulance. You'll be fine. I just want to double-check.”
”Okay. Will I have to have blood taken?”
”Maybe.”
He sighed. ”Needles make me nervous.”
”It will be fine.”
She didn't like that this bothered her-lying to him. But there was something about his simple trust, the way he seemed to ascribe the best motives to everything she did... She had to snap out of it.
”Thank you, Alex. Really.”
”Just doing my job.” Not a lie.
”Do you think you'll call me?” he asked hopefully.
”Daniel, we're definitely going to spend an evening together,” she promised. If he hadn't been drugged, he would have heard the edge in her voice and seen the ice in her eyes.
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