Part 9 (1/2)
”Wait-you just took some random party pills? With no idea what they were?”
He looked at her and frowned. ”Yeah.”
”You could have died.”
”So?”
Val knew he'd been heavy into drugs at one point in his life, but popping mystery pills at a party thrown by a cult seemed reckless, even for him. Maybe his new life wasn't as fabulous as it seemed.
He sighed and relaxed a bit, then fingered the rim of his gla.s.s. ”The blue one was great. I thought I was swimming in a grotto, and I could breathe underwater. Then you were there, and Abby, and Kitty. All of it felt so real; I have to tell myself it wasn't real, that's how convincing the hallucination was. The red one didn't work right with me. At least, I don't see how Lucien could sustain a customer base if his clients normally had hallucinations of fire and destruction. It was almost like I was seeing the aftermath of the nuclear explosion you described when...when you were with me.”
His gaze flicked to hers for half a second before he looked away again, awkward silence falling between them. He was likely recalling memories of their intimate time together-as she was. His touch, his kiss, his laugh, his sarcasm, his nerdy references, his whispers in her ear...She wanted it all back. Val traced the contours of his sharp cheekbones with her eyes, almost crying with the bone-deep need to use her fingers instead and feel his warm skin-to feel all of him again.
Max took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he looked at her with a cool, controlled gaze and continued. ”I also started seeing things before they happened, like people walking by and saying things to me in exactly the same way twice, and you were pr-” He cut himself off, swallowing words he didn't want to get out for whatever reason. Maybe he'd seen a future version of her, but why wouldn't he give her details? ”The point is, I think it triggered whatever gives us our visions. Some of it was a hallucination caused by the blue pill, but the red pill brought on what looked like flashes of future events, all in a random jumble. Like before I learned to see numbers instead. It was...disturbing. The best and worst trip I've ever had. It's also possible the drugs interfered with the-um, a different medication I take.”
What other medication? she almost asked, but it wasn't any of her business. When she'd first met him, he'd been on all sorts of pills for depression, anxiety, migraines, and insomnia, thanks to his nightmare childhood. It'd been nave of her to a.s.sume all it took was the love of a good, stable woman like Abigail to make those things go away.
”Are you okay?” She balled her hand in a fist to keep it from reaching out for his.
”I feel normal now-as normal as it gets for us.” He gave her a tiny smile that quickly faded.
”Was Lucien there?”
Max nodded. ”Also a bunch of escorts dressed as mermaids. That might've been how he got access to the missing woman you're looking for, if escorts are a regular fixture of the parties.”
”You didn't see a laboratory anywhere, did you?”
”No, but I was out of it most of the time. He wanted to take me somewhere, but I was...uh...distracted. The house was a rental anyway. I doubt he'd keep kidnap victims there.”
”He's going to do awful experiments on Margaret. We need to get to her before it happens.”
He eyed her with a roil of emotions-anger, uncertainty, frustration...hope? She'd said we. Oops. ”You saw that in a new vision?” he asked.
She nodded, but didn't offer any more details. He didn't need to know where the visions came from. Hopefully, he never would.
Max looked away and frowned, but said nothing. He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ”That's all I know about Blue Serpent. You got what you wanted. Can you take me home now?”
No, she still didn't have what she really wanted-to be free of Northwalk and Delilah, and wrapped in his arms again. The best she could do was get through the day.
Val threw on some regular clothes and drove Max to the luxury condo he shared with Abby, in the Lower Queen Anne district of Seattle. He told her to stop at a curb in front of a wrought iron gate, an intercom and keypad affixed to a pedestrian entrance. They sat in silence for a moment, neither meeting the other's gaze.
Val spoke first. ”Thank you for helping me. You didn't have to, but you did. After what I did to you...I owe you one.” She smiled. ”I'm one of those people who owes you a favor. Good to have, right?”
He met her gaze and smiled back, a real smile, his warm hazel eyes with their emerald starbursts looking into her, in the old way. ”You don't owe me anything.”
She wanted to kiss him so badly her lips burned.
He cleared his throat. ”Well, uh, Abby's probably wondering where the h.e.l.l I am, and if Ginger made it back in one piece-”
”Did you say Ginger?” Val sat up in her seat. ”A redheaded man named Ginger?”
”He's Abby's brother. That's his nickname. He was with me last night, but I have no idea where he went after I lost touch with reality.”
”He's working with Lucien! He's also the last person that people saw Margaret with before she disappeared.”
Max let out a long, exasperated sigh. ”s.h.i.+t.”
”Take me to him. Now.”
”No!”
”He knows where Margaret is.”
”Are you sure?”
”Sure enough.”
He scoffed. ”You cannot rough up Abby's brother on a circ.u.mstantial connection. He's going to be my brother-in-law, for G.o.d's sake. Holidays will be awkward.”
”He's about to become an accessory to murder, so what would you prefer?”
”Do you know what he's doing for Lucien?” Max asked.
”I didn't see that.”
”So try the nonviolent approach first. Follow him, see where he goes and what he does when he's not bugging the s.h.i.+t out of Abby and me.”
Val considered an old-fas.h.i.+oned stakeout. ”You know him, you can tell me if he does something unusual. Come with me?” She bit her lip, then forced herself to stop before he could see her anxiety. She'd probably be fine without him, but...h.e.l.l, she just needed to be near him, to see him in the flesh, smell him, talk with him, listen to him, laugh with him. Maybe their hands could brush together sometimes. Nothing s.e.xual had to happen between them. But being with him recently, if only for a few short hours, made her realize if she couldn't be a part of his life in some way, she'd die. She almost felt dead already. Maybe he could bring her back to life.
After a long moment when he stared out the window, Max said, ”Fine.” He opened the car door and stepped out.
”When?” she called after him. ”It has to be soon.”
”I'll call you,” he said, and shut the door.
Val watched him walk away and smiled. He'd thrown her a bone, thank G.o.d. She could go on living one more day.
Chapter Fourteen.
Which do you prefer for the fourth appetizer at our reception: sweet Maryland crab cakes, or crab and lobster Louise salad?” Abby called to Max from the kitchen.
In the living room, Max didn't look up from the tablet he'd propped on top of Toby, the dog planted in his lap. ”Do I need to have an opinion? It's your big day.”
”But it's our wedding.” She sighed. ”It'd be nice if you at least pretended to care.”
”I do care. I want the second one, the crab cakes.”