Page 29 of Keep
“Enzo’s?” we said simultaneously.
An hour later, stuffed with the city’s best pizza and slightly buzzed on the white wine Esther had pulled out, we both lay on the living room floor, another scene that had played out countless times before.
“You still getting fired from every job you ever had?” I asked.
“Nope. I quit sometimes now too,” Esther replied.
“One day…”
“I’ll be employable? Maybe. But I tell them all the time if they’d just do things the way I say, we wouldn’t have any problems,” she said, her booming voice filling the room.
“I don’t think it works that way, Esther.”
“It should,” she said flatly.
I laughed out loud again, and then we went quiet, looking through the big picture window as night fell.
“I’m glad you’re here, Fawn,” she said again, this time serene.
“Me too.”
“I’m glad you got away from him.”
“Me too.”
“You could have come here. Anytime.”
“I know.”
“And you’re done now. Forever. Out of that world?”
I stayed silent, not sure what to say. And then I began. “I?—”
A pounding at the door cut my words off.
SEVENTEEN
Vasile
I stood on the porch of the small, tidy house, but I hardly saw it or the neighborhood it sat in. The concern chased by rage left me incapable of noticing much, and I wouldn’t be able to until I saw her. That she had been so close when I’d spent hours searching for her far and wide only added to the anger.
“May I help you?” the tall, voluptuous black woman who answered the door asked.
I gazed at her for a moment and then pushed past her to enter. She stepped in front of me, silently daring me to try to come farther, no hint of fear in her face. On one hand, it pleased me that Fawn had someone who cared for her so deeply she’d put her own safety at risk. But on the other…
My patience was frayed to the point of snapping, the unfamiliar worry that had taken over when Fawn was nowhere to be found having taxed my reserves.
“Fawn,” I said, not taking my eyes away from the woman.
Her scowl dropped ever so slightly and I could see the pulse at the base of her neck speed, but she stood her ground.
“There’s no one here by that name. Now you need to leave before I call the cops,” the woman said sternly, arms crossed over her ample chest.
“Esther, it’s okay.”
Esther looked to Fawn and then to me, lingering on my tattoos and then meeting my eyes. She didn’t even make an effort to hide her scorn, but I didn’t care. Seeing Fawn had loosened the ball of tension that had taken residence in my gut.
And replaced it with a seething anger at her carelessness that almost made my hands shake. “Let’s go.” I practically growled the words, and Esther narrowed her eyes and then gulped nervously.