Page 55 of Call Me Bunny
I vow to become a little more like Mama Navid when it comes to Doc and the others. Kendrick and Bunny probably have their own psychological reasons for taking on the roles they have with Doc, not to mention with each other. It doesn’t take much to figure out that Kendrick is probably as much Bunny’s Dom as he is Doc’s. So far, he’s the only person I’ve seen her even come close to deferring to. Otherwise, her life seems to be pretty much her own personal kingdom, with her as supreme ruler, and she has eminent domain over Summer City. Given what little I know about her life before meeting Kendrick and the others, I suppose I understand.
“Take a break, child,” Mama Navid says, breaking into my introspection. “I’ll watch him while you get some sleep.”
“But—”
She strides into the room with a blanket in hand and shushes me while she covers me up. “No buts. You’ll be no use to himorBunny if you don’t rest.”
I’d protest further, but she brushes her fingertips over my forehead, and that’s the end of that. I’m out cold.
Chapter 24
Kendrick
If Keys doesn’t stop wringing his hands, I swear, I’m gonna give him another head injury. The dude has been nonstop worrying and fretting since we left Mama Navid’s, and it’s driving me crazy. I’m losing my patience with him, brain damage or no.
“Keys, would you please quit that?” I smack his hands gently, and he stuffs them in his pockets.
“Sorry.”
His true chagrin is enough to make me feel like an ass, so I wrap an arm around his shoulders and bring him close. Not quite like we’re lovers, though the average Joe on the street might assume so, but more like he’s my buddy.
I haven’t had many buddies in my life. Growing up as the big, scary guy in the crowd tended to offput people. It only got worse when I lost the baby pudge and started filling out in the muscle department. People saw me and assumed I was mean, so they kept their distance. Even the few semi-friendly associates I had gave me a wide berth if we didn’t have official business to conduct. Don’t get me wrong; it comes in handy when I’m shaking down corporate bigwigs or helping Bunny take out street scum, but for companionship it sucks.
Keys is … tolerable as a companion, I guess. For now. I wouldn’t bank on us being besties anytime soon, but as far as people I could be stuck with, he’s all right.
Things seem to be coming back to him slowly. He occasionally takes the flash drive out of his pocket and turns it over in his hands, almost like he’s trying to figure out what was so important on there. For all I know it’s just porn, but I don’t begrudge him the little bit of mental effort it takes to piece it together. Anything that helps get him back to himself.
“Do you think it’s passwords?”
I blink at the sudden burst of language. “Huh?” Keys has been mostly silent since we left the holistic center. Maybe it’s a good sign that he’s becoming more talkative.
“The drive.” I see his fingers moving in his pocket. “I’ve been wondering if maybe it’s passwords. Or a list of possible locations where Bunny and Neil—and Doc—could be. Do you think we should find a computer to put it in? Maybe check out what’s on the drive?”
I shake my head. “No, not right now. You wouldn’t have risked any of our safehouses by documenting their locations, so we won’t find the others that way. Besides, if we stop to find a computer, we’ll waste time that could be spent looking for Bun. We’ve gotta prioritize, buddy. Bunny first, then Neil and Doc, then after we’ve gotten the gang back together, we can work on a strategy for the future.”
“The future …” Keys’ voice trails off, and his tone makes me regret saying that. Poor guy probably doesn’t think he has much of a future with his brain scrambled.
“Look, Keys, you’ll get better. It’s only been a couple of days. Give yourself time.”
“Sure.” He doesn’t sound like he believes me.
We pass by a trash can, and Keys discards his lollipop stick and whips out a fresh one. As big as the bags of lollipops that I stole at the hospital are, we’re already almost out. Keys has been tearing through them at a concerning pace. I hope I don’t trigger some kind of diabetic coma on top of everything else we have going on. Maybe next time I should grab sugar free lollies … although that could cause a whole different kind of delay. Too much sugar substitute, and I won’t be able to take Keys more than twenty feet from a bathroom at any given time.
“You need to eat some real food. It’s been a full day since we had that breakfast that Mama Navid made. Let me find us something decent.”
“’Kay.”
Damnit. Back to one- and two-word answers.
We duck into a hole-in-the-wall restaurant just as a black SUV crawls by outside. Vipers.
I wait inside the door to see if they spotted us, but no one gets out, and after a few minutes, the car drives on. I sigh with relief and lead Keys to the hostess stand so we can get seated. He nudges my side as the server leads us to a table.
“What, man?”
Keys leans in and whispers in my ear. “Do we have any money?”
Oh, geez. “We’ll skip out on the tab, dude. Don’t worry. Just pick out something more than a lollipop to eat. Get a sandwich or a burger or something.”