Chapter 24

Chrissy

“Man, I’m fucking starving!” I turned, not quite capable of looking over my shoulder, to eye Narcos, the one who’d spoken. Driller sat at the small, two person table with him, cards scattered over its surface as they played something or other.

“What about you, girly? Hungry?”

“No, but I should probably eat something anyways.”

“Pizza?” Driller asked and Narcos made a noise like the mere suggestion of it had him dying.

“Man, why don’t you call down to the Ten-Thirteen, have one of the guys run us up some food?” he asked.

“Solid,” Driller said and brought out his phone.

After a minute he said, “Yeah, Skids. Help us out man, if it weren’t bad enough they got us dying of fucking boredom up here, they’re starving us to death. It’s either pizza or room service.” He paused as Skids said something that couldn’t be heard on the other end of the line. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds good, man. Naw, I trust Reflash to hook us up. Yep, still the same place. Alright, alright, cool.” He ended the call and said, “Get a call from the lobby and your dumb ass can go down and pick it up,” he told Narcos.

“Sweet,” Narcos declared and I went back to my sightless staring out the gauzy curtains at the city street below. We were less than seven blocks from the courthouse, in a dumpy old Radisson that was about a decade late for any kind of upgrade. The decor still mostly out of the eighties. It was clean, however, and the bed seemed like it would be comfortable enough from when I sat on it.

We were in a suite, so there was a small living room area in addition to the bedroom, giving me a modicum of privacy from the rough cut undercover detectives if I so wished it. They’d apparently volunteered for this detail, although I had to believe that it was more that Tony had asked it of them.

“You’re bugging the shit out of me, princess. Come sit down,” Narcos called out and I turned around again.

“Leave her alone, Narc. She’s having a rough day, or can’t you tell?”

“Eh, Youngblood’s gonna be fine, it ain’t his first rodeo. Now seriously, c’mere and sit down, play a round of cards, try and take your mind off it.”

I sighed and went over. I’d left my high heels by the window and instead padded across the tired but still serviceable carpet in my stocking feet.

“Atta girl,” Narcos said dryly.

“You always such a condescending ass?” I asked and Driller choked on the sip of Coke he’d taken out of the red and silver can.

Narcos laughed, “Usually.”

“Well knock it off, it’s annoying and thoroughly unwelcoming and unattractive.”

“Well shit, howdy! Listen to you!”

“She’s right, man. Reel it in,” Driller said.

I sighed and closed my eyes and apologized, “Sorry.”

“Nah, you do you, sweetheart,” Driller said.

“What’re you playing, anyways?”

“Game called Spite and Malice. It’s a two player or I’d deal you in.”

“How does it work?” I asked.

The guys exchanged a look and Narcos gave a nod and said, “Okay, alright, so each player gets a stack of twenty cards each, these are your play off piles. Then you get five cards to your hand and…” he explained while I tried valiantly to follow along, my nerves slowly blackening and curling, frying to a crisp with every tick of the second hand on the clock above us.

By the time he was done explaining the rules of the game and the two of them showed me by example how to play, Driller’s phone decided to vibrate nearly off the table. The sudden sound had me nearly jumping out of my skin and he picked it up, looking over the screen.

“Food, go grab it,” he ordered and Narcos got up, saluting Driller and going to the room’s door. We sat in silence for half a heartbeat and Driller said, “You’re gonna have to forgive my partner. He’s been under for so long that every time he comes back up for air like this, it’s like he doesn’t know how to come back from it all the way…”

“Isn’t that a sign that he should probably quit?” I asked.

Driller nodded slowly and said, “Yeah. Yeah it probably is, but if you knew how much time and effort we had wrapped up in this investigation, you probably wouldn’t be so quick to judge on that.”

“Probably not,” I agreed and pushed to my feet. I wandered back over to the window and looked down to the street, watching the roofs of cars pass by, eyeing the crowns of people’s heads, all of them oblivious that anyone was up here watching.

What I wouldn’t give to be anonymous like any one of them again…

“Should stop worrying, it’s not going to help them catch the bad guy any faster,” he said and scraped up the cards, stacking the two decks they were using together in a big pile and setting it aside.

We stared at each other for what must have been several minutes, neither speaking, neither breaking our gaze first. The door opened and Narcos ducked in with a couple of takeout bags with three Styrofoam takeout clamshells in them each.

“A lot of food for three people,” I observed and the two of them exchanged a look and started laughing.

“You’ve never seen us eat,” Narcos said and set them down at the table, “Now will you please get away from that window. You’re making me jumpy.”

“Why?”

“Undercover narcotics, remember?”

I frowned, “I don’t follow.”

“Snipers,” Driller explained, untying the top of one bag. I turned back to the window startled and backed away from it.

“Doubt we have to worry about ‘em in your case,” Narcos said, “But better safe than sorry.”

I frowned and still restless, went back to the table to eat. The men went through the bags and found some of the thick paper plates and packs of napkins and cutlery in the bottom of one. They dished up and I waited, seeing as I wasn’t really hungry in the first place.

When they began to eat, I helped myself, Narcos stabbing his fork in the direction of one of the containers, “Grab a crab bomb while they’re still warm.”

“Do it,” Driller said around a mouthful of greens, “Reflash makes some of the best damn crab cakes in Maryland.”

I took one as instructed and tried it. It really was the best I’d ever tasted, and weirdly, just like that, it was as if peace had been made… I didn’t understand it, and I honestly didn’t want to. I just wanted the time to pass by and for Tony to call and for everything to be okay, again… except I knew it wouldn’t. Things would never, ever, really be totally okay again but it had the potential to come close.

“You know it ain’t his first rodeo, right?” Driller asked.

“What? Oh, I know,” I said when I’d fully caught up to what he’d said.

“Ain’t gonna be his last, either, chick. Best get used to this feeling.”

I nodded and sucked it up, because I had to. They were right, this wouldn’t be the last time I was stuck somewhere worrying about him, but this would be the worst time. Why would this be the worst? Because I was the reason he was out there and in some kind of danger. That’s what made this somehow worse.

“You try hooking in to the hotel Wi-Fi?” Driller asked and I shook my head.

“It’s pretty good.”

“I figured you wouldn’t want me using electronics.”

“Not to post to social media and shit where you are, but you got Netflix or some shit on your phone, right?” Narcos said.

“Yes, I mean I have it on my tablet.”

“Good deal, fire it up, see if there’s something the three of us can deal with. It’ll help kill time.”

“Okay.”

So that’s what we ended up doing, huddling around the table watching episodes of Penny Dreadful on my too-small screen in order to while away the hours, until my constant worry wouldn’t have me sit still anymore, at which point I locked myself into the bathroom and took a long, hot shower. I blow dried my hair when I got out, which always took forever, but gave me something to at least do.

When I stepped out, the guys laughed at something on the screen and I said, “I’m going to try and go to bed.”

“Probably a good idea,” Driller agreed. “You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Yeah,” Narcos nodded, looking me over in one of Tony’s shirts. I don’t know why I’d selected it over any of my actual pajamas, but I had, and now I felt a bit exposed.

“Night,” Driller grunted.

“Want the tablet back?” Narcos asked.

“No, you guys keep watching.”

“Thanks.”

“Welcome,” and with that I went and crawled into the king sized bed to stare at the ceiling wondering, why hadn’t he called?