Lina 43
I looked at Denny, who nodded and motioned for me to proceed. I told them what happened, trying to piece it all together in my mind as I went. They listened with stoic faces, not flinching once as I described our ordeal. As I neared the end of the story, angry tears flowed from my eyes.
“Do not cry. All will be okay,” he said, showing the age that his twenty-something face didn’t. “I may have found an ally for us.”
“You found someone who can help us? Who?” I asked, daring to hope against hope.
“Curious thing about that, she hasn’t agreed to it yet. But I’m sure Robin is this close,” he said, holding his thumb and pointer finger half an inch apart, “to agreeing to help us. She doesn’t like to admit it, but she has a sentimental streak.”
“Robin?” I asked him, the name was familiar.
“Life,” Denny answered. “Tori’s counterpart.”
“You think she’s gonna help us?”
“I think it’s in her nature to do so.”
“Don’t worry, honey. Telor is fine,” Cheyenne said, reaching across the table and rubbing my hand. It didn’t feel like skin-on-skin contact. It felt more like warm, soft air caressing my hand and it calmed me slightly.
I just nodded, not really trusting my voice. They didn’t speak either. We sat in a tension-filled silence for what seemed like hours.
Ring, ring, ring.
Three heads turned toward the phone sitting on the table. My breath hitched in my chest painfully. With a shaky hand, I reached for Telor’s phone and checked the screen. It was a picture of me sleeping. It should have been creepy, but it wasn’t. It just made me realize how much I really did love him. I looked at Denny for permission to answer. He hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly. Pressing the talk button, I held the phone to my ear, almost forgetting to speak.
“Hello?” I whispered in a breathless voice. I wasn’t even sure if the caller could hear me so I said it again, slightly louder. “Hello?”
“Please tell me you’re with Denny,” he asked, exhaling loudly. The sound of the wind and his heaving breaths echoed around his words. Was he running somewhere? “Lina! Answer me. Are you with Denny?”
“Yes. Denny and Cheyenne are here,” I said, and despite my best efforts not to, I started to cry once again.
“Let me talk to him.”
He was being so curt with me, and it broke my heart. I wordlessly handed the phone to Denny.
The conversation seemed to be just as formal as ours had been—a couple yeses and a goodbye.
“Lina, we’re going to go to my and Telor’s apartment,” he said, pulling me out of the booth with him. “We need to talk about things and a public place is probably not the best place for such conversations. Cheyenne, will you do me a favor and tell Robin that I need to see her, now?”
Cheyenne nodded, turning away, and Denny let out a defeated sigh. “And then see if you can get Sera to show her face also.”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “Are you sure?”
“Not at all. Now go. Quickly.”
Nodding, she waved at us and dissolved into thin air. He pulled me out the door and toward the snow-covered parking lot. He stopped at the passenger side door of a midnight blue Porsche Panamera, and opened the door for me. He drove. Not only did he just drive, but he had his own car, his own very, very expensive car. A small laugh escaped my mouth, followed by another louder, more hysterical one.
“Lina, I understand this little mental breakdown you are having right now, truly I do. But let’s do it in the car, shall we? Robin—Life—will be at my place soon,” he said, as I was rudely pushed into the passenger’s seat.
Denny walked around the front of the car to the driver’s side. He started the car immediately and pulled out of his parking spot and onto the road. He weaved in and out of traffic effortlessly. He headed toward downtown on Rose Street, cutting over to Limestone. He pulled into a parking garage and drove to the top, parking in a reserved spot directly next to the elevator.
He was out of the car and to my side before I even got my seatbelt unbuckled. He quickly opened my door and led me to the elevator, pushing the button for the lobby. When the doors opened, he ushered me through a beautifully decorated lobby and to a polished marble front desk. The couple of times Telor had brought me here, we came in through the back.
“I’m expecting a guest. Her name is Robin, and she should be here any minute. Will you give her an access card for the elevator and send her up upon arrival?” he asked the attendant.
“Absolutely, Mr. Smith,” he said, jotting the instructions down on a Post-it.
“Would you happen to know if Mr. Conway is in?” he asked, pausing midway to the interior elevator. The attendant looked slightly uncomfortable, his eyes flicking everywhere in the room except to Denny.
“Mr. Conway was—is—in, yes. He, er, arrived about five minutes ago,” he said, furiously clicking his pen and avoiding Denny’s gaze. Denny cleared his throat and continued to stare at the poor man. “He was a little worse for the wear and…needed some assistance.”
“Thank you. You have been a huge help,” Denny said, and continued to pull me to the elevator. Pull was a loose term. He practically dragged me. My body had stopped working, and I had started laughing again.
Telor was hurt. So hurt, in fact, that he needed help getting to his apartment. Oh, my God. Tori must have decided that if she couldn’t take me then she would take him instead. I was really going to lose him. Another round of hysterical laughing came from my mouth along with choking sobs.
The elevator stopped with a ding, and the doors opened. I followed Denny into the entry room. He stopped and tugged me around to face him, which I was embarrassed to say made me laugh and cry even harder. He bent down slightly to look me in the eyes, and then he slapped me hard across the face.
“Lina. You need to pull yourself together. Not for you, but for Telor. He is in that room, and he is hurt. It’s been a long time since he has felt physical pain like this, and chances are, he’s not doing very well with it. Now, can you do this, or do you need to wait out here?” he asked.
His words were mean, but his voice was conversational. He’d slapped me. He had actually slapped me! I’d never been slapped like that before. I’d seen it done in movies before and always thought it was a bit extreme, but I could see its effectiveness now. I was still upset, but not the blubbering mess I had just been.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I could do this—for Telor. I loved him; I could be strong for him. He would do it for me. Get your shit together, Lina. I took one last breath before I answered Denny.
“I can do this,” I said in a clear strong voice, nodding to him. He nodded back once and led the way into the sitting room.
It looked like someone had ransacked it. Lamps and tables were strewn across the room. A trail of reddish brown had dripped onto the floor. We followed it like the yellow brick road down the hallway and into Telor’s bedroom. The blankets from the bed were pulled off the far side.
The only visible part of Telor was a shock of black hair against the yellow sheets. Surprising even myself, I sprinted to his side of the bed and fell to my knees in front of him. He had the comforter balled up against his stomach. His breaths were coming out short and shallow. I ran a hand down the side of his face. His eyes cracked open a bit and a content sigh blew through his bloody lips.
They moved a little as he tried to say something. I leaned my head close to him, straining to hear his barely-there voice.
“I love you,” he whispered, before he let out a final breath and sagged against the bed.