15
“Hogan!” Davey screamed at the top of her lungs. “You’re going to be late, kiddo. Hurry up!”
Remembering she hadn’t packed a lunch for him, Davey yanked opened the fridge and hurriedly scanned the shelves for a suitable noontime meal for a teenage boy, but came up empty. Hearing a creak from the staircase, she guiltily spun around but was surprised to see it was Ethan—and he was grinning from ear to ear.
Davey raised an eyebrow. “Wow, someone sure is chipper this morning.”
“I dreamed last night,” he announced cheerily.
“I thought you didn’t sleep.”
“I don’t,” he agreed. Sliding his arms around her from behind, he kissed the side of her head. “But…I slept last night, and it was wonderful.”
“That’s odd,” Davey said, struggling to hide her worried expression. She hated to be a killjoy, but couldn’t ignore the weird feeling she got. Taking into consideration everything that had happened with Ethan over the past few days, the timing of such an unexpected evolution was questionable, if not downright alarming.
“No,” he insisted, not losing his smile. “It was wonderful.”
Falling silent, Davey chewed her lip. It wasn’t worth arguing over or ruining his good mood.
“Stop worrying,” Ethan urged, giving her a little squeeze. “Hogan didn’t break me.”
Turning into his arms, she hugged him back. “I know I worry too much. But I can’t lose you again.”
“You’ll never lose me, Davey.”
On the verge of tears, she didn’t trust her voice not to crack if she spoke. Instead of answering, she simply held him tighter.
Hogan cleared his throat from the kitchen doorway. “I’m going to be late again.”
“Are you wearing shoes?” Davey asked without looking up.
“Shit,” Hogan muttered. A moment later, his heavy footsteps were pounding back up the stairs.
In Hogan’s absence, Ethan took the opportunity to kiss her. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“Right.” Davey pulled herself from his grasp. Discreetly wiping her eyes, she grabbed her purse and handed Hogan ten dollars as soon as he’d rounded the corner once more. “Use this to buy your lunch today.”
“Thanks.” He stared at the bill thoughtfully. “So, I was wondering something.”
Davey sniffed and patted her cheeks, hoping her face wasn’t flushed. The last thing she wanted was to get Hogan worked up because of her overblown emotions. “What’s that?” she asked.
But Hogan was looking at Ethan. “How old were you when you had your car accident?”
“Twenty-two,” he answered easily.
“Wow.” Hogan grinned. “Davey, you’re totally robbing the cradle huh?”
Heat flooded every inch of her face, and she thumped her brother in the shoulder. “That doesn’t count, you little shit. It’s not like he was frozen in time.” She turned to Ethan, expecting some help. “Show him the video. Let’s see who’s really the pervert.”
Wearing an amused smile, Ethan shook his head. “That’s a terrible idea.”
Hogan’s ears perked. “What video?”
Ugh. Damn it. Recovering from the indignation over her brother’s unwarranted accusation, Davey remembered the other big revelation she’d witnessed in that video—their father’s true identity.
“Never mind,” she said quickly. “Go get in the car.”
“Is Ethan taking me?”
“Yes.”
“Cool!”
“He’s taking me to work too.”
“Oh,” Hogan said with significantly less enthusiasm.
Davey frowned. “Gee, thanks.”
Ethan winced. “About that.”
“Of course,” Davey said, suddenly feeling ill. How could she have forgotten? Guilty of criminal trespassing and theft, setting foot inside of a Global Cures facility would mean being arrested on site.
“Let me smooth things over,” Ethan said. “Now that Drekker has been captured, I’m in my brother’s good graces, and Aaron will have no trouble getting your job reinstated.”
Davey nodded, but before she could utter a verbal reply, her cell phone rang. It was Lana. Giving Hogan a quick hug goodbye, she answered the call. Davey could tell something was wrong as soon as she answered. Her best friend’s voice was strained and shrill.
“I just got off the phone with Travis. He said you dumped him, stole from the company, and now you’ve been fired? Davey, what the hell is going on?”
“Lana, calm down. I’m okay, and everything is fine. Travis didn’t tell you the whole story.”
“He said Ethan shattered his arm.”
Gritting her teeth, Davey squeezed the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “Let’s meet for lunch. I’ll explain as much as I can.”
“Travis is going to the police. He wants you to call him.”
“Lana, will you just meet me? Don’t jump to conclusions.”
“Okay,” she agreed hesitantly. “But I’m not going to Arnie’s. That place is disgusting.”
Davey gave a little laugh of relief. “We won’t go to Arnie’s.”
“Okay, tell me where to meet you.”
Giving her an address, Davey hung up and dashed to the front door. Luckily, Ethan and Hogan were still in the driveway. “Wait up!” she called. “I’m going to need a ride after all.”
Rolling his eyes, Hogan gathered his backpack and started to get out, yielding the front seat to Davey, but she stopped him. “Stay there. Go ahead and enjoy your bromance with my boyfriend.”
∞∞∞
“Your brother Aaron, he’s different, isn’t he?” Davey asked as soon as Hogan had been dropped off at Welling and St. Aire. “It seemed like he recognized you—like he believes you’re really Seth.”
“Aaron has always been more accepting than Ezra. He’s never treated me like an animal—even when my memories were completely absent.”
Musing the implications of Ethan’s claims, Davey fell into a pensive silence and stared out the window for several quiet miles. Finally, she gave voice to the thing weighing on her mind. “Will he let you stay here with us, Ethan? Can things be like they were before?”
“I would like that.” Reaching over, he took her hand in his. “But have you really thought it through? Maybe you don’t want things to be the same.” Frowning, he paused as if searching for the right words to get his point across. “Davey, you’re older now. It’s okay to want something different.”
Despite his efforts, Davey stared at him with blatant confusion. “What are you saying?”
Ethan sighed. “I may appear human. And by design, I can do a lot of things, but I can’t give you a family.”
“Oh, Ethan.” She squeezed his hand. Extraordinary origins aside, the universe couldn’t possibly have orchestrated a better guy for her. “You and Hogan are my family. But if there comes a time when we want more, we can adopt.”
“You think someone would give me a kid?”
She barked a short laugh and shrugged. “They gave me Hogan.”
Ethan grinned. “That’s reassuring.”
After maneuvering the car into a parking spot in front of a cozy little shop that sold coffee and sandwiches, he asked, “What time should I pick you up?”
Davey stepped out onto the curb and shook her head. “You don’t have to. Lana will give me a ride home from here.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll be back at TruGreen Labs tomorrow, Davey. I promise.”
Davey flashed a warm smile. “Thank you, Ethan.”
She stood on the sidewalk, watching him drive down the narrow side street until the all-black Charger turned a corner and disappeared from sight. Then Davey squared her shoulders and walked into the Cool Bean Bistro. She spotted Lana almost right away. Seated at tiny round table tucked in the far corner, her best friend sat facing the door, gorgeous features furrowed with worry. Her shiny black curls glistened in the sunlight that filtered through the bistro’s tall, wide windows. Looking up from her cell phone, she spotted Davey and smiled, but the expression faltered before reaching full bloom. Taking a preparing breath, Davey walked over to the table. She was fully committed to being as honest as possible, with the caveat of not revealing anything that might endanger her friend’s well-being.
Standing up from her chair, Lana embraced Davey, and she returned the gesture with equal affection. When they parted, Lana kept ahold of Davey’s right hand and squeezed it. “A few days ago, you loved your job and were considering moving in with Travis. Now you two have broken up? Please tell me what’s going on.”
Davey took a seat and guided Lana to do the same. The waitress appeared, stalling the inevitable for just a bit longer as the girls placed an order for two espressos.
“Ethan’s back,” Davey blurted out after the waitress had gone. “I tried to be faithful while I sorted things out in my head, but I cheated. I cheated on Travis with Ethan.”
Lana looked completely horrified. “Oh, Davey, how could you?”
The crushing weight of renewed guilt settled on Davey’s chest. It was like high school all over again where she was the selfish girl only capable of leaving destruction in her wake. “Don’t look at me like that, Lana,” she begged. “Please try to understand. I was so angry when I met Ethan all those years ago. I was alone and afraid of feeling anything good, but being with Ethan changed everything. He changed my life. It used to be that I couldn’t open up to anyone, and the only meaningful relationship in my life was with my five-year-old brother. Being with Ethan made me feel like a real person. He was my first love. My true love.” Taking a shaky breath, Davey rushed on. “And those feelings just don’t go away. I loved Travis. Part of me may even always love him, but we were over from the moment Ethan came back into my life. I’m so sorry I hurt Travis. I wish I had done things differently, and I really should have been more honest from the beginning.”
“Did you tell Travis any of this? Because the guy I talked to is completely mystified as to why the girl he was head over heels in love with suddenly dumped him for some jerk who walked out on her five years ago.”
Davey gritted her teeth. “Ethan didn’t walk out on me. He was given a new assignment by the people he works for. He had to leave.”
“But without saying goodbye?” Lana threw her hands up in disgust. “For five years, you never got a single phone or a text. I was there, Davey. When he left, it almost destroyed you.”
“Ethan wasn’t given much of a choice in the matter,” she whispered. “He was hurting too.”
Lana’s expression softened as she sighed. “So, how did Travis end up with a broken arm? Did Ethan really do that to him?”
“Travis got really angry when he found out who Ethan really was. I’ve never seen him so furious.” Davey paused. “He hit me. Hard. Ethan was there when it happened, and he lost his temper. He shouldn’t have done that to Travis. He knows it. But Travis is hardly free from blame.”
“He hit you,” Lana repeated. Her face darkened. “Why, that piece of shit.” Shaking her head, she looked away. “You were right,” she admitted. “Travis didn’t give me the whole story. I’m sorry for doubting you.” When Lana finally made eye contact again, the shame she felt was evident. “And I’m sorry for doubting Ethan. I should have known better. That guy was always so in love with you.”
“It’s okay.” Reaching across the table, Davey took her friend’s hand again. “There were times when I doubted Ethan too.”
“Well, that makes us both stupid,” Lana said with a little sniff. She wiped the corner of her eye. “He’s a keeper.”
Davey smiled. “I know,” she said.
∞∞∞
Davey called the repair shop and, after learning it would take a full two weeks for the damages to her car to be repaired, she decided to get a rental. Lana was kind enough to take her to the airport where brief negotiations secured a blue Volkswagen for the next fourteen days. The little sedan cornered nothing like the wrecked M2, but until Ethan was successful in getting Davey reinstated at TruGreen Labs, the only place she would be driving was to Welling and St. Aire to drop her kid brother off at school. Besides, the upcharge in price to rent any of the fancier luxury models was borderline insane.
Double-checking the time, Davey sent a text to Ethan to let him know she’d be able to collect Hogan after school and then drove to the private academy, crossing her fingers she was early enough to garner a favorable position in the parent pick-up/drop-off line. Even after a jostle with an over-made suburban mom with a face Botox-ed beyond recognition to get a better position, Davey still had to wait for over an hour. But that was partly because Hogan had opted to stay after class and make copies of his notes for a cute classmate. Davey didn’t have the heart to reprimand him. She was just happy he was being a normal kid and making friends. That good mood was only slightly dampened when Botox face gave her a disapproving stare down as she circled back through the line-up. Ten years ago, Davey would have promptly answered the woman’s contempt with a middle finger. Today, she simply bared her teeth in a politely fake smile.
Affected by a moderate amount of guilt as she pulled into the Big Burger Way to pick up dinner, Hogan had soon distracted her, insisting on ordering a Sasquatch Double with extra cheese for Ethan.
“Let me guess,” she said, laughing. “If Ethan doesn’t eat this monstrosity, then this incredibly unhealthy pile of grease and cheese is going to find a way onto your plate as a midnight snack.”
Hogan wrinkled his nose and stared at her thoughtfully. “I’ll split it with you.”
“Deal,” Davey said, agreeing without hesitation.
But when dinnertime had come and gone with still no word from Ethan, she found herself too worried to eat. Davey stood at the counter, well away from where Hogan was watching television in the dining room, and tried Ethan’s cell for the fifth time. After seven agonizing rings, the call went to voicemail.
Slamming the phone against the counter, Davey swore. Something was wrong. Considering the countless frightening possibilities of what that could be was a useless, ulcer-inducing endeavor, so Davey grabbed the car keys instead. Instructing Hogan to deadbolt the door and stay inside, she jumped into the Volkswagen and peeled out of her own driveway fast enough to leave tire treads on the concrete.
If anyone had answers to Ethan’s whereabouts, it would be Aaron Eleazar, the acting commander of Global Cure’s military sector. Of course, her chances of getting past multiple security checkpoints might have been slim, but she had to try. Losing Ethan again was not an option.
She was still about ten miles from base when her cell phone rang. Davey’s heart immediately skipped a beat, lurching forward with hope, until the name on the display registered.
Travis Kane.
With trembling fingers, she reached for the phone and answered. “Hello?”
“Davey,” Travis said in hurried, strained whisper. “I’ve made a terrible mistake.”
“Travis, I can’t do this right now. I know there’s more we need to say to each other. I owe you an explanation—and so much more. But I can’t right now, Travis. Please understand.”
“No, Davey, you need to understand. I just—” his words broke off with a soft whimper. “I just wanted to get him away from you,” he finally said.
What sounded like a muffled scream and the crash of heavy equipment falling to the floor echoed in the background. “Travis,” Davey called in a voice loud with concern. “What’s happening?”
His reply turned her blood cold.
“He’s killing everyone.”
“What?”
“Don’t come here, Davey. You’re going to see it on the news, and you’re going to think you can help. But that is exactly what he wants. Do not come here.”
“Travis!”
“Don’t come, Davey,” he repeated. And then the line went dead.