Page 26 of Brage & Dinah

Tuesday @2

Hurry the fuck up.

He scrolled back three times and read old messages. The short messages continued to be filled with impatience and anger. From both T and Dinah—who seemed to disappoint T with her lack of replies in the texts.

Nothing pointed at what she was doing here, except that T wanted info. Information he assumed was about Slag.

Looking at her other texts, he found old ones from someone who went by B who seemed to know her on a personal level and asked for money. There were also current ones by Monica regarding work requirements at The Fire Ring. Curious why a woman wouldn't have more texts, he looked through her pictures.

There were only two photos. One of the rental house she lived in and one of an elk standing in the middle of a river. He peered closer at the phone. The scenery different than in Portland, he went off all the pine trees along the bank as somewhere in Idaho considering her relationship with the Moroad member.

He spent the next half hour going through her phone. In the morning, he'd hand over the cell to Elling, Slag's go-to for anything that had to do with technology and research and find out who belonged to the two phone numbers she called the most.

Closing his eyes, he let the tension ease from his body. Times like tonight, he had an urge to see his family. His sister, Norah, was in Seattle, and he was lucky enough to see her often when the Portland Chapter made their run up into Washington. His older sister, Lacey, and parents were in Norway. It'd been ten years since he'd crossed the sea. While phone calls were nice, he'd been getting the feeling from Lacey that she was worried about their parents getting older.

Dinah gasped. He opened his eyes and watched her sit up. She breathed heavily as if waking from a bad dream. In the dark, she had yet to see him in the room.

"Who the hell are you?" he whispered.

She stilled. "Can I leave?"

"No."

She rolled and faced the wall, pulling the blanket tightly around her. He couldn't help but admire her strength. Most women would resort to tears and begging. She hadn't reached that level of desperation yet, and he wondered what in her past made her strong.

He sat in the chair, resting while his mind refused to shut off. It was early morning before he finally heard Dinah's breathing slow and deepen, signaling that she'd finally dozed off.

Only then had he let himself sleep.

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