Page 117 of Indigo Sky

"You too."

He reached out, gripped the back of my neck, and said, "I love you, brother."

My throat felt thick and choked as my eye met his.Jesus, fuck, don't die. "I love you too."

"All right. Go. Through that door. Should be open.Quiet, Revan. Like a fuckin' mouse." Then, hunched over, he hurried away, his boots softly crunching over the gravel.

Quiet, Revan.

I blew out a heavy breath and imagined every mystery and suspense movie I'd ever seen. I gripped the gun in both hands and crept forward, keeping my head down and out of the light as I reached the side door. As Nate had suspected, it was unlocked, but I liked that less than my easy entry.

He knows I'm coming.

But would he count on Nate being with me? I doubted it. As far as Donny was concerned, Nate's and my friendship was over. He'd seen the murderous look in my eye, and he'd known where I was heading, but he didn't know what had transpired between us.

I stepped into the shop, careful to not let the door slam shut behind me. Everywhere I looked was darkness. I knelt beside the door, out of the light shining through the window, and I listened. The refrigerator in the break room whirred, the clock in the waiting area ticked, and somewhere, farther in the shop, came the tinny, crackling sound of Roy's old speaker.

"Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin' Clementine …"

The whistling in my dreams. That tune. Fuck.

I had known I knew the song. I had heard it almost constantly while working under Roy's weathered gaze.

God, what the hell, Donny?

What the fuck happened to you?

Logic told me to follow the music, that I'd find what I was looking for wherever it came from, but that horrible dread told me to run, to wait for the cops, to wait for someone who was better equipped for something like this.

But I’d promised Kate. I had sworn I'd protect her. I had sworn I wouldn't let anything happen to her. I had to show her I was a man of my word. I had to try, or I wouldn't forgive myself.

“I would cease to fuckingexistif I let something happen to you.”

It had been a little overly dramatic at the time, but now, faced with the possibility, I wasn’t sure how I’d go on. How I’d live with the guilt, the pain.

Stop thinking about it and go.

I pushed forward, tiptoeing over the linoleum floor I hadn’t seen in years. Keeping my eye on the shadows, waiting for any shifts or changes in the darkness and light.

I came to the break room. The door was closed, and I pressed my ear to the steel. If someone was breathing inside, they didn’t make themselves known. I tried the knob, felt it give beneath my palm, and turned. I pushed it open and swung the gun inside, but the room was empty.

Shit.

“Nate! Hey, man,” I heard Donny say from somewhere in the shop.

“The hell are you doing, sitting alone in the office? In the fuckin’ dark?”

The office. He was in the office. Kate wasn’t with him. She was somewhere else.

“Didn’t sleep much last night,” Donny replied sheepishly. “I just closed my eyes for a couple of minutes, and then—hey, what time is it?”

Nate was quiet for a second, then said, “It’s almost eleven thirty, bro.”

I ran quickly through the other places she could be. There was a car on the lift. She could be in the trunk, in the back seat. There was a small cellar—about ten-by-ten feet, used for storage—a cleaning closet, and a shed out back.

“Wow, shit, I gotta get going,” Donny said, followed by a loud yawn. “What the hell happened to you, by the way? You look like shit.”

Nate huffed a laugh. “Fuckin’ Revan, man. Psycho attacked me out of fuckin’ nowhere today.”

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