Page 2 of Out of Nowhere

“Oh, that’s another thing! She hasn’t gone in months. When he thought she was attending classes, she’d been spending time with the meth head.”

Dex chilled at his next thought. “Was she taking meth?”

“We don’t know yet. She says she hasn’t, but can we believe her?” Bea sounded bitter, and Dex couldn’t blame her.

“What happens now?”

“Garfield has pulled some strings and gotten her into a marvelous program at a place in Fresno for mothers-to-be who are going through psychological issues. It’s incredibly expensive, and he had to contact an old friend and practically beg to get her in. She’s going to have to stay there until the baby is born, but they have therapists and physicians in-house, and she’ll have herchoice of creative classes and recreation there. Tom’s flying to California with her and getting her settled this weekend.”

“That’s incredibly considerate of Garfield,” Dex said. Garfield was Bea’s current, and hopefully final, husband, a much older man who had once been her employer. Garfield Sommerton III was a wealthy and influential banker and an okay guy, Dex supposed. Just terribly pretentious. He and Dex’s mother lived on a large property just outside of Boulder.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Dex asked.

“No. There’s nothing any of us can do but hope this place can do something for her before the baby is born. It’s called Horizon. I’ll text you the information. There are only certain times Anna can talk on the phone, as they have strict rules.” A click sounded on the line. “Oh, Janet from the garden club is calling. I have to go. Don’t forget to call Penelope. Ciao!”

The line disconnected.

Dex set his cell phone on the desk and slumped back in his office chair.

A tap on the door had him swiveling the chair in that direction.

Sean Murphy, an ex-police officer turned security guard, stood in the doorway. At five-foot-seven-inches, he was a cute ginger twink with expert shooting and judo skills. Parking his ass on the corner of Dex’s desk, he said, “Everything okay? You looked freaked out a minute ago. Saint bet me twenty that you have an STD.”

Loudly, because Dex could hear Saint laughing in the next room, he said, “If I did, I’d make sure it landed on his toothbrush!”

Since the night he went with his coworkers to a gay club—essentially coming out of the closet to them—they’d been ribbing him about the hot guy he’d been dancing with and how much sex he must be getting these days. It was all in fun, as they were aware that Dex was ababy gay, as Colt liked to put it.And, if he were honest, Dex would admit that he enjoyed the ribbing. It almost made him feel like someone outgoing enough to indiscriminately sleep around. But in reality, he hadn’t seen that guy since that night, or any guy, for that matter.Except for the guy he wanted. He saw him all the time, but there wasn’t much hope there.

Sean laughed and changed the subject. “Still can’t make that virtual assistant work right, can you?”

“Gary’s just got a few kinks,” Dex muttered.

“I’ll say, and not the good kind, either.” Sean grinned. “Why the hell do you call itGary, anyway?”

Dex toyed with a pencil, mind still on his sister’s troubles. “I named him after a guy I had a crush on in high school. He was a baseball player and wouldn’t have given me the time of day even if he were gay, which I’m pretty sure he wasn’t, judging from the number of girls he dated.”

“And now, as your virtual assistant, it’s kind of like he’s your slave—ha! That’s funny,” Sean said, chuckling. He stood and stretched. “Well, tell him if he doesn’t start doing things right, we’ll toss him out the window and give Alexa a try.”

“Jase won’t let you do that. He doesn’t trust something made by a big corporation. Why do you think he asked me to make one?”

“Ah, who knows? I don’t get why anyone would want a stupid virtual assistant in the first place. Pretty soon, technology’s gonna be wiping our asses for us.”

Dex shrugged, frustrated that he couldn’t get Gary to work correctly and not wanting to think about it.

“What, you’re not gonna argue with me? Tell me all the great things technology’s doing for mankind, blah blah blah?” When Dex didn’t answer, Sean sighed. “Your mother giving you shit again?”

Dex shook his head. “No. It’s my sister. She’s stopped going to school and is obsessing over a drug addict who got her pregnant.”

Everyone at Falcon Security knew about what happened with Anna. They couldn’tnotknow. Anna had had a wall full of photos of West he hadn’t known she’d taken taped to her wall at her apartment and what amounted to his name tattooed on her right breast. She was lucky West hadn’t pressed charges against her.

“Sorry to hear about that, man,” Sean said. He patted Dex on the shoulder. “Let me know if I can do anything for you.”

“Hey, Sean,” Dex called to him as he started for the door. “Tell Jase I went to the climbing gym, okay? I’ll see you guys at dinner.” He was done trying to work for the day. He needed to sweat off some stress.

“Sure, man. Will do.”

When Dex had lived in New York City, he’d frequently driven the hour and a half to New Bearn Park with friends to climb boulders or do some top-roping. Now that he lived on the North Carolina coast, he was looking at a six-hour drive one way to the nearest state park. Fortunately, there was a climbing gym in Redding. Bouldering in a gym wasn’t the same as doing it outdoors, but it was still fun and it kept his skills honed. An added bonus was it required significantly less gear. And it was better than indulging in his other hobby—gaming—which didn’t give him any exercise at all.

Summit Climbing Gym was small enough for Dex to know the owner and workers there by name, but large enough to have a variety of climbing walls as well as a large exercise room.

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