Page 42 of Looking Grimm

I didn’t see Ripley’s face, but I heard the incredulity in his voice as he asked, “And then you came backhere?” He made a scoffing sound. “Prat.”

Anger sparked like a match struck inside me. “Shut the fuck up, Ripley,” I snapped. “You don’t get it.”

Crossing his bony arms, Ripley leaned against the wall mirror. “By all means, explain.”

“He loves me,” I said. That thought had survived the drinking and hours of pointless interrogation. It rattled around in my brain like spare change, a nuisance I wanted to be rid of.

Ripley didn’t respond while I mulled it over, only to arrive at the same unanswered question I had a dozen times already.

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’m not the one shagging you.”

“Can’t you say fucking like a normal person?” I grumbled.

An impish smile curved Ripley’s lips. “I imagine Nicholas thinks you’re making love.”

“Gross.” I shuddered.

“Don’t be such a child.” Ripley chuckled. Still slouching against the wall, he continued. “Well, you know my advice—”

“Dump all my bullshit and baggage and watch it buryhim?” I peered up at him, nearly blinded by the vanity light over his head. It made his skin as pale as paper and his hair as slick and dark as spilled oil.

“So dramatic.” He flapped his hand. “But yes. It’s all you can do.”

“I don’t wanna lose him, Rip.”

How many times had I thought that? Even said it? Yet it felt like a foregone conclusion. Everyone left. Everyone died.

“All the more reason to pin him down with the oppressive weight of your burdens,” Ripley quipped. “Entrapment is as valid a strategy as any.”

“Not funny.” I pushed off the floor and used the counter’s edge to walk myself to the sink and turn on the faucet. I needed a shower but would settle for rinsing the taste of vomit out of my mouth and splashing some water on my face.

Cupping my hands under the stream, I wet my cheeks and raked through my hair before daring a peek in the massive wall mirror.

It didn’t help to add “soggy” to the list of descriptors for what I saw staring back at me. I looked as pale, and skinny, and pathetic as I felt. I couldn’t remember the last full meal I ate or the last time I slept through the night. I couldn’t keep going like this, but I couldn’t stop with the Capitol hot on my ass and two hostages in the adjoining room.

Ripley must have been thinking similarly because he said, “Speaking of burdens, what say we rid ourselves of a couple?”

I shook my head. This was my problem. My responsibility. I’d troubled Ripley enough and jeopardized his and Maggie’s safety, most recently for the sake of somecheap booze. If I valued Nash enough to keep him clear of my troubles, then I owed Ripley the same courtesy.

“I’ll take them,” I said.

“Where?”

Somewhere else wasn’t a good enough answer, but neither was what I settled to say. “I guess I’ll just drive.”

“Wait till dark, at least.” Ripley slid off the counter. “To get them out of the building.”

The thought of waiting another minute made my skin itch. I wanted this over with so badly I could hardly stand it, but I couldn’t deny his logic.

“Fine.” My abrupt nod made my brain rattle. “Can we hose them off or something before then? If I’m cooped up in the car with their stench, I’ll lose it for sure.”

Dragging the Everett twins into the tub shower and blasting them with cold water should have been another opportunity to pepper them with questions, but I was lying in bed trying to shake my hangover headache and the queasy feeling sloshing around in my stomach.

By the time the sun set, I’d recovered as much as possible, but not nearly enough. I pulled the Bronco around to the side of the hotel building and left it running while Ripley and I frog-marched the Everett twins, still smelly and damp, down the sidewalk and toward the car.

I had Ezrah and both shock collar remotes in my hip pockets. He grunted and struggled pathetically, weak from hunger and thirst beyond what he might have sucked through his towel gag in the shower. His twin was a beefier guy and gave Ripley a hell of a time all the way to the back end of the Bronco.

---