Page 66 of Hounded: Ashes to Ashes

I took a step toward Loren, feeling the distance between us more keenly than ever. “The truth about what, baby?” I asked.

The front door swung inward, and Sully strode in. She surveyed the apartment and found the five of us clustered in painful quiet.

“Lore? Indy?” She glanced at us in turn. “When did you two get here? Why didn’t you come down and say hi?”

The wine bottle in my arms was damning enough. The cups and mugs littering her countertops more so, and goddamn thatguiltwas coming at me from all sides.

When no one replied, she indicated the snack cake boxes and wine pong remnants. “There’s a party at my place, and I wasn’t even invited?”

It wasn’t a joke, and nobody laughed.

Loren was the first to move. He made for the exit too quickly for me to call after him, so fast Sully’s skirt fluttered as he passed by. He left, and he took my keys with him.

“Fuck,” I groaned. At being left behind, at having my chance to apologize interrupted, at breaking something I didn’t know to fix.

Sully tried to track Loren’s departure, but he was long gone. When she faced forward again, she asked me directly, “What did I miss?”

“A few things,” I replied.

Whitney, Dottie, and Gunnar got to their feet as Sully pushed the door shut and made her way to the cluttered kitchen island. “Well, you can tell me about it while you help clean this up.”

“Yes, ma’am.” With a nod, I shuffled into the kitchen and dropped the wine bottle into the recycling bin. Sully and I took turns loading cups into the dishwasher while the hounds busied themselves with anything else.

The counter was clear, and I was stocking the pantry with the extra snack cakes when Sully spoke again.

“Glad to see you all getting along.” She closed the dishwasher and started the cycle before turning toward me.

I shut the pantry door, then leaned against it, sighing. “Not all of us.”

Her smile came with a side of sympathy. “Loren?”

I bobbed my head. “He’s real mad at me, Sully.”

“What happened?”

Knowing the hellhounds were in range to hear every word made me reluctant to share, but I needed to tell someone. Sully understood; she’d lived with me. I didn’t expect her to take my side or anything—Iwasn’t even on my side—but talking to anyone was better than hitching a cab ride home and dealing with Loren’s mute avoidance for the rest of the day.

So, I told her everything. It turned out to be a pretty short story since I left out the parts about Evander, and Sully kept her reactions to a minimum. Her lack of surprise was a statement in itself.

When I finished, Sully chewed her lip before responding, “I doubt Loren’s mad so much as?—”

“Please don’t say disappointed.” I grimaced.

“Resigned,” she said, and that word was like a shovelful of dirt topping off the grave I’d dug for myself.

It was real fucking deep, too. Decades of deception and dysfunction and an addiction I couldn’t kick. The pills were in my pocket right now, and they felt like an anchor, pulling me toward dark depths.

Frowning, I dug the baggie out and showed it to Sully. Two Green Apples nestled inside.

“I tried to get him to take these,” I said. “But he told me to keep them.”

He hadn’t meant that.

“I don’t want them,” I continued. “But I-I can’t get rid of them. Can’t just throw them away…”

Someone needed to take the damn things, otherwise I would. They looked like candy even now, and my fingers quivered with the temptation to tear into the bag and down them both in one gulp.

“I’ll take them.” Sully plucked the pills from my hand, and my shoulders slumped with relief.

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