Page 57 of Everything We Left Behind

“I didn’t mean to take so long. I was just leaving when you came inside.”

“What happened?” My head screamed and I squeezed shut my eyes. I still saw that blazing light every time I closed them. Its shape and intensity seared into my retina.

“You flipped the switch on the torchlight, tripped over the cord, and hit the floor. You went down harder than a steel beam dropped by a crane. Scared the shit out of me.” He chuckled uneasily.

I lifted my head and looked around. “Where is everyone?”

Thomas gave me an odd look. “Who?”

“The other people who were here.”

He slowly shook his head. “There isn’t anyone here but us.”

“I heard voices ...”

Thomas’s mouth slid into a curve and I slammed mine shut. I knew exactly how that statement made me sound.Crazy.

“How are you feeling?”

Nausea coiled in my stomach like the snake of a brother sitting beside me. I didn’t believe a word of his, but I wasn’t in the condition to argue.

He clapped my shoulder. “Let’s get you to the hotel.”

I slowly stood and promptly lost my balance. Thomas grabbed my upper arm and I shook him off. “Don’t touch me.” I started to walk toward the door. “Just ... leave me ... the fuck ... alone.”

He held up both hands. “Sure thing, bro.”

Thomas dropped me off at the hotel without any further suggestions about visiting the house we grew up in or checking out the offices of the legacy our parents had left us. But he did want to talk and offered to buy me a cocktail at the bar.

I wanted to pop three aspirin, take a shower, and call Nat.

I didn’t ask Thomas again about the people I swore had been at the warehouse with us. And the farther we drove away, the more I wondered exactly what had happened. Shrouded under the thick haze of a migraine, the incident grew fainter with each passing moment.

Thomas stopped in front of the lobby entrance and I got out of the car. He popped the trunk and the valet removed my bags.

“Carlos.” Thomas leaned across the front seat and offered his business card. “Call if you need me or have questions,” he said as if he’d just sold me a life insurance policy.

Maybe he had.Somethinghad happened at the warehouse and I had survived intact. I was still Carlos.

His face turned serious. “I’ve missed you.”

“Yeah, sure,” I muttered, and shut the door. Thomas drove off and I tossed his card in the trash.

Once checked in to the room with my luggage and carry-on dumped inside the pencil case–size closet, I popped three aspirin, swallowed them dry, and took a shower. Scalding water drenched my hair and poured over my shoulders. I watched it course down my abs, creating rivulets across my groin and thigh. It swirled down the drain, carrying a day’s worth of travel grime into the sewers. The vein in my head throbbed and I gritted my teeth.What the hell happened today?

Anytime I thought about that warehouse and tried to recall the voices that had whispered around me, no matter how blurry the images and indecipherable the words, the skull buster in my head cranked up its jackhammer. I pressed fingers into the corners of my eyes, sorely tempted to dig them from their sockets to relieve the pressure.

I flipped off the water and toweled off my bone-weary body. Neither the shower nor aspirin helped. I felt like shit.

Wrapping a towel around my waist, I went to sit on the edge of the bed and called Nat. It went straight to voice mail. I disconnected and called again a few seconds later. This time I left a message. “Crazy day. I’m fine. I’ll tell you about it later, but right now I need to crash. I love you.”

I ended the call, sent a quick text with my room number since I’d promised to do so earlier, and tossed the phone onto the bedside table. It skidded over the edge and onto the floor, but I didn’t care. I was too tired.

Groaning, I fell back onto the pillows. My eyelids dropped and I slept, through the night and well into the next day.

CHAPTER 17

JAMES

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