Page 24 of Concluded
“Vegas is desert,” Dee pointed out.Not that the subject mattered, but arguing about it was better than thinking about the helpless man inside the house.
Ashley was in a jolly mood, however, and only chuckled.“True.But I like Vegas.I go there sometimes for fun, just to nudge people into making worse decisions.It’s super easy.”
Worse decisions.Dee had made a lot of bad ones in his life, but lately he’d really been scraping the barrel.“I wish you’d never showed up at my door.I wish I didn’t have this fucking talent.”
“Honey, you grant wishes, not make them.And you should be on your knees thanking me.You should be grateful you’re not one of the unwashed masses, the vast herds of sheeple.You get to be one of the survivors.”She squinted at him.“Have you ever been a winner before?I bet not.Well, you’re gonna love how it feels.”
She was right—he’d never won at anything.But it sure didn’t feel very good right now.Of course, Dee probably felt worlds better than Agent Spanos did.“Won’t other agents come looking for him?”
“They’ll try.But I brought him here via a portal, and no way they can track that.I destroyed his phone and yours.Maybe they’d eventually find some way to track him down, but we’ll be long gone by then.”
Sipping at his bitter juice, Dee felt an unexpected pang of guilt, an emotion that rarely visited him.It was his fault that Agent Spanos was being tortured and forced to make a terrible decision.Not that Dee had endangered the guy purposely, but Spanos got dragged into this because he was trying to recruit Dee.Unless he was trying to incarcerate or murder Dee, in which case Dee didn’t feel sorry for him at all.
Ashley finished off her margarita and refilled the glass.“You’re brooding, and that’s not going to do you any good.Look, the key is to reject that BS moral code they’ve been shoving down your throat since you were born.Why should you buy into it?Has it ever helped you?Hasanyoneever helped you?Until me, that is.”
Dee had to think about this.His mother abandoned him without even a goodbye.His father bullied and beat him.If any other relatives existed, they’d never shown their faces.Teachers had called him sullen and slow.Social workers, on the few occasions he’d interacted with them, had assumed he was destined for failure.Cops, lawyers, and probation officers had been even worse.On the rare occasions that Dee had tentatively reached out for friendship, he’d been rejected.And lovers?They’d been eager to go once the orgasms were over.
Nobody had believed in him.Nobody had cared for him or about him.Hell, until the Bureau took notice of him, Dee could have dropped dead and the only people to notice would have been those inconvenienced by his passing.
So, yeah.Why should he give a shit about anyone but himself?
He wasn’t a complete idiot, however.He knew that Ashley—and presumably her people, whoever they were—didn’t care about him either.They just wanted to use him.Maybe that wasn’t so bad if he used them back.If his powers made him valuable, he could demand a place of rank and privilege.
Once he’d helped them wipe out most of humanity.
Only… maybe that wasn’t really going to happen.Ashley seemed convinced, but she could be wrong.
Gods, he didn’t want to be making these choices.
As darkness fell, Ashley finished off the rest of the pitcher and got well into a second one.Dee mostly just sat there, staring up at the stars.A coyote howled somewhere, the sound faint yet haunting.Dee felt cold, empty, and brittle, like a seashell long battered by the surf.And he was tired.
“I’m going to sleep,” he announced.He hoped that Ashley had conjured a bed somewhere.
She responded with a small grunt, but her eyes were closed.Her empty glass slipped from her hand and fell to the concrete, where it shattered, but she didn’t react to that either.Dee couldn’t tell whether she was passed out or just didn’t give a damn.He went inside.
The floor plan was a maze of long hallways, seemingly random stairways, and endless empty rooms with white walls and big windows.Every surface was hard and unforgiving, every corner sharp.At one point, Dee pulled a pearl from his pocket and tried wishing for a bed, but he knew it wouldn’t work—and it didn’t.He could grant other people’s wishes but never his own.
When he found himself outside the room where Spanos was chained, Dee wasn’t surprised.It was possible he’d been searching for it all along.With a glance over his shoulder to make sure Ashley wasn’t following, he opened the door and stepped inside.
The overhead lights were exceptionally bright and must have been uncomfortable for Spanos, who could do little to shade his eyes.Of course that was probably not his biggest complaint at the moment.The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, his newest scars raw-looking, his olive-toned skin pale.He was probably a handsome man under ordinary circumstances, but now his dark hair was tangled and he reeked of sweat and urine.
“Water,” he croaked.
For a moment, Dee hesitated in confusion.But then he realized that he still held the empty juice glass and that he’d passed a nearby bathroom.He ducked out of the room long enough to rinse and fill the glass, then returned and held it to Spanos’s mouth.Spanos could barely lift his head, so most of the water spilled, but at least a little made its way down his throat.
With a heavy exhale, Spanos allowed his head to fall back onto the table.Then he fixed his gaze on Dee.“Where are we?”
“Arizona.”
“Shit.”Spanos closed his eyes.
Dee was accustomed to awkward silences, but this one was exceptionally painful.He didn’t know why he’d come to this room, and now he couldn’t seem to make himself leave.
“Free me.”Spanos didn’t sound as if he expected Dee to comply.
“I can’t.”
Spanos’s gaze was bright and intense.Feverish, really.“What kind of person are you?”
