Page 63 of Fighter
“This is it, right?” Jayson asked, but I could sense he already knew the answer. Of course he knew. Jayson had responded to my call the last time Talmage freaked out. But an awkward silence had started once we pulled up, and I realized he was waiting for me to make the next move. My ribs still ached from my last experience here every now and then. I put a hand on that spot from the memory and managed to nod.
“Yeah.”
“You good, Sera?” he asked.
“Fine.” I swallowed. “I just . . . I don't have a great feeling about this.”
Jayson popped his door open. “How about I go in first? Unlikely he's going to try anything while I'm here.”
That wasn't what worried me.
“I'll follow,” I said.
Jayson's boots thudded lightly on the pavement as he walked around the car toward me. He spoke into a radio at his right shoulder. “Dispatch, we're going inside for a welfare check,” and a monotone voice responded, “Dispatch copy.”
Numb, my legs carried me up the path and onto the front porch, where dust collected on the furniture. Jayson rapped on the screen door, which bounced under his knuckles.
“Hey, Talmage,” he called. “Hernandez here. Just checking on you, man. Your family is worried about you.”
A creak followed, and then silence. Jayson glanced at me in question and I shrugged. When I peered past him, a sliver of light caught my attention.
“The door is open a little,” I said. “Let's go in.”
He pulled the screen and called inside, “Talmage? Oh, shit.”
I peered around him and my entire body went cold. Talmage lay sprawled out on the ground like a starfish, face pressed into the carpet. Glass littered the ground, and a mark on the wall nearby looked like someone had thrown a cup against the wall and it shattered. The back door was open, admitting warm spring air through the house in a current.
Jayson was immediately on his radio, spouting out commands I could barely process. He held out an arm to keep me back as he walked up to Talmage, glass grinding under his boots. Dispatch said something back as he reached toward my brother.
“Talmage, buddy,” Jayson called. “You with me still?”
My heart felt like a rock in my chest as Jayson reached for Talmage's neck. An interminable wait followed before Jayson turned to his radio and said, “Dispatch, I have a male, thirties, probable overdose, need priority EMS to my location.”
He turned to me with a calm demeanor and said, “Stand back for just a bit, Serafina. Help is on the way.”
21
Benjamin
“What's wrong with you?”
Maverick cuffed me on the side of the head, or tried to, but I blocked him with my forearm, then glared. He glared back.
“Nothing,” I growled.
The Diner sprawled around us with the quiet clink of glass and murmur of patrons. A game played in the background and the hiss and sizzle of what smelled like bacon drifted from the back. We sat at our usual booth across from Maverick. I felt surly as a bear after a sleepless night worrying about Ava, and Serafina, and the ghosts of women that couldn't stay in the afterlife. Maverick had ignored my annoyance that he wanted to lunch at the Diner today and insisted we come anyway. Still, I searched for Serafina, even as I feared finding her.
Dagny approached. “Where's Sera?” I asked her.
She gestured with a nod outside. “W-went somewhere with Jayson for her lunch break. He wanted t-t-to talk to her about something.”
Maverick's eyebrow rose. My stomach turned cold.
“Hernandez, you mean?” I asked.
Dagny nodded, then turned to Mav. “Coffee?”
“Usual, please.”
