Page 14 of Thief of Night
Her hands were shaking and her head hurt. She was almost certain that she hadn’t handled either of those calls well. And more so when she turned to see Red sitting on a chair beside the coffeepot, hands not entirely solid-looking and shadow rolling off him like low mist. Was he angry? She couldn’t tell.
Charlie sucked in a breath, then forced herself to speak. “Adeline wants us to come by Saturday, but I guess you heard that.”
“Yes,” he said.
“It sounds like you’re officially alive. So, uh, congratulations?”
His gaze swung to her, his eyes full of embers.
Charlie gave a laugh so forced it was embarrassing. She hated that he frightened her, but in that moment, he did.
“I am not Remy Carver,” Red said, voice empty as an echoing tunnel. “She should have let him stay dead.”
8Cowards
By the time Charlie staggered out from the back, the car dealership holiday party had wound down. Most of the batched drinks were gone and Don looked only slightly harried alone behind the bar.
“You should go on home, darling.” Odette had moved to one end of the bar, near the taciturn woman drinking rye. Another Pepto-Bismol-colored pink squirrel sat in front of her.
“Yeah, I’ve got things covered,” Don put in.
That almost made Charlie offer to stay, just to be contrary, but the only one she’d hurt was herself. And she was plenty hurt already. “See you tomorrow, then.”
“Put a steak on that eye,” Odette called after her.
As Charlie wove her way through the crowd, glaring at anyone who looked in her direction, she noticed how quickly people turned away. In the van, she checked her face in the rearview mirror. The skin around her left eye was unmistakably swollen and brutally purplish-red.
“You should let me drive,” Red said, making her jump. She hadn’t noticed him coalescing out of the shadows on the passenger side.
“Fuck!” She leaned her head against the seat back. “You scared me.”
He looked at her impassively.
“I’m fine,” she told him, a moment later.
“You’re a liar.” A few strands of spun-gold hair fell over his eyes. It was hard to believe there had been a time she might have pushed them back without thinking.
Despite her general alarm, and the pain in her cheek, she made herself grin. “Well, sure, but that doesn’t mean I’m not fine.”
“Charlie.” Red turned her name into a sigh, one that could almost be mistaken for fondness.
“Okay,” she said, getting out so they could exchange seats. He flowed across to the passenger side, not even pretending to be human. When she was back in, she frowned. “So, are you going to tell me why you went after that car dealership guy?”
He pulled out of the lot and headed onto Cottage Street and then past Nashawannuck Pond in silence. “I don’t know why I did it,” he admitted finally.
She wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Well, thank you for defending me,” she said. “Don’t do it again.”
Red nodded, frowning.
“Unless you weretryingto get me punched.” She knew that she should just shut up. Her emotions were all over the place after talking to Adeline.
He gave her a strange look, an eyebrow lifting. “And in that case?”
She smiled, unable to help it. “In that case, next time come at me directly, you coward.”
He burst out laughing, obviously surprised by his own reaction.
Charlie got the sense he hadn’t laughed much, growing up in Salt’s house.
