Page 29 of Refrain
Alle jabbed a finger into the centre of Luthor’s chest. “Don’t you fucking bullshit me, I’ve had enough of that. Where is he? Has he gone to see Spook? Does he know where he is? Does he?”
Luthor recoiled from her prodding, which left him backing into the hallway with his hands raised.
“Alle.” Ronnie wrapped her in an embrace from behind. His body was warm against her, and he smelled of gummi bears. “Sweetpea, I know you’re anxious, but you really need to work on your tone. Xane’s told you at least three hundred times that he doesn’t know where Spook is. There are all sorts of reasons why he might have left the hotel, so how about you stop badgering Luthor about it, eh? Okay?” He pulled her away, still attempting to cradle her in an embrace, but she was too prickly to be held.
“Never mind Xane for a minute,” Rock Giant moved back to the centre of their huddle. “You all need to hear what Alle and I found out. It kind of explains a few things.”
“Go on,” Ash prompted.
“Alle’s—”
“It was my brother who beat up Spook and put him in the hospital. He just got home, and he admitted it.”
“Why?”
She ought to have anticipated that first question. It came from both Ash and Ginny simultaneously and was echoed by Ronnie a couple of milliseconds later. Luthor still looked as if he was contemplating making a run for it, which was perhaps why Rock Giant planted his substantial form before the lift door.
“Because he’s a fucking idiot, and my other brother spun him all that crap that got printed, and made it seem like I was in danger. I told you, he had me carried from the Arrivals lounge and shoved in the back of my eldest brother’s car. They’re a nightmare and they’ve wrecked everything. I’ve wrecked everything for you all. He would be here if it wasn’t for me.”
Ronnie swaddled her in another crab-like embrace. He was too spindly to be great at hugs, but she appreciated the effort. The rest of the Black Halo crew were staring at her as if she’d grown a second head.
Ginny snapped from her gawp. “Where is Xane?” she demanded of Luthor, who shrugged.
“Fine, let me rephrase, because yeah, I actually believe he’s smart enough not to tell you. Has he gone to meet Spook?”
Ash shifted uncomfortably, while Luthor sniffed.
“I thinkfindwould be a more appropriate term. He didn’t say anything to you all, and he asked me not to because he feels that all of us descending at once would be a bad idea.”
“For once I’m actually inclined to agree,” Ash muttered. He clasped Ginny’s hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “All of us would be too much, and if we knew where he was, we wouldn’t be able to help ourselves.”
Alle opened her mouth to retort, but Luthor cut her off. “Xane hasn’t lied to anyone, he’s just been a little hazy with the truth. Even when he left, which wasn’t long ago, he didn’t know where he was going. He was following a breadcrumb trail, that’s all.”
“Breadcrumbs is still something!” A part of Alle wanted to be reasonable, but her emotions had been pitched back and forth one too many times already tonight. This felt like a monumental betrayal. “He could have told me that. The two of us could have gone together.”
“Think you’re forgetting—” Rock Giant said, while giving his face a scratch.
“He knew about your brother,” Luthor said. “Or rather, he suspected, and Spook said to him at the hospital that he didn’t want to see you.”
She gave a squawk. Spook didn’t want to see her, and they’d been keeping that fact from her all this time. “You thought that I was involved. That I was behind them beating him up.”
“Alle,” someone said. Possibly Rock Giant.
“We didn’t know,” Ash insisted. “Xane kept it to himself. This is the first we’ve heard of it.”
“Not entirely.” She got right up in Luthor’s face. He was taller, but not that much. There were a few advantages to being a big woman. She wasn’t daunted by a bit of height.
Luthor’s hand drifted to the back of his neck, pinching at the obvious tension she was putting there.
“I only found out tonight.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well it’s the truth.”
Ginny smiled and shook her head.
Ronnie continued to look awkward.
