Page 31 of The Love Scam
“No, just crackers and broth. But I have to admit, I’m impressed.”
He cracked one eye open to look at her. This sounded promising. “Yeah?”
“I had no idea your superpower was the ability to vomit at will on anyone you confront.”
“Only in Venice. Where’d the asshole scamper off to?”
“Are you kidding?” Delaney sounded equal parts amused and admiring. “He was horrified and dripping and got the hell out of there. We were too busy with you to go catch him.”
“And can I assume calling the cops isn’t an option because of all the secret weirdness and the weird secrets?”
Delaney stopped smiling and (wonders!) looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, pretty much. We can’t have them looking at us, just like you don’t want the local government to know you’re in town.”
“Or the Parks and Rec guys.” He had no idea if Italian civil servants held grudges, and no wish to find out.
“But I don’t like it. And I’m starting to think there’s gotta be a way around it.”
“Okay, so… figure something out, and is it just me, or do you have tunnel vision, too?” he managed before sleep grabbed him and hauled him under again.
Some amount of time later, he swam back to soupy semiconsciousness, reached out, groped, and accidentally
“Ow!”
poked someone in the eye.
So he opened his. “Oh, Lillith, thank God. If you love me, you’ll kill me. Kill Daddy, please. Right now.”
“Oh, now you acknowledge me?” She was looking down at him and nibbling her lower lip. “I’m sorry you’re sick. I googled and I think it’s gastroenteritis. That’s why you’re throwing up and have a fever, from jumping—”
“Falling.”
“—into sewage and vomit andmerdaand other yucky stuff.”
“There’s no need to specify,” he groaned. “You could have stuck with yucky stuff.”
“Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“No. I want to die in this bed. Preferably within the next ten seconds.”
“Because I’ll take you, if you want to go. I know I’m supposed to listen to Delaney, but I don’t care what she says on this one. Not everyone in authority is out to get her family.”
“Her what?”
“Shall I take you to a doctor?”
He blinked at her. Lillith looked as earnest as she sounded as she stared down at him. “How?” He didn’t actually want to go; he was just curious about the process. “You’re little. How would you even get me to an ER?” Borrow a cell phone? Berate one of the others into obeying her command? Steal an ambulance? He felt confident she was capable of all that and more.
“Don’t know. But I’d think of something.”
“I believe it.”
“Thanks for coming to get me.”
“You should have waited,” he reminded her gently.
“Yeah. I should have done a lot of stuff. Pulled away. Kicked. Yelled! But I just froze like amanichino.”
“Or like someone having a perfectly normal reaction to…” He paused, stifled a belch. Waited. Apparently the ginger ale was staying put on a trial basis. “… to stress.”
