Page 66 of Priceless Diamond

But Leo cuts me off before I can tell her I was only trying to make sure she could sleep. “Jesus, Alix,” he says. “How much did you take?”

She cocks her head and stares past both of us, like there’s someone else in the hall. “I can’t say that,” she says.

I turn and look behind me, even though I know I’m only going to see the door. The Beast is still raging for its payment because of that chokehold. But it’s not the Beast that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It’s the weird sing-song way that Alix says to thin air, “They won’t understand.”

I round on Leo. “What the fuck did you give her?”

“I didn’t give her anything! She took it!”

“What did she take?” I loom over him, forcing him back three steps. His shoulders hit the wall, and there’s nowhere else for him to go. The Beast howls, demanding that I punch my way back to sanity. When Leo doesn’t come up with an answer, my fist lands right by his ear, emphasizing every word: “What. Did. She. Fucking. Take?”

“Crash!” he whimpers, taking away my target by sliding to the floor. “She stole my stash on Halloween.” He looks past my legs and shouts to Alix, “But you didn’t get it all! I kept some in my nightstand, just in case. And in my sock drawer, too.” As fast as he started yelling, he switches back to whining. “It’s all gone now. I need the rest. I need what Alix took.”

What the actual fuck?Alix had no reason to take the motherfucker’s stash.

But it was Halloween.

I was at Kynk.

Alix was waiting. Alone. Afraid. And when I came home, after I failed, everything was different…

I turn to Alix. “Is he telling the truth?”

She does that freaky thing again, looking past me. She nods, like she’s listening to someone I can’t hear. And then she says, eyes locked on a point beside the front door, “But if I tell them, they’ll take you away.”

“Oh my God,” Leo says. “You are fucking flying.”

He laughs like he’s just heard the funniest joke in the world. He sits on my floor, and he leans his head back against the wall, and he howls until he’s a snorting, drooling mess. He’s as high as she is. I should have realized it sooner, but he’s had more years of practice, covering it up.

I want to kick his balls into his fucking brain. I can’t, because Alix is watching. She’s carrying on an argument with someone I can’t see, someone I can’t hear.

“Alix,” Leo says, when he can finally draw a full breath. “Stick-up-your-ass Alix.” I’m still rumbling deep in my chest, deciding if it’s worth it to smash his fucking face in, when he calls out to his sister, “So much for sayingyourshit doesn’t stink. Want the number of my guy? Ready to hook up with Orderly Feel Good at Dover Gen—”

My foot connects with the point of his chin, snapping his head back so hard I may have broken his neck. No such luck, though. He slumps all the way to the floor, knocked out but breathing.

I’ve got Security on speed dial. Snatching my phone out of my pocket, I tap the number and snap a command. I just have time to walk Alix into my office and get her seated in one of the leather chairs before the doorbell rings like a fireworks finale on the Fourth of July. She’s humming as I close the door, reaching out her hand toward something I can’t see.

Security made it in under a minute. When this fucking nightmare is over, I’ll give someone a bonus. For now, though, I kick Leo’s prone body. “Get this asshole off the property.”

The guard stands straight, like a soldier at attention. “Yes, sir!” But then he falters and says, “Where should I take him, sir?”

Drown him in the fucking bay.That’s what I want to say. But that probably goes beyond “other duties as assigned”.

“Drop him at Dover General,” I say. “Leave him in the ER. No need to wait.”

“Yes, sir,” the guard says. He’s impressively efficient at hauling Leo into a fireman’s carry. I slam the door on the pair of them and go back to the study.

Alix has slid out of the chair. She’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, arms folded around her belly. She’s rocking back and forth, singing a tuneless song under her breath, afraid, confused, lost.

Something snaps inside my chest. I sit down beside her. She doesn’t react.

“Alix,” I say, purposely softening my tone, maybe too much because she doesn’t even blink. “Hey,” I try again, a little louder. “Princess.”

That gets her attention, but only for a moment. Then she’s back to her singing, focusing on a point somewhere in the middle distance.

“Who’s there?” I ask her. “Are you talking with someone?”

A smile floods her face. She isn’t scared anymore. She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her. It’s like a massive rainstorm has washed away all the shit in her life—her fuck-up of a brother, her lost family and friends, everything Herzog did to her, what she did to Herzog. She’s clean and she’s pure and she’s safe in a way I’ve never been able to make her feel.

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