Drey
Isat,staringatmy clothes in the whirling dryer. It’d been more than a week since I’d seen Sarah. Hell, she’d not been at work or at home. At least the lights hadn’t been on while doing my nightly walk by her apartment.
Even worse, Hunter and Bill said nothing. Damn them and their loyalty. It was admirable most of the time, but now…Angelina had been the only one who offered any type of comfort by telling me to give Sarah time.
Hopefully that meant she was still around. I was sure she’d bolt after what happened in her apartment. My thigh ached as I stretched my legs and took in a deep breath of the spring-clean dryer-sheet-scented air.
Sure was better than the frigid, December air outside. A snowstorm had dumped seventeen inches over Thanksgiving, and the city was still recovering.
The door dinged. The sight of my brother had me to my feet, and my fists tight. Thankfully none of his gang buddies followed in behind him. I wouldn’t put it past the little prick to jump me in here. Even if I had only about forty bucks in my wallet…and to my name until payday tomorrow.
“Hey,” he said as the door shut behind him.
He was thin in the cheeks, a little pale, twitchy and…shit…strung out.
“Damon…no.” I swallowed down the rage. Damn Walker got my brother hooked, didn’t he? That was one way to keep people close, get them hooked on the latest drug craze so they had to keep peddling it for him…and themselves.
That was how it started with my mom, and she got so bad she would have sold both me and Damon to the devil for a hit.
I ordered myself to stand firm, attentive, and see this through. If he was here by himself, maybe I could talk some sense into him.
“How are ya?” Damon shuffled to the first chair in the row I’d been sitting in. I backed up, keeping more than ten feet between us. We were alone in here, so that was good, but I needed to keep an escape route available in case he did something stupid.
“Got enough clothes to do a load of laundry, a place to rest my head…so I’m doing all right. You?”
His dim blue eyes danced around the room, and he chewed his bottom lip. “Been better.”
“Yes, you have.”
“Have you…seen her?”
I glanced around, working through the adrenaline shooting my brain into overdrive. Who was he talking about? Sarah?
“Mom,” he said.
My gut hardened. “Haven’t seen her in months.”
His shoulders slouched, and he sagged into the seat at the end of the row. The sadness radiating off him had me worried. Was Mom…dead?
He scrubbed his face. “Saw her last night on the corner. Thought she was going to blow away in the wind, and she was wearing a thick fur coat.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to go on. I’d seen Mom like that before. What was he getting at?
“She…collapsed.” He finally pinned me with a stare. “Got her to the ER, but I couldn’t stick around.”
“She okay?”
“You actually care?” He glared at me.
“Of course.” I cared more than he thought.
It shredded my insides every time she’d promised to get clean. Every time I’d bailed her out and she’d gone right back to whoring her body for drugs. So I had to stop. Had to let her hit bottom. Maybe she’d finally done that.
“Could have fooled me.”
“How are youhelpingher by running with Walker?” I gestured at his exposed wrist. “How’sthathelping her?”
“Screw you, man. I—you don’t understand.”