Toxic (Denazen #2)(32)

“They’re just friends.” This time it came out a little sharper. If I squeezed the mayo any harder, it was likely to explode. “She’s helping him learn control.”

He waggled his eyebrows at me. The thin silver barbell above his right eye danced. “Control? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

“You’re an ass,” I said, flicking the loaf of bread across the counter at him. Making me do work around the hotel was cruel. Making me do it with Alex was just inhuman. I knew the silent treatment would never last.

There was a commotion at the door, and a second later, Kale walked in with Jade.

“And you’re a blind idiot,” Alex mumbled, grabbing his sandwich. “I’m outta here.”

In his haste, he almost ran Ginger over on the way out. “Watch it,” she snapped. “And make sure you’re back on time today—with all the items on that list I gave you.”

“How was practice?” There. See? I could be civil. The question hadn’t even sounded sarcastic.

“Never mind that,” Ginger said, handing me a package. “I need you to run this down to the post office. Now. Make sure to send it out first class.”

“Me?” I took the small box from her and gave it a good shake. It felt empty. “You’re letting me leave?”

“I don’t have a choice. I need this mailed. Kale needs to practice, and Alex is already running an important errand for me.”

“Rosie?” I knew I should shut my mouth. This was totally ironic. A few days ago I would have done anything to get out of the hotel, but now it seemed fishy. I mean, come on. She’d had Rosie guarding the exits, and here she was opening the door and pushing me out?

“Rosie had an errand of her own to run. She won’t be back till later this evening.”

“Aren’t you afraid I won’t come back till tonight?” I said. “Or that Denazen will snap me up the moment I walk out the door?”

Ginger looked from me to Jade and smiled. “Something tells me you’ll be back as soon as possible. As for Denazen, I can assure you nothing bad will happen to you.”

Nothing bad? It was the closest Ginger had ever come to revealing something she’d seen. It probably should have set my mind at ease—but it didn’t.

Ginger pointed to the plate of sandwiches Alex and I made and said to Kale, “You and Jade, use the extra time to get in some more practice. You need it.” To me, she said, “Get moving.”

I bitched about it the entire way to the car—which was kind of funny. Now that the opportunity for some semblance of freedom had been presented, I was pissed. On top of all that, my shoulder was killing me.

I’d popped more Advil in the last twenty-four hours than I had all year, but it wasn’t helping much. A nagging feeling was telling me to take a look, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wasn’t normally an advocate for avoidance—charge things head on, that was my motto—but acknowledging an actual problem meant I had to deal with it. And not only wasn’t I ready, but I had no idea what to do.

A tiny, whisper-light voice in the back of my head said, tell Kale. Keeping this a secret from him was stupid, and more than that, selfish. He’d never keep something like this from me. It wasn’t fair for me to keep it from him. I resolved to pull him aside and ’fess up as soon as I got back to the hotel.

The post office was across town, so Ginger had given me the keys to her Toyota. A bucket of blue-tinged rust and unidentifiable fetid odor, the car miraculously started. I had Kiernan on the phone before I even pulled out of the parking lot.

“I swear. She’s trying to hook them up.”

“So she’s sending you to the post office? To mail a package? What is it—medication for some poor, dying kid in Canada?”

“I know, right? Why the hell did I have to go now? And why is she so eager to let me out on the building? A few days ago she practically had the doors barricaded.”

“Maybe she’s trying to avoid issues with Alex?”

“No way. He hasn’t even been spending lunch break with us. He leaves and goes God knows where.”

“Well, then why couldn’t he mail the stupid package?”

“She said he was already running an errand for her.”

“What kind of errand?”

“That’s a great question. One I probably won’t get a straight answer to.” I sighed. “I should go. It’s lunch. There’s gonna be a sick line. Come see me after school?”

“You got it, babe.”

“And don’t flake on me this time,” I added right before hanging up.

Traffic was a nightmare. It ended up taking me almost twenty minutes to get to the post office. Then, when I did, I found the line out the door.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” I slammed the driver’s-side door closed and trekked across the lot, package in hand.

Despite its length, the line moved quickly, and in no time I’d made it past the first set of doors. The woman in front of me held the second door open and stepped through. I let it close and waited for her to move farther up. The stench of her perfume was giving me a headache, and on top of the dull aching in my shoulder, I didn’t need that.

Through the glass, I could see a reflection of the parking lot. A dark sedan pulled in and swung into the newly vacated spot next to Ginger’s old clunker. The driver stepped from the car and made his way across the lot, casual as could be. Other than the shape, it was hard to make out the details of his face, but the perfectly pressed suit and dark sunglasses stood out like a flashing neon sign. The door gave a small squeak as the man stepped through.