Infinite(24)

“One o’clock?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Yes.”

I shook my head. “Is there any possible way you made a mistake?”

“Dylan, I saw the clock in the lobby. I’m telling you, I got here at one o’clock.”

I checked my watch and then the clock on the nightstand. There was no mistake. Everything matched.

One in the morning. That simply wasn’t possible.

I was meeting Eve Brier at the fountain in the park at exactly one in the morning. At the very same time, I was also having a rendezvous with Tai back at the hotel.

“What did I say when I called you?”

“You said you were lonely, upset. You didn’t want to be alone. You asked if I’d come over. I said sure. I mean, we both knew what you wanted. We both knew what was going to happen. I dressed accordingly.”

“You came to the hotel room?”

“Of course.”

“And I was here.”

“Well, obviously.”

“So did we—?”

“Yes. We had sex. Twice, in fact, if you need the details. You don’t remember that, either? Is this some kind of game to make yourself feel better? Are you trying to pretend it never happened?”

I didn’t answer. “Tai, please, just go on. Then what?”

“We fell asleep. When I woke up, you were already awake. Dressed. You were staring out the window. I asked you to come back to bed, but you said you needed to go. Right away. And you left. So I went into the shower, and when I got out, you were back here again. That’s all, Dylan. It was like ten minutes ago. You’re freaking me out if you really don’t remember any of this.”

“I’m sorry.”

I thought about what Tai had told me, but I had no way to explain it. Nothing made sense.

This was not a delusion.

Not a missing memory or a split personality.

No matter what games my mind was playing with me, I couldn’t be in two places at the same time, and yet I’d been in the hotel room with Tai at the same time that I was in the park with Eve Brier and then in Wilmette with Karly’s mother.

I could only come to an impossible conclusion.

Two.

There were two of us. I wasn’t hallucinating. My doppelg?nger was real.

There was a Dylan Moran out there stealing his way into my life. It was as if this other Dylan had decided to follow every hidden impulse in my head and unleash my darker soul. Kill Scotty. Sleep with Tai. He was my id come to life.

This Dylan Moran was not me, but even so, we were connected by some kind of shadowy line. Echoes of his memories, of what he’d done, were in my own brain, like ghost images in a photograph. I suspected that he could sense me, too. He’d felt that I was coming back to the hotel, and that was why he’d made a fast exit.

Tai spoke softly from the bed. “If this was a mistake, Dylan, just say so. You don’t have to pretend.”

“It’s not that. I mean—okay, yes, what happened between us was a mistake. My mistake, not yours. The last thing I would ever want is to see you hurt.”

“I’m a big girl,” she replied. Then she looked down at her lap. “You know, I’ve been in love with you practically since the day we met.”

I felt as if I’d turned a knife into her chest, and I realized again how horribly unfair I’d been to her. How I’d played with her emotions without meaning to do so. “I never meant to lead you on. I should have been more careful.”

“Hey, you were married. I knew I was playing with fire.”

I stood up from the bed. “I need to go.”

“Okay. Go.”

“I have one more question. Believe me, I know none of this makes any sense.”

“What is it?”

“A few minutes ago, when I told you that I needed to leave, did I say where I was going?”

Tai looked at me as if I were a crazy person, and maybe I was. “Home,” she said. “You said you were going home.”

Home. Back to our apartment in Lincoln Square. Our apartment, where I kept all of my memories of Karly. I’d avoided the apartment for days, but this other Dylan was drawing me back there. Only a few minutes had gone by. It was still not even dawn. If I went quickly, I could corner him before he had a chance to run.

I needed to find out how he could possibly be real.

I headed for the door, but Tai called after me. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“The sex. What was it like for you?”

“Tai, I wish I could tell you, but—”

“You don’t remember. Right. Sure.” She sounded cynical and angry, and I didn’t blame her.

“Tell me what it was like for you,” I said, because I knew she wanted me to ask.

Her face turned dark. “It wasn’t what I expected.”

“What do you mean?”

She tugged the sheet tighter around her shoulders, covering any hint of bare skin. “You weren’t tender with me like I thought you’d be. You were so raw, so . . . I don’t know . . . violent. Honestly, there were moments when it didn’t even feel like it was really you.”





CHAPTER 10