Wild and Free (The Three #3)(77)

My chest depressed.

“Then he’ll get that,” Abel said.

“’Preciate it,” Dad muttered, looking back to the sea.

Abel gave him time before he asked, “You process the other shit I told you?”

“One thing at a time, bubba,” Dad kept muttering. “We put Snake to rest, then I’ll deal with my little girl and her man savin’ the world.”

Abel looked down at me.

I again shook my head.

He nodded and looked back to Dad. “You had breakfast, Hook?”

“Not hungry.”

“Gotta eat, man,” Abel told him.

“Not somethin’ I don’t know,” Dad replied.

“Hook—”

Dad cut his eyes to Abel. “Son, obliged for the concern, but you gotta know when to let an old man be.”

“I never die,” Abel returned. Dad blinked and I stared, not knowing where that came from.

Dad recovered first. “You bein’ immortal, I got that.”

“What I’m sayin’ is, that means I have a long f*ckin’ time of remembering what Snake sacrificed for Lilah and me, a long f*ckin’ time to be grateful for it, and a long f*ckin’ time to honor that memory.”

Yes, my Abel was good at this.

Dad’s throat convulsed, but he said no words in reply, just nodded.

“You want time with your girl?” Abel asked.

Dad swallowed, cleared his throat, and answered, “If you mean alone, no. You don’t have to leave. But I want time with my girl.”

“You got it,” Abel murmured, looked down at me and shared, “Gotta shower, bao bei.”

“Okay, honey.”

When he bent this time, he touched his mouth to mine.

Then he went to take a shower.

And I sat in my chair with my eyes to my dad, who was watching the sea, mourning his friend and doing it being with me.

*

“How’s Jabber?” Chen asked.

I was sitting by the hospital bed they set up for him in one of the downstairs rooms, Abel standing behind me.

And I was worried. Chen looked pale and tired even though Abel told me he’d slept most of the day.

“Worse than you but bitchin’ about not getting a cigarette even though he has a punctured lung, so I reckon he’ll make it.”

Chen gave a truncated chuckle that ended in a wince.

I reached out and grabbed his hand.

He stopped wincing and looked at me. He then looked at Abel.

Then he smiled a cheeky smile. “Destined to save the world, hunh?”

“That’s what they’re telling us,” Abel confirmed.

“Action shot in my Wikipedia entry, once we take care of that shit,” Chen declared.

I didn’t know what Abel did because I burst out laughing.

It was surprising. I didn’t think I could laugh. Not that day. Not the next. Not for a while.

But I did.

And I did because Chen was funny.

And I did because, with his words, I knew he was going to be okay.

*

“I need to find Abel,” I murmured late that evening, rising from the couch in one of the downstairs living rooms (I’d peeked in a few, there seemed to be about ten of them), my eyes moving from Leah to Sonia.

We’d had a family dinner in Jabber’s room, mostly to give him targets for his orneriness, to which he took aim and shot copiously.

Talk had drifted to biker so Jian-Li and I decided to leave them be. We found another space and Leah and Sonia found us. We shot the shit and I got the sense that the other two female parts of The Three found us just so they could take our pulse. Conversation was light but not lighthearted.

But now I needed my man.

“And I need to check in on Chen,” Jian-Li added, rising with me.

“Okay, ladies. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Sonia said.

“’Night,” I replied.

“’Night, Lilah. ’Night, Jian-Li,” Leah returned.

“Good night,” Jian-Li said.

We moved to the door, and as we did, Jian-Li tucked her hand in my elbow.

I brought it close to my side and covered it with my other hand.

Out in the hall, I asked, “You okay?”

“I’ve had days that were better,” she answered.

“Mm-hmm,” I murmured.

“Though, today was a great deal better than yesterday, so I’ll take it.”

“I hear you,” I replied on a squeeze of her hand.

We kept walking toward Chen’s room. We did this silently, but it was a long way so the silence didn’t last.

“We’re prepared, Lilah,” she told me.

I looked down at her.

“You know about Abel’s dreams?” she asked.

I nodded. I did. He’d mentioned them before, but he gave me the full briefing that morning about his dreams, the dreams I was having and not remembering, and Leah and Sonia dreaming.

“We’re prepared,” she said firmly.

“I think I got that yesterday when all your boys kicked ass.”

She smiled. It was small, but it was proud.

“What you’re saying is, all this new stuff, it’s no surprise to you,” I remarked.

“Oh, it’s a surprise. My Abel and his fated partner saving the world, that’s a surprise. But yes, in a way, you’re right. We knew it would be something. I would have picked something less enormous, but there are a great number of things in life you can’t choose.”