I can do that. I went out on a date.
He’s doing it. He’s going out on a date.
Chapter 13
Connor
My date is with Pete at L’Octane.
From across the street, I watch the patrons exit the restaurant and file into their fancy cars that the valets hand over. After the restaurant closes, the front-door staff check with the valet men at the entrance. It’s getting late, and Pete’s toy car is still parked out here. I assume he’ll stay after closing.
It’s possible the responsible doctor took a cab home and left his car there after drinking one too many beers. More likely, however, is that he remained to chat with his friends after Ekatia left.
Trouble is, I told him to drop her off. The reason he didn’t is that I have no authority over him. He is his own man, doing his own thing, and nobody will tell him what to do or where to drop off his date. It’s also because, clearly, he doesn’t respect her and is very careless with her.
Moreover, when I told him to drop her off at the house, I was trying to make a point. A nonviolent one.
One of my Musketeers, who I think might be effective in helping me out, said I should learn to swim in the pit of darknessthat is my psyche without killing off the people who are trying to swim with me.
It means I can never swim in their clear and cute ordinary oceans, but if they want to dive into mine, I should let them. The healing starts with mercy. Feeling merciful about the fool who gets out of the car and comes at me in a fit of road rage. Feeling merciful about the fool who enters the wrong number on the shipping label, along with the driver, who, despite seeing Connor Crossbow’s name on the package, never delivers it. Instead, he returns it to the postal service, which ships it back to the sender.
In Domisa.
On the other side of the world. Now I need to wait two more weeks for my custom belt to arrive.
And last but not least, healing starts by feeling merciful about Pete, the fucking idiot who, despite my best efforts to be merciful, keeps disregarding the message I’m trying to send about Ekatia. I wanted him to know that she is protected by my family and is someone he should take care with.
At the hospital, when I met him, he gave me bad vibes. I know bad vibes. My dad raped my mother. Repeatedly. He had other men rape her too. I’m very quick to trust how others make me feel, and I test new people all the time.
Pete scored an F on the test.
Pete’s on the boat, trying to cross my dark waters, and he’s sinking, about to become shark food.
The act of mercy will be not blowing up the entire restaurant. I also promised Declan I would curb my appetite for destruction.
Our father was the ruthless king of this city, and when Dec took him out, we took over the throne, even though we never wanted to live here. Our mother comes from Selnoa, and some of our worst memories happened here.
But Dina lives here too, and Declan lives wherever Dina lives. I live wherever my brother is, so here I am. Visiting with Pete.
Since he’s not coming out, I pull up. The valet, a young man in a button-down shirt and black slacks who is closing his station, doesn’t look up when he says, “We’re closed, sir.”
I leave the car out front and walk up to his station.
“Hey, you can’t…” The man looks up and recognizes me immediately. “You’re Connor Crossbow. Shit. Wha… Something I can do for you?”
A man comes over to stand with the younger one. This one’s older, and they look alike.
I slide a wad of cash toward them. “See that little car over there? Take it for a ride to the Tavala district.”
“No way! That’s where we’re from,” the younger one says.
“You don’t say.”
“My dad says we’re distant relatives.”
He means from my mother’s side. Declan and I only count our two uncles from our father’s side as family. We don’t have relations with our mother’s side unless they’re business related. Which they are in the Tavala district. “It’s my lucky night, then. You know Boss’s Pit car shop?”
“Hell yeah, we know it.”