The Hollow Page 0,115

married in September anyway. Or you might want to find a new place up there. Plenty of time to decide."

She stood where she was, studying his face. "You're talking about moving to New York."

"I'm talking about being with you. It doesn't matter where."

"This is your home. Your practice is here."

"I love you. We covered that, didn't we?" He stepped to her. "We covered the part about you loving me back, right?"

"Yes."

"People in love generally want to be together. You want to be with me, Layla?"

"Yes. Yes, I want to be with you."

"Okay then." He kissed her lightly. "I'll go break some eggs."

LATER THAT MORNING, FOX SAT IN CAL'S OFFICE, rubbing a foot over Lump's hindquarters. Gage paced. He hated being here, Fox knew, but it couldn't be helped. It was private, and it was convenient. Most of all, Fox had taken a personal vow to stay within hailing distance of Layla until the full moon.

"There has to be a reason it targets her, specifically, for this. Fucking rapist."

"And if we knew the reason, we could stop it." Cal nodded. "It could be that she's the loosest link. Meaning, the three of us go back all the way. Quinn and Cybil since college. None of us knew Layla until February."

"Or the evil bastard could've just rolled the dice." Gage stopped by the window, saw nothing of interest, moved on. "None of the others have shown any signs of infection."

"It's different. It's not like what happens to people during the Seven. It's only happened, the rape, when she's asleep. And it was a kind of sleepwalking after. Following the same pattern as Hester Deale. Lots of ways to kill yourself, and we've seen plenty. But it was going to be drowning, in an outdoor body of water. Same as Hester. Maybe it had to be."

"One of us stays at the house at night until this is over," Cal decided. "Even if Layla's at your place, Fox, none of them are left alone at night from here on."

"That's where I was heading. Once we've done our full-moon dance, we should look into this angle more. We need to find a way to stop this, to protect her-all of them."

"Day after tomorrow," Gage muttered. "Thank Christ. Has anybody been able to squeeze more details out of Madam Voltar?"

Cal's lips twitched. "Not really. If Quinn knows, she's got it zipped, too. All she'll say is Cybil's fine-tuning. Then, she distracts me with her body, which isn't hard to do."

"She writes the script." Fox lifted his hands at Gage's snort. "Look, we tried it our way, various ways, and managed dick. Let the lady have a shot at it."

"The lady's worried we're all going to die. Or five out of six of us."

"Better worried than too cocky," Fox decided. "She'll cross all her t's. That's one smart skirt. Added to, she loves Quinn. Layla, too, but she and Quinn are as tight as it gets."

Fox pushed to his feet. "I've got to get back to the office. Speaking of which, I'm thinking I'll probably be moving to New York after you and Quinn get married."

"God, another with a hook in his mouth." Gage shook his head. "Or maybe it's a ring through the nose."

"Bite me. I haven't said anything to my family yet. I'm going to ease into that by degrees." Fox studied Cal's face as he spoke. "But I thought I'd give you a heads-up. I'm figuring I'll wait until after the Seven to put the building on the market. I've got some decent equity in it, and the market's pretty stable, so-"

"Eternally the optimist. Brother, for all you know that place'll be rubble come July fourteenth."

This time Fox simply shot Gage his middle finger. "Anyway. I thought you or your father might be interested in it. If you are, we'll kick around some figures at some point."

"It's a big step, Fox," Cal said slowly. "You're established here, not just personally, but with your practice."

"Not everybody can stay. You won't," Fox said to Gage.

"No, I won't."

"But you come back, and you'll keep coming back. So will I." Fox turned his wrist up, and that scar that ran across it. "Nothing erases this. Nothing can. And hell, New York's only a few hours away. I zipped up and down Ninety-five the whole time I was in law school. It's..."

"When you were with Carly."

"Yeah." He nodded at Cal. "It's different now. I've still got a few lines up there, so I'll put some feelers out, see what