the first floor, above us, and I said, “No. You’re not climbing up there.”
“I couldn’t get in here anyway,” she said. “The entrance is around the back, like I said. I could go up the stairs back there, though, then balance on the railing and break the window. If I had a hammer. Or that shovel.” She looked at me speculatively.
Well, no. That wasn’t happening.
Daisy
I was wasting a few seconds wondering how I could have been that dumb when I heard the sound of hurrying feet, and then Dorian was there, coming up from behind us.
“Hi!” he said. “Wow. This is awesome. You’re Fruitful.” The pleasure lit up his dark eyes, and as always, my heart settled a bit at the sight of my gentle twin, the softer half of me. “And you’re Obedience. I haven’t seen you for so long. May I give you a cuddle?”
They looked at each other, confused again, and I said, “He’s asking, because it’s your choice now.”
“Oh,” Fruitful said. “OK, then.” She was tentative for once, but when Dorian hugged her, she hugged back.
My brother wasn’t quite as good a cuddler as Gray. A disloyal thought, but true. He was taller than me, which wasn’t hard, and a bit broader, too, which ditto, but he couldn’t quite wrap you up the way Gray had, back in the car after we’d got the girls out. He couldn’t kiss the top of your head, for example.
He was cuddling Obedience now, standing back with his hands on her shoulders and smiling at her, and, yes, that was good. At least Obedience wasn’t looking down. She said, “I remember you. I do. From when I was little. Dutiful.”
Gray said, “Dutiful.” Flatly. Like he couldn’t believe it. I wanted to say, “It’s not as bad as Chastity.” I didn’t.
“Dorian,” my twin said, then extended a hand that Gray shook. “Hi. You must be Gray. Thanks for helping Daisy and the girls. I wish she’d told me she was doing it so I could’ve come, but oh, well, that’s Daisy. Sorry about the car, Daise. No hope of getting it back?”
“No,” I said. “Once your car goes into the river, that’s pretty much it. I did call the police and make a report, and they said the same thing.”
“Your car went into the river?” Fruitful asked.
“You didn’t tell them?” Dorian asked.
“No,” I said. “We had enough to think about.”
Dorian said, “I’ve got a little while, anyway, before I have to be back at work. I’ll come along with you to show the girls the new place, and then I thought I’d take you all for a shop. You’ll need groceries, anyway.”
“We’ll need everything,” I said. “But there’s a bit of an issue. With the keys. The flat key was on the ring with the car key, so …” I shrugged, trying to make it look lighter than it felt.
“Locksmith?” Dorian asked.
“Who’s going to let me in, with no ID and no proof that I live here? I’m going to have to break in through the window. If I can just borrow that hammer, Gray. Of course, then I’ll have to call somebody to fix the window, but no worries, we can do that. Once I have new bank cards, that is.”
There was so much to do. There’d always been going to be too much to do, but I hadn’t been contemplating replacing a car then, or doing the rest of all the things-to-do without one.
Gray said, “No.”
I said, “Pardon?” This was going to be hard enough with a hammer. He wouldn’t even lend me one? I’d have to use a stick, then. If I could find a stick. Where did you find a stick in the middle of the city? “I know you need to leave,” I said, trying to put myself in his place. The place of a man who’d had to help rescue one woman, then rescue two more, and then do … all the rest of this. “Clearly you need to leave. It’ll just take a minute. We have to get in, though. The girls can’t … I can’t …”
I had no ID. No bank card. No money. No clothes. No nothing.
“Wait here,” he said, in the bossy way he did tend to say things, then ran across the street and did that leaping-into-the-truck deal. I wished he’d stop doing that. It was distracting.
I waited for Dorian to say something like, “He’s made himself at home, hasn’t he?” He didn’t, but then, Dorian was the last thing