from bossy. Dorian accepted things as they came, which was a good thing. Except when you needed a window broken into.
Gray vaulted out of the truck bed again and jogged across the street holding a hammer, and Fruitful said, “I’m glad we can look at men now.”
Obedience said, “You’re married, though, Fruitful. I mean, you still are, even though you won’t be later, I guess. Chas—uh, Daisy stopped being married, so maybe it’s not exactly true that you’re joined for eternity.”
I said, “I hope not, because I’m not even being joined for now,” and tried to take the hammer from Gray.
He lifted it up high. I said, “What?” and reached for it again.
In answer, he handed it to Obedience and said, “Hold this for me.” Then he told Fruitful, “You can’t walk all the way around the back on that ankle. Mind if I carry you again?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t mind. It does hurt.”
“We need to get an X-ray,” I said. “We’ll do that, soon as we’ve got things sorted here.”
“What did she do to her ankle?” Dorian asked, as we headed around the corner toward the narrow back alley, with Gray walking in front with Fruitful in his arms as if he knew where we were going.
“Twisted it,” I said. “Running away.”
“Running?” Dorian asked.
“Dad chased us,” I said. “There was running.”
He said, “I should have been there,” so I let my vague irritation go and said, “No. You shouldn’t have. You have Chelsea and the baby to think about.”
“Have you been blessed?” Obedience asked. “I didn’t know that. How wonderful.”
Dorian started to tell her, but I didn’t pay attention, because we were in the alley and had reached the iron staircase bolted to the brick wall that took you up to the flats, and Gray had put Fruitful down and was taking the hammer from Obedience.
I said, “I’ll do it.”
Gray said, “No, you absolutely will not.”
See? High-handed again. He was already up the stairs, which meant I couldn’t argue with him unless I wanted to shout my disapproval or run up behind him and try to grab the hammer from his hand, which would clearly be a pointless exercise. And besides, I didn’t want to balance on that rail. I had more physical courage than most, if “courage” is defined as, “Being scared and doing it anyway, because you’re too stubborn to give up,” but I would’ve had to steel myself for that. I also wasn’t one bit sure I could’ve done it without falling.
At the same time, I wasn’t loving thinking of Gray doing it. It wasn’t his flat. It wasn’t even close to his flat. He had exactly zero obligation here.
He called down, “Window’s on which side?”
I opened my mouth, shut it, opened it again, and said, “Left side. Be careful. You have vertigo.”
“I’m always careful,” he said. “Quit mentioning the vertigo. You’ll jinx me.” Then, somehow, he swung himself up onto the handspan-wide iron railing like it was easy, then balanced there with one hand lightly hanging onto the windowsill and tapped the glass of the little window above with the hammer until he broke all the jagged shards out. They fell into the room with a faint tinkle, and I thought, Second one in two days. Call this a destructive pattern.
I wanted to go up there and help. I could’ve held onto his belt or something. I also wanted to say, “You’ll need something to put over the base of the window so you don’t cut yourself.” I couldn’t do any of that, though, because his balance was too precarious.
He wouldn’t die, if he fell. Not as athletic as he was, he wouldn’t. He’d break something, though. Five meters to fall, and the alley was paved.
Oh, bugger. This was going to be my fault.
Obedience had her hands over her face and was peeking out between her fingers, muttering something. A prayer, I was sure. Fruitful had her hands over her mouth. Dorian was just staring at Gray, then at me. And I was frozen, afraid that if I moved, I’d startle him.
This wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t saving a life. It was getting into my flat to get the spare key. What had I been thinking, even suggesting it?
I was going to have heart failure.
He wasn’t even wobbling. Why wasn’t he wobbling? Instead, he was jumping down to the iron platform again and taking off his shirt.