Where Winter Finds You (Black Dagger Brotherhood #18)- J.R Ward Page 0,79

tell you what to do here you got more problems than me not answering your stupid call.”

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

As he debated whether to try again—and found progress in the fact that at least he was not trying to phone his symphath friend just to be reassured about a fallacy he had created—he was also tempted to call iAm. Even though, as with whatever he was going to say to Xhex, he didn’t have anything worked out in his head. The urge to hit them up was more a reflex born out of him feeling so adrift. But this was what people did, right? When things got off track, they called their nearest and dearest.

Maybe Rehv was right. Maybe he needed to get on meds and go for a little vacation—and not in a hang-himself-in-the-closet sense.

Or in a drown-in-the-Hudson kind of fashion.

As he shifted to the side and put his phone away, he looked down at his silk shirt and remembered his female—that female… Therese, he made himself say in his head… pointing out that he wasn’t wearing a jacket. It made him realize that he had a matching double-breasted masterpiece to go with these slacks. He’d been in such a rush to get out of the house, to see that female, that he hadn’t bothered to grab it and pull it on.

Which was kind of his theme song of late, was it not.

Moving so fast, he missed necessary pieces.

Glancing at the double doors of the unit, he told himself to stay put. For one, the female would be coming back out at some point, and she would want to know where he was. For another…

Oh, what did it matter. What did any of this matter?

“Therese,” he said softly, trying out the syllables.

The sound of the name in his ears carried along with it a raftload of anxiety, and with a curse, he got to his feet and walked out of the unit, unable to stand still. In the corridor beyond, he put his hands on his hips and took some deep breaths—

“You got someone in there, too?”

As a male voice spoke up, he looked over to the right. It was the guy who had walked by the nursing station, the one who had been given permission to smoke on the DL. The one who had the same coloring as Therese. Who seemed to have come out of the same patient room she had gone into.

Trez nodded. “In a way, yes.”

“You want one?” the male asked as he held out a packet of Marlboros.

“I don’t smoke.” He went over. “But sure.”

“You don’t smoke, or you don’t want to smoke.”

Trez accepted the soft pack and drew one of what was left out. “Does it matter.”

“Nope, not in the slightest.”

Catching the red Bic lighter that was tossed at him, Trez lit the tip of the cigarette and exhaled while he returned the flame-delivery device to its owner.

“I’m trying to quit,” the male said.

“Not going well, huh?” Trez turned the cigarette around and stared at the glow. “I work in a club, so I’m used to smoke.”

“I thought Caldwell has an ordinance against smoking indoors at public places. Doesn’t everything over here?”

“Smoke machine. But it doesn’t matter. My lungs are used to all kinds of secondhand shit.” He pegged the guy right in the eye. “Gareth, right?”

The male frowned. “Do I know you?”

“I’m here with your… ah…”

“Sister?” The male straightened from his lean on the wall. “Therese?”

Trez nodded and held out the Marlboro. “You want this back now?”

There was a moment of tension as those yellow eyes went up and down his body. And before things could get aggressive, Trez shook his head. “I don’t have a dog in this fight, okay? I drove her here so she was safe. She was so upset. She couldn’t dematerialize. I didn’t want her Ubering anywhere by herself, and there are no public transportation options on this side of the river.”

Gareth took a hard inhale, like he was trying to suck part of the world through a straw. Except then he eased back against the wall. Bringing up the Coke bottle the nurse had given him, he unscrewed the top, ashed into the inch of flat soda in the bottle—and then offered the “ashtray” forth.

Trez tapped his own cigarette into the mouth of the bottle. “She just got the messages tonight. She came as soon as she heard them.”

“I left them weeks ago.”

“She had her phone stolen.”

“Oh.”

As her brother lost some of his bluster, Trez figured the lie about