Page 65 of Drag You Down
I glance at the automatic feeder, which still has plenty of dry food in it.
“Spoiled,” I grumble out of habit as I get the can of wet food and serve it to him. He immediately buries his nose in the food bowl.
I notice my wallet sitting out on the kitchen counter. When I open it, all my credit cards are still there, and none of the cash has been taken.
Levi left without taking anything? My worry ratchets up. If he’d taken money, I would at least know that he could make it back to that apartment. But without cash and no phone, how far could he even have gotten?
I go back to my bedroom to pull on clothes as fast as I can. I probably need a shower, but I don’t have time for that.
Once I’m dressed, I call Dom.
He picks up after the second ring. “This had better be the biggest emergency of your life,” Dom growls. “I had a long fucking day yesterday?—”
“I lost my lamb,” I say, then quickly correct myself, “The boy I had with me last night. Levi. He left. I need to find him.”
There’s a long silence on the other end. “Wait. You hooked up with somebody and he left? He did a walk of shame on you?” He starts laughing. “Never thought I’d see the day.”
My vision grows hazy with fury, and I wonder if anybody would miss Dom. If I carved him up and left his corpse in a ditch, or bury it in the woods… Just another dead cop. Who cares?
But while the police in New Bristol never seem to care about protecting the innocent, they go all out in protecting and avenging their own.
I can’t afford the hassle.
“It’s not funny,” I snarl at him. “He had no money and no phone. He doesn’t know the area.”
“Whoa. Chill,” Dom says, no longer laughing. “Hate to break it to you, Gabe, but some guy voluntarily leaving your bedroom isn’t a crime.”
Yes, it is, I think, but I have enough sense not to say that out loud.
“I know. But I’m worried about him. He’s… innocent. Naive. The city won’t treat him right.”
The only one who can treat him right is me. He’s mine.
Dom sighs loudly. “Okay, if you’re hung up on him, figure out where he might have gone and go there? I’m not at work right now, and I won’t go into work right now. I deserve at least another five hours of sleep. But if you don’t find him by the time my shift starts, I’ll try to help.”
That’s as much as I’ll get out of him.
He’s useless. He’d deserve to be cut apart, piece by piece, while he screams and begs for forgiveness. I’d teach him exactly how insignificant he is in comparison to Levi.
But I still need him as a friend.
He’s the only person I can currently call a friend.
“Okay. Thank you,” I say reluctantly. “I’m going to go look for him.”
He can’t have gotten far, right? But if he was trying to get back to Zachariah’s apartment building, he’d have to go south.
I flip my phone over to the pictures of Levi I’ve taken. Some are from when I was surveilling his apartment, and a few are from last night while he was asleep.
He’s so beautiful. He’s so good.
Everybody will want to tear him apart.
Well, they can’t have him. He’s mine.
If anybody touched him last night, I’m going to cut them apart, bone by bone. They’ll feel every single moment of their sins before they die.
I might need to buy more bone saws.
