Page 39 of Envious Of Fire
Kyle and Elias look, noticing the cat a few paces from the table studying Jessica, uncharacteristically brave, not her usual, skittish, run-off-and-hide self, tail twitching.
“Little Lion,” Kyle absently states for an introduction.
Jessica doesn’t smile, but she looks like she tries to. “Cute.”
“I just think Brock’s passed out at the penny slots,” says Elias, bringing her back on track and again employing that carefree tone of his. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“No?” murmurs Jessica coolly.
“Nope,” confirms Elias with a warm, reassuring smile.
Jessica glances at each of them a few more times. Then she lets out a sigh that seems to drop ten pounds off her back. “You know what? I think Iwillstop worrying. This isn’t the first time Brock’s gone off. He and I, we haven’t really been … the best lately. We disagree … a lot. You know Brock,” she says with a frayed look toward Kyle. “Same as he’s always been deep down inside, does whatever he wants, never apologizes for anything. I thought he had made progress over the years, but …” She lets out another laughter-twisted sigh, shakes her head. “You know what? I’ve taken up enough of your time. I’ll go.”
She rises suddenly from her chair, causing Little Lion to take off running.
Kyle and Elias rise too, as if synchronized.
She clutches her wallet purse to her chest, clicks her long fingernails on it in thought, then offers a tightened smile back at them. “Actually, I just had a thought. Can we do something else before I go?”
Kyle nods. “Of course. What do you—?”
“Let’s pray.”
She comes up to them with unexpected swiftness, sets her purse on the table, takes hold of Elias’s and Kyle’s hands. Afteran uncertain glance at one another, the men hold hands, too, all three of them forming a circle.
“Lord, please guide Brock back to the path of goodness, to bring him back home to his wife and son. Lord, please give him the strength to overcome the demons he faces, to see the light, to come home where he is loved, away from the dens of sin that he is so often seduced by, from the places of evil, from devices of Satan that lead him astray. I asked you what I should do. You sent me on this journey, to follow my heart, and my heart is with my husband Brock. I pray, much like you brought Kyle and Elias together for their own journey of love and delivering Kyle away from a path of darkness with Tristan, that you also deliver my husband from his own darkness, my Lord, I’m but your humble servant, begging your assistance in this dark time, oh merciful Lord, thank you, blessed be, amen.”
“Amen,” echo Kyle and Elias with similar breathlessness, as if the air has fled the room.
Jessica lets go of their hands. Her warmth has returned, all trace of suspicion gone from her face. “My pastor is on-call,” she tells them, “as if I truly am on a mission to deliver Brock from evil. Truly, he is,” she insists, likely in reaction to a flash of surprise on Kyle’s face. “He’s willing to send a troop from the church up here to help find Brock, if need be. There are even some local churches that can assist, too. I assured him that sending a Christian army likely wouldn’t be necessary. As if I’ll be facing a horde of blood-drinking Satan worshippers …” She lets out a hearty laugh that sounds more natural than all her others, as if truly finding the idea of such horrific things existing to be absurd. She is at once chipper and sweet again. “I’m ever so grateful you gave me this time. Bless the both of you for letting me interrupt your morning. Oh, let me leave my number in case you hear anything. I’m staying at a hotel in Boulder City, did I say already? They offer free breakfast. Asher is probablyup by now eating eggs and pancakes. The eggs are fine, but the pancakes are total rubber. I should go back now, check on him.”
Kyle glances through the crack in the window once again, at the teenager in the car, who seems to have given up on his game, frowning through the windshield, weary of the world.
Does that teenager believe his dad is gone?
Does he care?
Elias is the one to see Jessica out, Kyle standing well away from the door and the morning sunlight that pours in. When at last the door is shut, the men stand in silence for some time, reeling in the aftermath of her visit.
Kyle is the first to talk, his voice small. “Do you think—?”
“No,” says Elias at once, turning from the door. “She has no idea at all. She can guess a thousand things and still wouldn’t even be in the ballpark. She has no hope of finding him.”
“That … does not make me feel better.” Kyle goes to the kitchen, every step slow and labored, exhausted, as he crouches down to fetch Little Lion’s empty bowl off the floor.
Elias comes up to the counter, sighs. “I’m sorry. I bet a part of you wanted to tell her the truth, just to ease her mind.”
“No, actually.” Kyle stops pouring cat food. “I didn’t want her to know anything. I just wanted her to leave.” He bows his head. “I think that’s what’s making me feel worse.”
Elias brings his arms around, hugging Kyle from behind. A silence falls over them, the two saying nothing more.
Kyle lies in bed as the daylight hours pass, the room dark enough to sleep, but he can’t seem to. He listens calmly to the sounds of Elias walking around the house tending to things he’s assumed responsibility over since moving in, as well as working on the sun deck, the noise of which doesn’t bother Kyle at all. But even hours later, he still can’t shut off his mind—Jessica’s words haunting him, seeing her face only in the moments when she looked the most suspicious and cold. It reminds him of howshe was like as a teenager, policing everyone at school … class president, teacher’s pet, all of her smugness and pride …
What if she pokes too deeply into the mystery of Brock’s fate? What if she asks the wrong question to the wrong person?
What if someone at the House of Vegasyn decides she’s something that needs to be dealt with and silenced?
All the fears lead down the same winding road to a person Kyle was certain he would never wish to see again.
