Page 28 of Fire
Roger swallowed. Despite his protesting joints and his pulse racing like he was headed into a fight, he bent down to one knee before holding out his hand. “They’re gone, Tobias.”
After a long minute, Tobias took his hand, allowing Roger to haul him up and out of the closet.
Roger walked him back downstairs, knees almost shaking. He didn’t know if any of those particular hunters had ever visited Freak Camp, didn’t want to think about what could have happened if they’d come across Tobias. Even without that possibility, that had been too damn close.
At the guest room door he paused, groping for something to help, but not yet ready to pour a teenager whiskey. He settled on a broad offer: “You need anything?”
Tobias shook his head and stepped inside, still holding onto that duffel bag. He hadn’t said a word, Roger realized. No sense in pushing him now, not when Roger was shaken up too. He double-checked the locks on his front door and returned to bed. He wouldn’t call Jake tonight, he decided. Tobias could call him if he wanted to, and Roger would see what the morning brought.
* * *
At breakfast,Tobias had returned to an earlier, silent version of the kid Roger knew. Roger felt the familiar pang of guilt, but at least Tobias wasn’t flinching at his movements. He didn’t speak and didn’t make eye contact, not until Roger asked the question that had been in his head when he’d woken up this morning, thinking about these two Hawthorne boys.
“Does Jake still drink like a fish when things go south?”
Tobias snapped his gaze to Roger’s face. He looked startled, which was progress. He considered the question for a long moment; just when Roger started to worry, he answered. “Not in a while. Not like he used to.”
Roger nodded. “There was a time, in the space before he got you, that I used to lock most of my liquor in a safe when he crashed here. All hunters like a bottle, but when a fifth of Jack starts looking like a one-man serving size, that’s a surefire way for a hunter to meet an early grave.”
Tobias winced.
“His old man was like that, off and on over the years,” Roger added. “The habit gets carried in the blood and by example. Jake got it both ways. I hoped—well, he was so set on getting you, I hoped if it all... worked out, maybe he’d give his liver a break and stick around for his thirtieth birthday.”
Tobias looked deeply unnerved by the idea that Jake might not make it to thirty.
“Things are working out,” Roger said mildly. “But every drinker falls off the wagon sometime. You be sure to pocket the Eldorado’s keys when he does.”
Tobias gave a slight, incredulous shake of his head, not in refusal so much as amazement. Slowly, he said, “I can do that now. But I couldn’t have, not so long ago.”
“Well, he’s made it this far. You just gotta be on the lookout going forward. And even if he ain’t driving drunk—if it’s making you uncomfortable, Tobias, it’s a problem.” He leaned in, making sure to catch Tobias’s eye.
Tobias returned his gaze, still looking skeptical, but more alive than he had since before Roger had helped him out of his closet the night before.“Everythingmakes me uncomfortable. Even the normal stuff that shouldn’t.”
“I’m not talking about the normal stuff. There’s nothing normal about being too drunk to see straight.”
“He hasn’t done that,” Tobias protested, “in a long, long time.”
“Yeah, well. Even if it’s just enough that makes you feel uneasy, or it’s a headache to get him back to the motel, you gotta tell him that the next day. That ain’t right. Takes two to tango, and he’s not the only one calling the shots.”
Tobias nodded. “That hasn’t happened... in a while. Jake’s—he cares. He notices when I’m upset. Even though that’severything, even the dumb stuff.” He spoke quietly, not quite meeting Roger’s eye.
“It ain’t dumb if it makes sense according to everything you’ve ever known,” Roger told him.
“Itfeelsdumb,” Tobias said, in a tone that could almost be called bitchy. Roger hid a smile behind his coffee mug. “But it’s better than it was,” Tobias added a moment later. “Or it doesn’t get to me like it used to. And I’ve learned—” He hesitated, glancing at Roger and then away.
“Yeah?” Roger prompted. “You figured out how to wind Jake round your little finger? Don’t figure that would take much effort.”
That got him a hint of a smile. “No, I mean... it took a while, but I figured out that it makes him happy if I pretend to care more than I do, about the little stuff. Even if it’s just where we’re having dinner. I’ll talk about how all I really want is Mexican food, but there’s no Mexican restaurant in the next town, and I act like it’s the end of the world. Stuff like that. Do you think that’s okay, if I pretend like that? I don’t lie about anything more important.”
Roger huffed a laugh. Someday this kid was going to give him a damn heart condition if he kept saying heartbreaking stuff at this rate. “Sure, kid. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. How’ve you been doing since, uh... West Virginia?”
He’d heard the briefest outline from Jake, and nothing directly from Tobias, though he was sure Jake had only shared what he had with Tobias’s permission.
Tobias lifted his shoulders in something that might’ve been a shrug or just a protective shifting. His gaze shifted beyond Roger, though not shut down as Roger had seen in the past, thank God.
After a long minute, Roger started to wonder if Tobias would even answer (and wouldn’t a flicker of teenage sullenness be a welcome sight, as much as he’d never admit it?), but then he spoke.
“It’s been weird. I don’t know how to talk about it. It doesn’t feel real, most days. I...” He made a strange circular gesture, as though grasping for the words eluding him. “It’s been scary,” he said quietly. “Because... they were always supposed to be right. Everything depended on them being right.”
