“Everything ok?”
I scowl in his face for a beat then sigh. “They’re fine.”
“What was with all the noise?” His teal eyes flick toward the French doors over my shoulder before reconnecting with mine. “It sounded like drag racing or something.”
“Close,” I grunt as I brush by him, resuming my walk to get a beer.
“Was it just one car?”
“Yeah. Fancy sports car.”
“Over here?” Norman whispers as he quickly follows me past Mark. “That’s kind of weird, isn’t it? This isn’t a badneighborhood or anything, but no one over here would own something like that. Between the price and how close the Main Quarter is, it doesn’t really make sense.”
I roll my eyes as I round the island and head to the fridge.
He’s not wrong about any of that, I was already thinking the same thing, but it’s almost three in the fucking morning and I’m not looking to get into another conspiracy theory or some shit right now.
Any other time? Sure.
Debating everything under the sun with Norm is one of my favorite fucking pastimes but I don’t do well when I’m running on no sleep, especially after the day we’ve had.
“Pete?” Norm stops at the edge of the counter as I pull out a beer. “You don’t think it’s anything to worry about, right?”
I stop halfway to the drawer where I know Leo keeps her bottle openers and look at him with a soft smile.
“Nah, man. I’m sure it’s nothing.” I know exactly where his concern is coming from, we’ve been down this road once before and it split the five of us up between hospitals and jail, and a hell of a lot of therapy.
He blows out a breath as he nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure you’re right.” Norm looks over at Mark with a crooked smile as he snores exceptionally loud. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Right.” I point my beer bottle at him as I go to open the drawer. “We’re all here, back together again. Leo is on track to keep us around; it’ll be like old times before…”
My words dry up on my tongue as I look down, my brain refusing to accept what my eyes are clearly seeing.
“You find the bottle opener?” Norm asks as I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn on the flashlight before shining it into the drawer.
I shake my head as I reach inside and pull out the object on top. “Not exactly.”
With my pulse pounding in my ears, I set the small patchwork voodoo doll on the counter, trying to ignore its missing eyes as I stare.
No fucking way.
I quickly go back to the drawer, pulling out envelopes addressed to Leo, her name written in what looks like charcoal, several dried out black roses, and a pair of smashed eyeglasses.
“Oh my god,” Norman gasps as he comes to stand next to me. “Is that?—"
“I… I don’t know. It can’t be, there’s no way.” But I can’t really deny it, not when I’m looking at the same shit we were finding four fucking years ago.
We stare at the morbid blast from our fucked-up past for a few more seconds before Lucky opens the French doors, then quickly scoop everything back into the drawer and slam it closed.
“What are you two doing up?” Leonor whispers as they cross the living room, the two of them actually smiling as they head toward us.
And those smiles are the only fucking reason I don’t bring up what Norm and I just found.
Instead, I hold up the bottle in my hand and give it a shake. “Thirsty.”
“Yeah,” he chimes in. “Super thirsty.”
“I’m gonna hit the sack,” Leo says with a skeptical look. Thankfully she yawns and doesn’t ask any more questions, but Luck is staring at me like he wants to.
