LOGINXena.“He’s stable, Mr. Cross.” The doctor peeled off her gloves and dropped them in the bin beside the bay. “It was a short arrhythmia from stress, and it corrected itself. I want him quiet, one visitor at a time, and no raised voices.”“Can I go in?” Dante’s hand was already on the curtain.“Five minutes.”He turned to me. His palm cupped my jaw, and his thumb stopped at the corner of my mouth. “Stay where I can find you.”“I’m not moving from this wall.”He held my eyes a moment longer, then slipped through the curtain. I heard the low murmur of his voice on the other side, and a thin voice answering him. I leaned my shoulders against the corridor wall beside the double doors that opened onto the waiting room, where I could see Peter’s row of chairs and Adrian could see me.Adrian sat on the floor beside my feet with his ba
Xena.“Ma’am, the patient’s son says no visitors.” The security guard stepped into the middle of the emergency doors and spread his arms. “He has paperwork.”“Which son?” I demanded.“Mr. Peter Cross.”Okafor held up his bar card at the guard’s eye level. “I represent Mrs. Dante Cross, and I’d like to speak to your charge nurse. We can do that at the desk or in front of your lobby camera.”The guard looked at the card, then at the camera, and stepped aside.Behind me, Adrian’s boots scuffed to a stop, and his breath came fast.The waiting room was full. A woman held a toddler against her shoulder, and two men in work jackets sat beneath a muted television. The woman with the toddler looked up when the doors opened, then past us to the intake desk, where Peter stood with a manila folder open in front of the charge nurse.“Hallam House has a bed ready and a car coming at three,” Peter was saying. His voice was warm and carried across the whole room. “My father is eighty-one. He needs a
Xena"No." I lowered the phone to my hip and faced him. "You don't get to hear her."Peter stood on the top step with one hand on the rail, his coat buttoned to the throat. He had crossed the road without hurrying, and his shoes had left damp prints on our boards."Mr. Cross." Reyes's voice carried from the street, flat and hard. "Step off that porch.""I'm speaking with my sister-in-law, Detective, in front of this entire street." Peter did not turn his head. "I'm not touching her, and I'm not inside her door.""Dad." Adrian had stopped working the key, and the lock clicked back against his fingers as he let go of it. He stood with his back against the door and the key hanging from his fist. "Go home."Peter's eyes moved to his son, and for the first time that morning his voice lost its polish. "Adrian. Come away from that door.""No.""I said come here.""I heard you." Adrian's chin shook once, and he held it level. "I live here this week."Peter's face did not change, but the knuck
Xena"Yes, he's with me." I turned my back to the street and dropped my voice. "Mom, how do you know that?""Because Peter called me at eight this morning." My mother's voice came low and fast. "He wanted to know what I remembered about the church door. He told me Richard gets confused and says things, and that I shouldn't take any of it to heart.""What did you tell him?""That I'd forgotten all of it. Then I hung up." A cupboard door slammed on her end. "He had my number, Xena, and he knew which church.""What exactly did he say?""That you'd been asking questions and might upset me." Her breath caught on the line. "I hadn't said a word about that church door in eleven years, and he knew exactly where to push."Behind me, the older medic raised her voice. "Folks, we're moving him.""Mom, stay on the line." I pressed the phone flat against my coat and turned around.The paramedics had Richard on a stretcher with a gray blanket drawn to his chest. His red scarf had been left on, and t
Xena.“Shut it off, Mr. Cross.” Detective Reyes stood in front of the sedan’s bumper with one palm raised and her other hand resting on the radio at her shoulder.The driver’s window slid down two inches.“Detective, I need to go.” Peter’s face filled the gap, pink from the cold. “My father has his lunch at noon, and he does poorly when it’s late.”“Where is your father right now?”“Where he is every Sunday morning.” Peter folded his hands on the wheel. “I’d be grateful if you’d step aside.”From the far sidewalk, the man with the rake called out. “He’s got somebody in the back. Old fellow in a scarf. He was sitting there before your cruiser pulled up.”Reyes turned her head. “How long before?”“Twenty minutes, easy. I watched Mr. Cross park and walk off.”Reyes looked at the sedan’s rear windows, tinted nearly black, and walked down the driver’s side to the back door.“Step out of the car, Mr. Cross.”“Am I under arrest?”“You’re a man who left a vulnerable adult alone in a parked ca
Xena.“Ma’am, stop right there.” The young officer had left the curb and was walking toward me with one hand resting on his belt. “Hands where I can see them.”I stood in the middle of the pavement with Mrs. Delacroix’s fingers closed around my sleeve. Behind me, Dante called my name once, and his footsteps stopped at the curb.I opened both palms at my sides. Then I took one step backward, and another, until my heels touched the curb beside him.“Mrs. Delacroix, please let go of my arm.” I kept my voice low and my palms open. “He needs to see that you aren’t holding me here.”She looked at the officer, then at her own hand. She let go slowly, and I lowered her wrist to her side. Her husband met her at the edge of their walk and took her elbow.“Name,” the officer said, his notebook already out.“Xena Cross. I live in the house behind you.”He wrote it down. On the far sidewalk, the woman with the phone had moved two steps closer for a better angle. The man with the rake had not looke
Xena. Was Hannah drunk?I stood there waiting for the punchline. April Fools was months away but maybe someone had lost track of the calendar. Maybe this was some elaborate Yale family bit that I hadn't been briefed on. Maybe —Adrian crossed the room to stand beside her."It's true." He turned to
Xena.I gasped for breath, my legs still aching from the last round. Yet Dante stood over me like this was nothing but probably another of his one night stands.The bed was wet beneath me, wet from my juices. I stared at the ceiling for a while, the memories of his cock inside of me played over an
Xena.The ceiling in Dante's room was different from the one in the guest room.I noticed that first, which probably said something about the state of my brain. I stared at it and waited for regret to arrive.It didn't.What arrived instead was a very thorough physical awareness of every decision
Xena.The night air hit me the moment we stepped outside and I realized it was the first clean breath I'd taken in hours.Dante's car was already waiting. The long black car didn't need a logo to tell one it cost fortunes. A driver stood at the rear door without being summoned and I got in without







