"It's okay," he said. "I trust you, too, Alex." He turned around and listened as she walked out and left him there to clean up his mess alone.
Chapter Seventeen
In one instant, her world had suddenly shifted on its axis.
Alex walked away from Kade, surprised that her legs were functioning when her mind was spinning with the illogic of what she'd just witnessed him do--not only to Skeeter Arnold, but also to Fran Littlejohn. Was it some type of hypnotism he'd used on her, or something more powerful than that to make the woman bend so easily to his will?
And Skeeter ...
What did he mean, saying all those strange things to Kade, talking about how he was carrying out orders from his "Master"? It was crazy talk, and yet Skeeter hadn't seemed crazy. He'd seemed very dangerous, no longer the small-time drug dealer and all-around loser she knew him to be, but something deadly. Something almost inhuman.
He wasn't really alive anymore ... just a shell.
He had killed Big Dave in cold blood, and Kade had snapped Skeeter's neck with his bare hands. Oh, God. Nothing was making sense to her.
There's more to your monsters than you know, Alex.
Kade's warning echoed in her head as she stepped out into the lightless cold of the afternoon. How could any of this be happening? It couldn't be happening. How could any of this be reality?
But she knew it was, just as surely as she had always known that what had happened all those years ago in Florida was reality, too.
Trust no one but me now.
Alex wasn't sure she had any choice. Who else did she have? What Kade had just done--everything he'd just said in the clinic--had left her with more questions than she was prepared to ask. She was terrified and uncertain, more than ever now. Kade was dangerous; she'd seen that for herself only a minute ago. Yet he was also protective, not only of Alex herself, but of Fran Littlejohn, too--a woman he didn't even know. In spite of all he'd said and done just now, Kade was a solid anchor in a reality that had suddenly cast Alex adrift. It was his strength and trust that buoyed her as she stared at the small crowd still clustered in front of the clinic. The dozen-plus faces she had known for so long now appeared to her as strangers as she unobtrusively slipped past them. Even Zach, who glanced over when she had just about made it to the outer edge of the throng, seemed less a friend than a source of doubt and unwanted complication. His eyes narrowed on her, but she kept walking, desperate to get out of there. "Alex." An arrow of sudden, cold panic stabbed her. Zach was the last person she needed to see right now. She pretended not to hear him, walked a bit faster.
"Alex, hold up." He pushed his way through, catching her by the sleeve of her parka. "Will you wait a damned minute?"
Given no choice, she paused. It was a struggle to keep her expression neutral as she faced him. There was no containing the tremble that swept her body while Zach scowled at her in the dark.
"Are you all right? Your face is white as a sheet."
She shook her head, jerked her shoulder in an awkward shrug. "I'm just a little wrung out, I guess."
"Yeah, no shit," he said. "Listen, I'm sorry I was short with you before. Things seem to be going from bad to worse around here lately."
Alex swallowed, nodding. He didn't even know the half of it.
Trust no one but me now ... Tell no one what you saw in here, Alex. Promise me. Kade's words drifted through her thoughts as Zach watched her expectantly. "So? You've got my unpided attention, for the moment at least. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Um ..." Alex fumbled for a reply, feeling oddly unsettled by the way Zach seemed to peer at her in speculation, maybe even suspicion. "I just ... I was concerned about Big Dave, of course. How is he? How do you, um, think he's doing?"
The questions felt clumsy on her tongue, especially when her heart was still banging from everything she'd witnessed in the clinic.
Zach's expression turned a bit more scrutinizing. "You saw him yourself, didn't you?" She shook her head, not sure she could deliver a convincing lie.
"Didn't I see you go inside--you and your, ah, new friend?" He leaned on the word, unnecessarily hard. "Where is he, anyway? Still inside?"
"No," she said, all but blurting it. "I don't know what you're talking about. Kade and I were out here the whole time. He just left."
Zach didn't quite seem to buy it, but before he had a chance to press her further, the clinic door opened and Fran Littlejohn came out onto the stoop. "Officer Tucker! Where's Zach? Somebody call Officer Tucker right away!"
Alex stared, weathering a rising feeling of dread as Fran's head bobbed, searching the crowd.
"Over here," Zach called. "What is it?"
"Oh, Zach!" The clinic technician heaved a sigh, her thick shoulders slumping. "I'm afraid we lost him. I'd just given him another dose of sedative, and I turned away for what couldn't have been more than a minute at most. When I looked back just now, I saw that he had passed. Big Dave is dead."
"Goddamn it," Zach muttered. Although he spoke to Fran, he shot a tight glance at Alex. "No one else with you in there, Fran?"