Page 214 of Always: A Legacy Novel

Cross pulled the door open to find Zeke standing behind it. “Took you long enough, man.”

Zeke shrugged. “Busy. What’s up?”

With a tip of his head, Cross turned to go back into the penthouse. Zeke followed behind his friend, and kicked the door closed behind him.

Zeke froze at the scattered mess of pills, prescription bottles, and empty liquor bottles. The liquor, Cross had ended up doing himself just because he was pissed off, and he didn’t want to give Catherine something to chase when she woke up.

“Fuck,” Zeke drawled, stretching out the word. “That ain’t good.”

Cross fell into the leather couch. A goddamn six-thousand-dollar piece of furniture that Catherine died all over when they found it in that store. He scrubbed his hands down his face.

Exhausted.

Wary.

Silent.

“Is it all of it?” Zeke asked.

“What?”

“Is she using all of it, like mixing it all together, or does she just jump back and forth depending on what the day is like?”

“All.”

“That’s bad, Cross,” Zeke muttered. “Her come down is gonna be hard, man. Like paranoia, sick, tremors kind of bad. Fevers. Chills. Crawling out of her skin. And depending on how much liquor she’s been pumping into her system, she might need a fucking doctor to get her through it. That’s bad.”

“I get it, Zeke.”

“You’re not listening to me.”

“I am!”

Zeke grabbed an empty bottle of vodka. It had been in the freezer. Cross remembered it was three quarters full when he first left on his trip a while back. He never thought to ask why in the hell it only had an inch left in the bottom when he got back.

“Do you see this?”

“What about it?”

“Liquor,” Zeke said, “will kill her coming off it. That’s not a joke, Cross. Shit, it might have been better if she was shooting herself full of heroin, instead of guzzling goddamn liquor. She could die off a heroin withdrawal, sure, because she’d jump out a window to feel better. The fall would kill her, get it? Just getting sober from alcohol can kill her—she could seize, her heart could stop, so listen. Why is she here and not somewhere else?”

Because he was still trying to protect her.

Because he was still covering her ass.

Because he loved her stupid.

“I don’t know what to do,” Cross said faintly.

“Well, if you’re dumb enough to keep her here, then you need to lock her down,” Zeke replied. “It’s going to take a few days, and she’s gonna be real fucking sick, man.”

Cross nodded. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Just … fuck.”

“How did I miss this?”

Zeke eyed his friend from the side, and said, “Because they’re really good at hiding it, that’s how.”