Page 44 of The Triangle

“Never mind,” he says. “It can wait. Go get dressed. We need to get out of here.”

I get out and follow Danny up another metal staircase that looks a lot like the one we just shot our way down less than fifteen minutes ago.

Inside he’s already gathering up weapons.

“I left the sniper rifle behind.” I say, walking up behind him.

He looks over his shoulder as he hauls guns out of a hidey-hole in the floor. “I got a spare.” And then he grins. “It was a birthday gift that year we… you know. I never got a chance to give it to you. But I cleaned it regularly. Just in case.”

He offers me one of those smiles. The ones that have melted my heart for years. The ones I looked forward to every day and then longed to see again after he was gone. The ones I remember.

But it feels sad for some reason.

And then he turns back to the job and starts handing me weapons and says, “There’s a bag in that closet over there. Get it out and put them inside while I go look for something to cover you up.”

Cover me up. I huff at that. Why can’t he just accept what I’m offering?

Not the time, Christine.

I know that.

By the time I’ve got the guns stored in the bag, Alec is coming up the stairs and Danny is coming back with a t-shirt for himself, and a pair of sweats, two pairs of thick socks, a pair of boots, and a navy-blue pea coat for me.

“Sorry,” he says, draping the coat over a chair and dropping the socks and boots onto the floor. “This is all I really have.”

I recognize the coat. It was the one he used to wear when we first met. And back then I’d be swimming in it, but when I slip it on it fits me perfectly. He’s smiling at me when I turn to face him. “Looks better on you than it ever did on me,” he says as I hug it close, breathing in his familiar scent.

It’s the smell of old days. Of the struggle we went through. Of the love we felt for each other.

“It’s perfect,” I say, taking the sweats from him and pulling them up my legs. Then I prop my back against the wall and start putting on the socks and boots.

He takes off his leather jacket and I can’t help myself. My eyes trace all the finely chiseled muscles of his chest. He sighs, shakes his head, pulls on the t-shirt, and puts his leather back on.

Buttoned up tight again.

That’s when we both turn to find Alec looking at us.

“What?” we ask simultaneously.

Alec just smiles. Like he’s got a secret. “Nothin’. Let’s go.” And then he leans down, zips the bag of weapons closed, and hoists the strap up to his shoulder as I finish lacing the boots and take a moment to revel in the newly acquired feeling of warmth.

“Go where?” Danny asks. “And why should we trust you?”

Aw, shit. We’re back to that.

“I’ve got a place, and it’s stocked for every eventuality. An impenetrable fortress. So unless you’ve got one just like it, something with multiple escape routes and—”

“Why would you have a place here?” Danny interrupts, not taking the bait for his implied lack of preparedness.

Alec’s gaze falls on me, then tracks back to Danny. “Where don’t I have a place, bru? I’m a planner, am I not?”

“Doesn’t answer my second question,” Danny deadpans.

Alec smiles. Laughs the way he does when he finds something incredible. “Because you know I’d never hurt you two.”

“Funny,” Danny says. “You’d think that. Because from where I stand that’s all you ever did.”

“OK, you guys. Can we just get the fuck out of here now? I mean, we’re like two blocks away from a bunch of dead bodies that have the name Danny Fortnight written all over them. We can work it out later.”