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“A whole weekend.”

“I’ll set you up with new episodes before I go. You won’t even notice I’m gone.”

“I’ll notice the quiet. No sawing. It’ll be wonderful.”

Nate smiled and looked at the flyer again. “I wish you could come,” he said. Not carefully, just plainly. An honest wish. “You’d lose your mind. The listing says the kitchen’s original.”

Leo said something back. It must have been adequate, because the evening carried on. There was footage to review, and Nate’s shoulder was warm next to his even without any tea in his blood.

But that night, while Nate slept, Leo stood at the window and looked down the dark drive.

I wish you could come.

But Leo couldn’t.

The only time he’d been able to leave this place, he’d been stuck inside of a toy, and he’d rather not have that experience again.

So Nate would continue leaving, and Leo would continue to be stuck here.

That was how things were, how they had to be.

Except.

Leo was stronger now.

Nate had said it, and so had Caleb, and Leo knew he could get even stronger than he was now; he could feel it.

Could he get strong enough to cross the property line?

To go where Nate went?

Maybe.

But he would need his memories back. He could feel that too.

He looked down.

Some of his memories, he knew, were locked in the basement.

People can’t be down there.

“Why not?” Leo asked, out loud, alone at the window.

No answer. There was never an answer.

Nate slept with one arm over the seal. The drive was dark. Leo stayed at the window a long time.

In the morning, he’d ask Nate to uncover whatever was hidden in the basement.

Chapter

Forty

Nate was making a list when Leo came through the kitchen wall.

Ratchet straps. Moving blankets. The tarp from the garage, if the mice hadn’t gotten to it. All things that would be good to have at the auction. If he was on the road by ten he’d make the preview with an hour to spare, walk the lots, sleep in the truck, be first through the doors Saturday.

Leo floated to the far side of the table and stopped. He didn’t sit. His back was straight, his hands somewhere behind him.