Page 3 of Starving Butterfly
“Acceptable.” He nodded. Waited. I sat up fully.
“I saved someone. That was the price.”
“Young Love. Sloppy handy work. The brutes?” He inclined his head to Cole, who was sleeping in the chair across from me.
“No. Obsidian’s work.” I spit.
“Ah, poor things going bankrupt and all. Would hate to see the DiSantos swallow them up.” He set his phone down and leaned over to check my pulse. I kept my breathing even, not wanting to give him more reason to touch me. Every touch fromhim sent my nervous system on high alert. He hummed a tune of something like Ring Around the Roses.
“You and Karter?” I asked after he’d withdrawn his hand.
“Karter and I are good colleagues. I owed him a favor. One I am sure he’d have never asked if he knew our shared history. This certainly was a gift I never expected.” He laughed softly and leaned back. Visibly relaxed, as if he couldn’t care to be here.
“You talk fondly of him.” I bit out.
“I tolerate him.”
“Where is he?”
“New York.”
“Why are you giving me this information so easily?”
“I am intrigued.”
“Doctors like you are never just intrigued. There’s something you are withholding from me.”
“Ah, you caught me. Yes I have useful information. It comes at a price.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Well then my work here is done.” He moved to take his bag, and I reached out, gripping his arm.
“What price?”
“Now you ask the right question. I’ll collect my favor at a later date. You’ll come to me when the child matters more than your pride.”
“How do I know you’ll tell me the truth.”
“Have I ever lied to you?” I stared at him for a long time. I hated to admit that he was right. He had never sugarcoated anything. That scared me.
4
RAGE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
October 7th
The doctor was intimately close to her when my eyes opened, his mouth inches away from her ear, and her face morphed into anger the longer he kept talking. I rubbed my eyes, watching silently. Dozing off for fifteen minutes and waking up to thisprick whispering in my wife’s ear was the last thing I wanted. This doctor was the one everyone whispered about: the doll maker. Dr. Avery was no ordinary man; he was a cold, heartless bastard. I’d heard that what he did to women made me look like a teddy bear in comparison. I studied the man as he bent over my Summer. Tall, muscular build, black hair neatly styled in a professional manner, the man couldn’t have been less aggressive looking. His charming appearance was an act; he was a monster like the rest of us.
He paused his whispers as if sensing my awakened state and stared at me. A moment later Summer’s eyes latched onto mine. Hateful glares that stabbed my soul. I cleared my throat and stood, stretching.
“I’m going to go call Jasper, see if he’s heard anything.” I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door.
They watched as I made my way across the room; when I came close to the bed, Summer flinched backwards. She still didn’t trust me. Sighing, I turned away and walked out the door.
“Jasper,”I spoke into the phone. A lit cigarette between my fingers as I pinched my nose in regret.
“Nothing yet boss. Out of the country we think. How’s Ms. Will— Um the Missus?” Everyone knew Summer as Mia Williams; that wouldn’t change anytime soon. I just had to hope she didn’t get a dick up her cunt and divorce me. I’d never been the jealous type, and yet that damn doctor’s whispers in her ear set my head ablaze. The nicotine should have pushed the headache away, but as I dragged an inhale and blew it out, there was nothing helping the unwanted emotion from subsiding.Hesitation crept into me as I processed Midas’s absence. He didn’t have Gabriella.
