Page 147 of The Other Side of Green

I pondered this for a moment. “Yeah.”

“Good for you. Now let’s move on. I’m fucking freezing and Rhian is waiting for me.”

“Sure.” I hesitated though. Where the hell did I have to go? Going back to Evan’s to hear him and Rhian bang each other senseless wasn’t top of my list.

“You look lost.”

“I am lost.”

“So work out where the hell you want to be.”

Whistling, Evan strolled off down the sidewalk, leaving me watching his swagger. “What did Simon say about Lyra?” I called after him.

He turned, shrugging his shoulders. “We are all just waiting for her to make up her mind.”

“About what?”

“About who she wants to be. Maybe that’s a decision you two lost sheep should make together.” He gave me a cheery wave, the smug bastard, and then turned away.

I glanced at my watch.

Right, I’d given her enough time. It had almost killed me waiting all afternoon. Whatever she needed to sort out she could damn well do it with me at her side.

I was turning to hail a cab when my cell rang. Pulling it out of my pocket I groaned. Greene.

“Hi,” I answered.

“Jack. Get your ass to my office now, and don’t make a slow job of it.” He hung up without another word and my stomach dropped.

That didn’t sound good. At all.

But hell, if the last four years hadn’t taught me to think on my feet. I waved at a cab, already dialing the next number I needed.

“Alex,” I barked.

“God, Jack, I was about to call you. Lyra’s…”

“I know.” I cut him off. “Did you get what I asked for.”

“I got better.”

“Meet me at the gates,” I hesitated. “And I’d suggest you aren’t seen with me.”

Alex chuckled. “Believe me, self-preservation has flown the coop.”

God, this was a nightmare. Like the biggest shitstorm of swirling turd nightmare known to man.

“You haven’t done anything stupid, have you?”

“Define stupid exactly.” He paused and I slipped into the cab, banging the door shut behind me. “You know Mom, she does love a glass of wine or three.” He chuckled. “See you in a few.”

I hung up and told the driver where to go. En route, I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes.

The world span too fast, with nothing to hang onto. All I wanted was to protect her. It was the reason all those years ago I’d suggested she got out, got away from the place we called home, dreamed bigger and brighter than what any of the rest of us dared to believe.

Nothing about this dream felt real any longer. It soured at the edges like wine laced with poison.

Alex waited at the gates like he said he would, looking all too obvious with a manilla envelope under his arm.