“Oh my God…” I breathed.
Dee rocked back on her heels. “Told you that you were going to love this. Beautiful, isn’t it?”
All I could do was nod. Numerous medium-size palms lined a quartz-embedded privacy wall, creating the perfect shaded area. The space was rectangular, with a large patio with a grill, fire pit, and various lounge chairs. Brightly colored flowers lined the paver walkway, as did bushes I’d seen in the desert but couldn’t name. The scent of jasmine and sage was strong in the air. Toward the end of the property was a pool with a natural stone deck.
It was the kind of garden you saw on TV.
“When Dee told me that you loved to garden, I knew we’d have something in common.” Lyla ran her fingers along a red and yellow croton. “I think your love of gardening has rubbed off on Dee. She’s been helping me.”
“It helped.” Dee shrugged. “You know, not to think about so many things.”
That’s what I’d loved about gardening. It was the great mind-emptier. After investigating everything from the mulch to the neutral-colored pebbles, I followed Dee upstairs to the second floor. Daemon was with Dawson, Matthew, and the Thompson siblings. He needed to spend time with them. Besides, hanging out with Dee was bringing me a world of warm fuzzies.
One of the bedroom doors was closed, and I figured that was where Beth was. “How is Beth doing?” I asked.
Dee slowed down, falling in step with me. Her voice was low. “She’s okay, I guess. She doesn’t talk much.”
“Is she…?” Wow. How did I ask this question without sounding insensitive?
“Sane?” suggested Dee, but she did so without scorn. “Some days are better than others, but she’s been really tired lately, sleeping a lot.”
I stepped around a giant urn packed with snake plants. “Well, she can’t be coming down with something. We don’t get sick.”
“I know.” Dee stopped at a bedroom at the end of the hall. “I just think the traveling has her stressed out. She wanted to help, don’t get me wrong, but she’s scared.”
“She has a right to be.” I brushed a few strands of hair out of my face and focused on the room. The bed was big enough for five people and had a mountain of pillows stacked against the headboard. “So this is our bedroom?”
“Huh?” Dee was staring at me, and then she shook her head. “Sorry. Yes. For you and my brother.” A giggle escaped. “Wow. A year ago, Katy…”
A smile tugged at my lips. “I would’ve rather stabbed myself repeatedly in the eye with a spork than sleep in the same
“A spork?” Dee laughed as she went over to the closet. “That’s serious.”
“It is.” I sat on the bed and immediately fell in love with the firmness. “Sporks are only used in the most dire situations.”
Tugging her hair up into a ponytail, she stepped inside. I could see a few of my outfits in there. “I grabbed a couple of everything—jeans, shirts, dresses, underoos.”
“Thank you. I mean it. This,” I said, gesturing at myself, “is all I have. It will be nice to change into something that’s mine after…” I trailed off, not seeing the point in going there. Scanning the room for a distraction, I spotted another door. “Do we have our own bathroom?”
“Yep. Every room does. This house is sick.” She blinked out in front of the closet and reappeared on the bed beside me. “It makes it kind of hard to leave this place.”
I’d only been here a few hours, and I wanted to adopt the house. “So, where are you going after this? With us?”
She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I’m not thinking about it yet, because I don’t know how possible it’s going to be for all of us to stay together. Going home is out of the question for a ton of reasons.” She paused, looking at me. “Everyone at school was so…different after you and Daemon disappeared. With all the police and the journalists back again, people really started to get paranoid. Lesa was beside herself, especially after what happened to Carissa. It’s good she has her boyfriend. She thinks Dawson and I left town to visit family. Kind of true.”
Worrying the hem of my shirt, I steeled myself. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure. Anything.”
“My mom—how is she?”
Dee took a moment to respond. “You want the truth, or do you want me to make you feel better?”
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Tears welled up in my eyes so fast I had to look away.
“You know the answer to that.” She found my hand and squeezed. “Your mom is upset. She took a lot of time off work—her jobs were okay with that. Very understanding from what I heard. She doesn’t believe you and Daemon ran away. That’s what the police finally decided when they could find no evidence of why you, Daemon, and Blake disappeared, but I also think some of the officers were in on it. They jumped to the runaway conclusion way too fast.”
I shook my head. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Daedalus has people everywhere.”
“Your mom found the laptop Daemon bought you. I had to tell her that he got it for you. Anyway, she knew you’d never run away without a laptop.”
I gave a short laugh. “That sounds about right.”
She squeezed my hand again. “Your mom is doing okay, though, all things considered. She’s really strong, Katy.”
“I know.” I looked at her then. “But she doesn’t deserve this. I can’t stand the idea of her not knowing what happened to me.”
She nodded. “I’ve spent a lot of time with her, just hanging out and helping with the house until we left. I even kept your garden weeded. I thought that could somehow make up for everything we dragged you into.”
“Thank you.” I moved so I was facing her. “I mean that. Thank you for spending time with her and helping her out, but you guys didn’t drag me into anything. Okay? None of this is your fault or Daemon’s.”
Her eyes glistened, and she said in a small voice, “You really mean that?”
“Of course!” Shock rippled through me. “Dee, you guys didn’t do anything wrong. This is all on Daedalus. That’s who I blame. They are responsible. No one else.”
“I’ve just been so upset. I’m happy to know that you don’t feel that way. Ash said you probably hated me— hated us.”
“Ash is a douche.”
Dee laughed outright. “She can be sometimes.”
I sighed. “I just wish there was something we could do other than just run.”
“Yeah, me, too.” Her knee bounced as she let go of my hand and tugged her ponytail down. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
She bit down on her lower lip. “How bad was it?”
I tensed. The one question I didn’t want to be asked, but Dee waited, her expression so earnest that I had to say something. “Some days were better than others.”
“I can imagine,” she said softly. “Beth talked about it once. She said they would hurt her.”
Thinking about my back, I pressed my lips together. “They do that. They did and said a lot of things.”
She paled and several moments passed. “While we were heading here, Luc said that you…that Blake is dead. Is that true?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Archer must’ve told him. “Blake’s dead.” I stood, tugging my hair back. “This isn’t something I want to talk about—not any of the stuff that happened there. I’m sorry. I know you’re just concerned. But it’s not something I want to think about. It screws with my head.”
“Okay. But if you ever do, you know I’m here for you, right?” I nodded, and Dee fixed a bright smile across her face. “So let’s move on to better stuff. Like that fine-looking specimen of a man who came in with you—the one with the military cut?”
“Archer?”
“Yes. He’s hot. And I’d spell that H-A-W-T.”
