Page 67 of Property of Anchor

The screen door creaked open.She padded out onto the porch and wrapped the blanket tighter around her.Without asking, she walked over and lowered herself into my lap.I caught her by the hips and settled her there.She sighed, warm and solid against me, and tugged the blanket around both of us.

“I don’t like smoking,” she muttered sleepily, “but I think you’ve earned one or two after the past couple of weeks.”

“I’ll quit tomorrow,” I joked, but I meant it.I didn’t need the smoke, not when she was the thing keeping me grounded.

I dropped the spent cigarette and snuffed it out with my boot.

Pearl wiggled in closer and rested her head on my shoulder.“Want to tell me what you’re thinking?”

I didn’t.Not really.

But she was here, and maybe saying it out loud would keep the darkness from swallowing me whole.

“Just… trying to make sense of it all.Asking the night to talk back for once.”

Her fingers traced light, lazy patterns over my chest, right over the KOAMC tattoo on my heart.

“You’ll get there,” she whispered, voice thick with a yawn.“You’ll figure it out.You always do.”

I wrapped my arms around her tighter and rested my chin on her head.

I hoped she was right.Because I could feel something coming.Something bad.

And I wasn’t sure we were ready for it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Anchor

I laid Pearl down gently in her bed and brushed a loose strand of hair off her face.She stirred a little, mumbled something incoherent, but didn’t wake.Her cheek nuzzled into the pillow like it had every right to be there, like this was her space now, and maybe it was.The morning light was starting to push against the curtain edges, not bright yet, but enough to remind me that another damn day had started and I hadn’t slept.

I stepped out onto her porch, pulled the screen door shut behind me with a soft click, and lit a cigarette.The chair creaked beneath me as I sat and leaned back.I crossed my legs, one boot resting on the opposite knee.Smoke curled up into the sky, and I stared into the trees like they owed me something.

My phone buzzed in my cut’s inside pocket.I pulled it out and stepped down the porch steps.

Come to the surveillance room.Now.

That couldn’t be good.

I didn’t even respond.I just pulled out my phone and hit Lost’s number.

He answered on the second ring with his voice thick with sleep.“Yeah?”

“Get your ass to Pearl’s cabin.Now.Sit inside and don’t take your eyes off her until I come back.”

“On my way,” he said instantly.

I ended the call.Flicked the cigarette into the gravel and crushed the ember beneath my boot.

Five minutes later, Lost came jogging down the path.His cut was thrown over a hoodie, and his jeans looked like they’d been pulled on in a rush.Hair flattened on one side and boots untied.

“You look like shit,” I muttered.

He yawned.“I feel like it.You heading out?”

“Surveillance room.Skull found something.”I pointed toward the door.“Get inside.Don’t take your eyes off her.”

He nodded and opened the screen door without another word.I didn’t wait to see him go in.I was already walking.