Page 124 of Hell Bent

The sound of the door, and Lexi jumped off the coach and headed out there, tail wagging. I put my phone away and headed around the corner myself. And stopped dead.

She was hanging up her coat after dumping her suitcase, then sitting on the bench to get her shoes off with Lexi in herface. Yoga pants, T-shirt, ponytail. Moving way too stiffly, and I could swear she winced when she sat down. She also had that paleness going on and those shadows under her eyes again. I said, “What’s wrong? Why didn’t you answer me?”

Possibly too sharply, because she said, “I was busy.” Warily. She tried a smile, and a “How are you doing? And Ben? You guys been OK?” She pushed off the bench, and that looked too hard.

I said, “What happened?”

“I’m tired,” she said, “same as you. My period’s about to start, too, so I’m feeling pretty achy. I’ll sleep in the office tonight so I won’t keep you awake.”

I squinted at her, because that wasn’t all I was getting. “What’s going on with your legs, or your back, or whatever it is? What don’t you want to tell me?”

She sighed. “I’m—” Then didn’t go on. Like she was stuck.

I went back into the living room and told Ben, who was watching his movie again, “The food’ll be here in about fifteen. Go down for it when they call, will you?” and handed him a twenty from my wallet. “Tip.”

“They must love coming here,” he said, showing the first animation he had all day. “With how you tip.”

I didn’t answer, because Alix was there, sitting beside Ben but not touching him, saying, “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said.

“I had kind of a rough day,” she said. “I bet it wasn’t any picnic for you, either. The first day’s weird. Like you’re back to your life, except you’re not.”

He looked away and pleated the throw between his fingers. “Yeah.”

I said, “Come talk to me, Alix.”

Ben said, “You’re kidding. You’re going to haveanotherbig angsty talk? My mom just died yesterday! Can’t you give it a rest?”

I said, “Look at Alix.”

“Iamlooking at her.”

“Does she look good to you?” I asked.

Alix said, “Hey.”

Ben said, “Geez, dude. Way to make her feel better.”

“She’s hurting,” I said. “Could you make her a cup of tea, please? Put some milk in it like she likes and bring it to my room. I’m going to grab an ice pack.”

Ben stopped looking at the TV and looked at Alix instead. “What? You’re sick again?”

“I’m fine,” she said, “and everybody can stop fussing.Mymom didn’t just die. My mom, in fact, texted me twice today. I now have a full list of banks with available safe-deposit boxes within a twenty-mile radius of downtown Portland,withhelpful links, and Ialsohave a breakdown of the Portland burglary rate by neighborhood. The Pearl District gets an F grade for property crime, so you know, and as the cherry on top, Cascade Locks, where my trailer is, gets a D-minus for violent crime. So glad I know that. I’m not saying I wish she’d die, but I sure wish she’d lay off. To put the icing on the cake, my boss gave me a hard time today, and I didn’t exactly respond according to the military code of conduct.”

“Huh?” Ben asked.

“I was mildly insubordinate. Or possibly not so mildly. Which still doesn’t rise to any kind of crisis, but I don’t care. I just want to go to bed until it’s tomorrow.”

“And you can,” I said. “Right now. Let’s go.”

49

WHAT MEN DO

Sebastian

I said, “I want to know how you got hurt, and I want to see it.”