Page 124 of The Fates We Tame

“You tell her,” Vex says.

I sit down on the now cleared sofa that had been covered with boxes. “I would have thought it would have been in here somewhere.”

Theo crouches down in front of me. “It might still be. When we move your stuff into my place, we can go through it all again. But for now, we have somewhere we are meant to be. We need to go see Dr. Polunin. So, we need to shift the sofa so we can get back out through the door.”

Playfully, Niro, Spark, Vex, and Bates pick the sofa up with me on it. I laugh as I fall back against it.

“Wait,” Bates says. He moves his hand along the sofa. “There’s a fucking switch.”

They put the sofa down, and Bates drops to his knees. When he clicks the switch, I hear a thud, and a panel falls out of the back of the sofa.

“Secret panel. That’s some James Bond shit, Sophia,” Niro says.

My hip bothers me, and I press my palm into it to relieve the tension as I walk around the back to see what is in there.

The shelves start at the bottom of the base of the sofa and stop at sofa cushion height. There’s a series of identical notebooks. Five in total.

And a laptop.

I pull one of the notebooks off the shelf. They look like detailed journals that dance between business and pleasure. The handwriting is definitely mine, even if I don’t remember writing what I’m reading. There are also copies of financial ledgers.

“I saw a gym bag, an empty one, earlier. Let me see if I can find it again,” Spark says.

“My phone,” I say suddenly. “When I got my belongings back from the crash, they gave me all I had on me that day that was salvageable. My shoes, my driver’s license, and my phone. It was dead. Had a shattered screen. I assumed it wouldn’t work anymore. Vex, could you take a look at that to see if there is anything on it?”

Vex nods. “That’s easy. Where is it?”

“I left it at the clubhouse in the drawer next to the bed.”

Theo unwinds a key to the room from his keychain. “Feel free to grab it when you get back.”

Spark hands Theo the bag and begins to slide the books into it. I give him the one from my hand, but I’m anxious to read them first before the club. Before Theo. I need a minute to digest my life before they do.

Once everything is packed up, including the clothes I piled in the corner, we leave.

“King’ll want to know what we found,” Spark says as he carries the bag with all my clothing.

Theo carries the one with the journals and laptop in it. “And we’ll tell him, once we know if there is anything important here.”

Once we’re in Theo’s truck, I say, “Promise me you won’t let them take the laptop and journals before we’ve had a chance to look at them first.”

“I like the way you used the word ‘we’, Sparrow. We won’t let them take it. I promise.”

33

SWITCH

“Theo,” Dr. Polunin says with obvious relief as I greet her by the back entrance to the rehabilitation unit. “I’m very relieved to see you.” She glances at my wife. “And you, too, Sophia. I’ve had momentary envy over your escapades. While I would never advocate escaping rehabilitation, I have to believe you feel the adventure worth it.”

“Doc,” I say. “Thank you for seeing us so late.”

“I think you should call me ‘Katarina.’ I feel everything about this is unusual, so formality at this point seems trivial.”

“You and I both know I’m sticking with Doc. This is Spark. If you think I’m reluctant to be here, Spark might be even worse.”

Doc eyes him carefully. “Ah. I’m very pleased to see you, but I am not calling you ‘Spark.’ I need a first name at least.”

“Tyler, ma’am.”