In the dark hotel bedroom, she woke up instantly. One second she was asleep and the next she was awake, staring at the darkened ceiling.
It was her day off, she realized. Only a few days before, she would have been planning a day just for her and Alex. If Alex were busy at a friend's house, she would have Variable slate her for a high-stakes Saturday night event. It was three times the work, three times the blood, but four times the pay and worth it.
She would always be bruised and bloodied when she woke the next day; she had to spend an hour in the bathroom doing her makeup after events like that. She couldn't run the risk that Alex would see her by mistake and wonder why her face looked like ground meat. After one such run-in, she always arranged for the events to coincide with Alex being out of the house.
She rolled out of the bed and cracked her neck and twisted her back to crack her back. Her muscles, sore and tense, protested as she stood and opened the dresser; blindly grabbing the nearest pair of jeans and shirt.
Her back and arms both protested violently as she reached up and put her hair back in a messy bun.
Without turning the light on, she dressed quickly; dark wash jeans and a dark blue tank top. On her way out of the bedroom, she grabbed her purse, a jacket and slipped on her shoes.
Hoping that Will's men weren't paying attention, she trotted down the stairs and into her car.
She drove out of the hotel lot and headed out of the city, her face grim as she did so. Miles outside the city, as the sun was just peeking up, she saw the park. The state had claimed it years before; a large chunk of forest. They planted flowers, endangered trees and bushes. They spruced it up and then forgot about it. After a while, the rest of the world did, too.
She parked the car and stepped out into the sun gratefully. It was going to be a cooler day, she could tell. She needed the sun on her skin.
As she walked briskly into the dense woods, on the little mulched path, she bent and scooped up a handful of tulips from the ground. She stared at them oddly as she walked mindlessly through the trails. They were trails that she knew by heart, and she didn't need to look where she was going to know where she was.
Finally, when she was deep in the heart of the wooded areas, she stopped walking.
It was situated in the middle of the park a simple, but large stone. It was a pearlescent white and smooth, and situated about twenty feet off the trail.
She stepped off the path, and gently knelt in front of the stone. Before she could stop herself, she ran a hand over the surface of the stone.
She brought her hand away from the stone and arranged the flowers at the base of the stone.
She looked at the stone with a heavy heart and gently stood, even as her legs screamed.
Regretting her visit, she left the stone, the trail, and then the woods. Her heart pounding and her head swarming with emotions, she climbed shakily into her car.
“I didn't expect to see you here,” he said.
She didn't even jump as she heard Variable's voice. She didn't need to look at him to know that it was him. She'd known that voice for seven years. It was in her blood, in her bones.
In her head.
“I haven't had the time lately,” she said. She wrapped her hands around the steering wheel and stared straight ahead, not wanting to see him.
“I'm here to pay my respects,” Variable said quietly.
She turned and looked at him.
His skin glowed a warm gold against his warm eyes and hair. He wore a white shirt under a black blazer, and dark-wash jeans and leather shoes.
