“Ain’t these somethin’?” Frank yanked on one, too. No give from its base. “You don’t know how I’ve fought ’em. They’re some kind of impossible silver. Only the best from Eva.”
Was he actually joking around? That took her aback until she realized that Frank had found ample opportunity to get used to this captivity, that he was probably able to yuck it up all he wanted because it’d become so real to him. Yup, just a part of his everyday life, being chained to a wall by a vampire, aka his wife come back from the dead.
She glanced around the room, noticing how nice it was. A fireplace that probably hadn’t seen flames for years, the type of couches and chairs you’d find in an L.L. Bean catalog, a door halfway open to expose a clean toilet and shower, a mini refrigerator, a television.
“I get to watch all the sports I want,” Frank said, touching Dawn’s head again, “and no one nags at me about it.”
He jerked his chin up to one of two cameras perched in the corners.
“Ah,” Dawn said. “That’s how she keeps tabs.”
“I think my audience is Julia, mostly. You get a load of her? Every once in a while when she brings a meal, she’ll tell me what an honor it is to have Eva chain me up. Batshit bozo.”
As Dawn’s heart rate began to smooth out, she marveled at Sober Frank. She wasn’t used to complete sentences or articulate thoughts from him.
She’d think about all that stuff later. Right now, she just wanted to stay glad to see him and figure out how they were going to get out of here.
He motioned to a couch. “Looks like you need to sit. It’ll be a while before the welcoming committee comes through that door again.”
Was he kidding? “There’s got to be an exit somewhere, and I’m going to find it.”
“Hell, if you wanna crawl up the fire chute, give it a go. It’s blocked off except for a tiny hole in the center.” Frank shot one of his patented charming/cocky glances at her. “I’ve tried everything else.”
Well, hey, so she might as well give up then, right?
Ambling toward the fireplace, Frank demonstrated the boundaries of his chains. They were long enough to allow him freedom on this side of the room, but short enough to keep him away from the faraway door.
Smart move, Eva, Dawn thought. When she or Julia entered, Frank wouldn’t be able to ambush them. But, at the same time, he had a certain amount of movement.
Dawn stuck her head into the fireplace and peered up, squinting. Indeed, there was only a tiny hole.
One of the chimneys. A red finger.
She pulled out, flabbergasted that Kiko had actually seen something. His prediction had been cryptic as hell, but he had some of his mojo back. If Dawn hadn’t been stuffed into a secret room by her mother-cum-vampire and her Amazon lackey, she might even say things were looking up.
“I used my fork to make that,” Frank said, plopping to the sofa. He kept looking at her and smiling as if he couldn’t believe she was with him. “That hole just popped up last night, so I tried to yell in the chimney, just to see if anyone would notice my voice, like maybe a Friend on patrol. Or even you, Dawnie. I knew Eva would be bringing you home at some point, and I always imagined you coming over and hearing me before she got to you. Some warning system I am.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t repair the hole lickety-split. A Friend could’ve gotten through.”
“True enough.”
At the same moment, both of them seemed to realize they were talking about really messed-up things. This wasn’t baseball chatter or an attempted conversation about the electricity bill. This was Friends and vampires.
Frank gave her one of his funny, screwy looks. It was the type of expression that’d make her laugh when she was younger, the type that had made her love him even when she was angry enough to spit.
“So, I kind of climbed on the roof to investigate,” she said.
“You did what? Dawnie—”
“Don’t lecture me on safety, Frank. I was checking out something Kiko predicted.”
“Kiko? Well, I’ll be—how is he? And…” Frank’s throat worked and his eyes caught a glimmer. “And…Breisi?”
Dawn knew who he really wanted to hear about. “Breisi’s fine. She talks about you all the time—misses the crap out of you—but she’s worried. Everyone’s worried.”
She wouldn’t go into details about the boss. Dawn felt too rushed for that now, and she wouldn’t be telling Frank most of it anyway. Her dad would probably get all protective and pull out a shotgun, then order The Voice to marry Dawn and make her an honest woman or something. Frank was weird in a lot of old-fashioned ways; he didn’t like “Dawn’s men.”
Not that he knew about a fraction of them.
He was smiling to himself, probably hearing the name “Breisi” reverberating through his head. With that one little tell, Dawn realized just how much he missed the other woman. How deeply he felt for her.
“Breisi and I have talked,” Dawn said.
“Good for you two.”
He lowered his gaze at her, and she understood right away.