He’d told his brother about waking up at Skywood, carved up and stitched back together like a rag doll. He tried to explain about the fake parents who showed up every so often and the person everyone’d thought he’d been. Damie touched briefly on the man who’d driven him to freedom and the dog who’d left drool on the back of his neck.
Then he spoke of trying to get to San Francisco and how it felt to fill his lungs with the bite of fog, even if he didn’t remember where he needed to go. He spent a lot of time talking about his headaches and the flashes of memories he kept having. He almost lost himself when he spoke of the morning, when he’d stood in the rain and found a fire escape missing its long-legged singer.
“This has been the best fucking day of my life,” Damien murmured. “Just… everything. Everyone in it. You. Sionn. Fucking everything.”
“Your parents. Shit, guess we’ve got to tell them.” Miki made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “They keep pushing for shit. I won’t let them sell our stuff for marketing. It’s pissed them off.”
“God, I love you.” He grinned at his friend, Miki’s hair tickling his nose. “You remembered. I’d have kicked your ass if I came back and SG was selling shoes or shit.”
“Fries. Sweet potato fries. Or maybe instant saimin,” Miki said solemnly. “I’d only sell out for things that were really important to you. Oh! Maybe a car. But only a really cool car. Okay, I kind of wanted to let them use something for a chick flick, but then I thought you’d bitch because you didn’t at least get the chance to bang one of the actresses. That’s shot to shit now you’ve hooked up with Sionn. Well, shit.”
“You’re good that way,” he proclaimed, nodding emphatically. “Fuck, my parents. I don’t know what the hell to do there.”
“I think we’ve got to get you to a doc first. Check out your brain.” He could see Miki plotting things out in his head. “Who the fuck put you in that place? And how? We’ve got to make sure they can’t put you back. We’ll need to find someone who doesn’t think you’re crazy. Might be kind of hard, but we can pay someone off. I’ve still got money.”
“Shit, I don’t have any money. Oh, fuck this shit,” Damien growled. “I’ve got to get my money back.”
“Edie, unless you’ve forgotten her too.” Miki sneered playfully at him. “If she can’t fix this, then no one can.”
“Hell, Edie. I remembered her. I just couldn’t get my brain around all of it. Not until this morning. Shit’s still kind of patchy.” He sighed, remembering their battle-ax manager with a fondness he probably would regret sometime soon. “She doing good?”
“Yeah. I think she’s in Europe right now.” His friend’s hand tightened again. “We’ll call her. Later. Not now. Right now, I kind of—”
“Just us.” Damien finished for him.
“Yeah, just us.”
Miki told him about Shing’s and Vega’s murders, then about falling in love with Kane. Damien teased, drawing out a blush and profanities. They talked about the Morgans—the sheer glut of Morgans—and Damien actually felt the blood leave his face when he found out he’d not even met half of them or experienced the worst of the terrors, the Dreaded Morgan Matriarch.
“Fuck, okay,” Damien exhaled. “We can move that dresser thing against the door. Good idea.”
“She’s fucking scary, man.” Miki puffed out his cheeks. “She’s got these tiny little feet and wears heels, so you can hear them tapping down the hall when she stalks you. It’s like one of those fucking raptors, and you’re running through the kitchen, but you can’t find a freezer to hide behind, so you know she’s going to catch your ass and shove food or something down your throat. It’s like you know birds come from dinosaurs, because she’s feeding you like you’re something in her nest. Or worse, she makes you sit down in the living room and talk to her about shit. Fucking terrifies me. Kane’s kind of made this my hiding place. Once I’m through the door, they all leave me alone. Gives me some time to… breathe.”
“Oh shit, you actually crash here? On this bed? With your cop? Damn it. These are clean sheets right? I don’t want to be lying on your fuck space. I love you, man, but I don’t—” He yelped when Miki’s fingers pinched his left nipple. “Hey, watch those nails. Fucking asshole. They’re sharp.”
“What happened to the rings? You went through hell for those.” Miki shoved Damie’s collar aside and peeked in to inspect his naked nipple. Tapping the length of Damien’s chest, he nodded. “We gotta compare battle scars. Talk to me about you and Kane’s cousin. Finnegan’s? Really?”
“First off, the old lady’s gone. She was Sionn’s grandma. He said she went out the way she came in. Screaming and kicking ass. But, Sin, it’s a shitty place to get tips,” he admitted about the pub. “Not if you’re under the awning. Tourists figure the place is paying you.”
“But you still hung out there?”
“Yeah, first because it reminded me of you. It was like I knew we had something there and I’d found it. Then because he’d come out and talk to me. Bring me shit. God, I drank so much fucking coffee.”