by Ashlyn Chase
Noah shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, Bro. I know you liked her. It’s really hard to watch the good ones fall. Maybe she’ll get up again.”
Dante left his beer bottle on the coffee table and paced again. He raked his hands through his shaggy dark hair. “There’s got to be something I can do.”
“You could get a haircut. Get it cut short so it won’t stick out like that.”
“Shut up. I don’t need anything for myself, just a miracle for Mallory.”
Noah dropped into the ergonomic lounge chair and put his feet up on the matching ottoman. “Sorry, Bro. I’m fresh out of miracles, and I’d steer clear of her, if I were you. It sounds like she’s batshit crazy.”
Dante’s eyes widened, then he paused as if he’d just thought of something. “Wait a minute. Maybe there is something we can do to help.”
“We? Oh no. I’m not getting involved in this. And you shouldn’t either.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me what to do, Little Brother.”
Noah snorted. “Yeah. I’m your younger brother, but I’m two inches taller than you, so I’m not your little brother and haven’t been since tenth grade.”
Dante let out an exasperated breath. “Whatever. Look, maybe if it’s a chemical imbalance problem, there might be a chemical solution.”
“What? Like an antidepressant counteracts the chemical imbalance of depression? Are you thinking she’ll be fine with some medication?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
“I have a bad feeling about this. You’re as easy to read as a book. Your energy is returning, and you look excited. You have some kind of crazy idea brewing in your head.”
Dante smiled. “She might need a good friend right about now.”
Noah just laughed and shook his head at his brother. “I always knew you were the incurable optimist of the family, but I didn’t think you were completely insane.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Look, Bro. She’s not the girl you thought you knew. Obviously. You need to forget about her.”
“Why? Just because she’s hit a bump in the road?”
“That bump could be a land mine. I’m just looking out for you.”
“I don’t care what you think. I’m going to the hospital to check on her.” Dante grabbed his keys off the counter and strode to the coat closet.
Noah rose and rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll go with you. Don’t be surprised if she’s already locked up in the loony bin.”
“Hey, will you cut that out?”
“Cut what out?”
“The insults. Loony bin. Batshit crazy.”
“Sorry, Bro. I just think you need to hear it the way others will see it. I know you.”
“Then you know I won’t just desert a friend in need.”
Noah picked his coat up off the floor. “Yeah, and neither will I.”
* * *
Mallory Summers sat in the hallway, just outside the ER’s nurses’ station. There had been some kind of multicar crash and people were being brought in on stretchers. She realized bloody victims took precedence over someone who might be seeing things that supposedly weren’t there, but she felt like she’d been waiting for-friggin’-ever.
She had given her insurance card and contact information, filled out the long-ass medical form, and twiddled her thumbs for about as long as she could stand it. When she rose to leave, a nurse popped her head up over the desk.
“We’ll be right with you, hon. Just have a seat.”
“You said that an hour ago.”
“It hasn’t been an hour, has it?” She swiveled to look at the large analog clock on the wall. “Oh, wow. It’s time for my break.”
Mallory dropped the clipboard on the desk and strode out the double doors of the waiting room. When she heard the nurse calling after her, she sped up and finally ran outdoors. She didn’t get far. One moment, she was looking over her shoulder, and the next, she smashed into something solid that said, “Oomph,” and grabbed her arms.
“Excuse me!”
“Where are you going in such a hurry?”
She looked up into the friendly face of Dante Fierro again. He was with someone else who looked familiar. She thought it must be one of his many brothers.
“I’m…I’m going home. There’s nothing wrong with me.”
“Is that what they said?”
“They didn’t say anything.” She struggled to pull her arm away, but he held on tight.
His slightly taller counterpart asked, “What happened? You look upset.”
“Who are you?”
“This is my brother Noah. I just thought I’d come down and check on you. See how you were doing.”
“Well, I’m fine. The only reason I seem upset is because I sat there in the waiting room for an eon, then after they took my insurance information, they gave me a form to fill out, which took another eon, then I sat in the ER and waited for another eon. Finally, I got sick of sitting around and left.”
“You mean nobody actually examined you yet?” Noah asked.
“Exactly. Look. I—I need to go.”
Noah glanced at his brother, and they seemed to communicate without saying a single word. “Wait here,” Noah said, and he strode inside the hospital building.
“Dante, there’s no point in trying to intervene. There was some kind of big accident. There were a lot of people in much rougher shape than I am. In fact, I’m in perfect health. I just maybe saw someone who wasn’t there.”
“There was definitely no one there, Mallory.”
“So?”
“Are you telling me it’s no big deal?”
“No, but just sitting there wasn’t going to help. Look, I was going to tell you later, but if anyone calls you, it’s because I put you down as my emergency contact. I found your number in the phone book.”
His posture straightened. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I don’t want anyone to call my parents. All my friends know how to contact them, but you don’t.”
He hesitated a moment. “Let me give you my cell. The landline is mainly for my parents and the job.”
She listened as he recited the number and programmed it into her contacts.
“I’m not telling you what to do, but don’t you think your parents would want to know if something is really wrong?”
She sighed. “Yes and no. My mother would. My father would just be pissed off that I interrupted him in the middle of a big real estate deal.”
“Are you kidding? He would get mad at you if you’re ill?”
“I’m not ill! This project he’s working on is out of the country. If he had to fly home, it would probably take a couple of days to get here. And yeah. Unless I was in a full body cast, he’d be pissed.”
Dante shook his head. “Let me see what’s keeping Noah.” He called his brother and waited. When he didn’t answer, Dante held out his keys. “Here. Wait in Joanna. I’ll go get Noah, and we’ll drive you home.”
She took a step back. “I—I can find my own way home.”
He tipped his head and looked puzzled. “Oh, you don’t know where I parked. It’s right there. The black Camaro.”
“That’s okay. You keep your keys. It’s stopped raining now. I’ll wait by the car until you come back.”
Dante hesitated but finally said, “Okay,” and walked into the hospital.
* * *
He heard rather than saw his brother. Noah’s voice sounded angry, and there was a female responding in an equally frustrated tone.
“Oh shit,” he muttered. What had his little brother gotten into now?
“Sir, you need to stop here and fill out a form,” someone said as Dante strode by.
“I’m fine. Just here to see someone in there.” He pointed towar
d the double doors and kept on walking.
“So, you’d just let someone go on hallucinating rather than trying to help her?” Noah spat.
“If she doesn’t want to wait while more critical patients go first, I can’t force her to.”
“But you should have at least spoken to her. She said she was just left sitting and waiting—in the hall!”
Dante didn’t expect to see Noah so worked up about Mallory’s situation. He hadn’t even wanted to get involved. Why was he all hot under the collar?
Ah. He saw it now. The young woman in the white lab coat was just Noah’s type. Long, straight dark hair. Petite figure. The sparks flying were pure sexual chemistry. His tall, trim brother was standing too close and looming over her.
And she wasn’t backing down—she met his intense stare with her own. Dante figured he’d better rescue Noah before this woman tied him to a chair with her stethoscope.
He moved closer to the heated exchange. “Come on, Bro.”
“Hell no. This doctor has some explaining to do.”
“I already explained. We have a triage system. Your friend was going to be seen, but the trauma cases have to come first. It could be a matter of life and death.”
“Well, if she goes home and commits suicide, that’s on you.”
The young doctor gasped. “Oh my goodness! Is she suicidal?”
“Hell, I don’t know, but if she is—”
Dante grabbed Noah by the shoulder. “Come on. Mallory’s waiting by the car.”
Noah glared at the doctor, and she leaned forward, placing her hands on her slender hips as if challenging him to continue his ridiculous tirade.
“Fine. Goodbye,” Noah said. “Have a crappy day.”
As she strode away, Dante heard her mumble, “Son of a monkey’s butt.” He rolled his eyes, grabbed his brother’s arm, and dragged him away.
By the time they reached the parking lot, Mallory was nowhere to be seen. Dante sputtered a slew of curse words under his breath.
“See, dude? She doesn’t want help. And like the doctor said, you can’t force it on her.”
“Unbelievable. Now you’re taking the doctor’s side, after chewing her out and wishing her a crappy day.” He unlocked the car doors.
Noah chuckled. “Yeah, I stepped in it, didn’t I?”
After they both jumped in, Dante answered. “You sure did. I hope you never get brought into that ER for smoke inhalation. She’ll probably leave you in the hallway for a month.”
“No. She took the Hippocratic oath. That would turn it into a hypocritical oath.”
Dante shook his head and drove out of the parking lot.
* * *
Noah had to do something to pull his brother out of this funk. They had three days off, and he didn’t want to spend them watching Dante mope around.
“Hey, how about if we go out tonight? There’s a new club downtown.”
Dante stretched out on the couch. “Nah. I’m not in the mood to go clubbing.”
“Well, I am. I’d like to meet someone, and you’re my wingman.”
Dante smirked. “Yeah, your wingman with real wings.” Being a phoenix meant sometimes you had to make lame jokes.
“Somehow, I don’t think you’ll need them. Just distract the girl I don’t want so I can swoop in on the one I do want.”
“I know how being a wingman works.” Dante grabbed the remote off the coffee table.
“Then how about it? Will you do that for me?”
After a long pause, Dante sighed. “I guess so. As long as you don’t expect me to get involved with anyone.”
“I don’t expect anything of you, except that you go with me so I don’t look like a total loser with no friends. Tonight is all about me.”
Noah knew how his brother would react if he even hinted that he was going to turn the tables on him. His plan was to push Dante toward someone who might interest him. Someone other than Mallory Summers.
Dante was a ladies’ man. He couldn’t help flirting with a pretty girl, and Noah knew it. He’d even flirted with Gabe’s girl, Misty, once. He’d only done it to push Gabe into her arms, and it had worked. Even though it had looked like Dante might get a punch in the nose for his trouble, he’d turned on the charm like a pro.
Hopefully, this club would be full of attractive single women. Noah hadn’t had a girlfriend in a while, and thinking about meeting someone did appeal to him. But tonight really wasn’t about him. It was about Dante.
“Do you have something decent to wear out?”
“What do you mean? I’ll wear whatever I usually wear.” Dante frowned and clicked on the TV.
“I just thought, you know, maybe we can go out and get something a little newer.”
Dante clicked off the TV. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re acting weird.”
“I am not. What’s wrong with just wanting to look good when we go out?”
Dante sat up. “Are you hoping I’ll look good so I’ll find someone other than Mallory to focus on?”
Noah shrugged. “You could at least be open to it. Mallory Summers isn’t the only girl on the planet. Who knows who you’ll meet, if you’re not a total a-hole?”
Dante rose, still clutching the remote control. “If this is a setup…”
“It isn’t. I swear. I really do want to get out there and meet somebody for myself. I’ll admit I wouldn’t be unhappy if you found somebody too, but—”
Dante threw the remote on the floor. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“I knew you didn’t like Mallory. Just because she’s having some sort of medical issue or crisis doesn’t mean you get to pass judgment on her. She’s none of your business.”
“That’s what I was saying this morning. But no. You had to drag me into it, and frankly, I’m kind of glad you did. It seems like you need some perspective.”
Dante raked his hands through his hair. He looked like he was going to explode. Instead, he just dropped back down on the couch. “Maybe it’s time to get my own place.”
Noah staggered back about a foot. “Your own place? Why? Just so I’ll mind my own business?”
“Yeah.” Dante picked up the remote and clicked on the TV again.
“Look,” Noah said. “We’re best friends as well as roommates. And brothers on top of that. There’s no way we can stay out of each other’s business. If you want to get your own place, fine. But it’s going to be a shithole. We can’t afford anything decent on our own.”
Dante ignored him.
Noah had to leave before he said anything more incendiary. He didn’t want his brother to start packing. Real estate in Boston was ridiculously expensive, even to rent.
They had a sweet setup here. Dante was able to walk to work, so there wasn’t much wear and tear on the expensive vehicle he loved and babied.
Noah hadn’t been working as long as Dante had, but he was saving for his own vehicle…a Jeep or something he could take off-roading on the weekends.
Living in South Boston and working downtown was plenty convenient. On good days, he could walk, and when the weather was rotten, Dante took pity on him and dropped him off at work before going to the South Boston fire station. It really was a shame he couldn’t shift and fly. But a phoenix with its colorful plumage would attract way too much attention.
It hurt to think his brother would just up and leave. Noah needed to give him some space and let him calm down. So he grabbed his coat and set off on a long walk.
After wandering for a while, he turned toward the Quincy Market area. Sometimes things were going on down there, by Faneuil Hall or Government Center. Who knew, maybe there’d be some sort of protest, or street performers would be doing something interesting.
It was a Wednesday, s
o there wasn’t much happening. Just the usual tourist buses rolling by, foot traffic going in and out of shops and restaurants, and the business commerce that took place every day.
Noah spotted an old bookshop on the corner that he’d forgotten about. The place looked like it had been there for at least a century. They specialized in rare and antique books. Feeling drawn to the place for some inexplicable reason, he stepped over the threshold onto wide oak floorboards. Row upon row of bookshelves held any number of leather-bound tomes, torn book jackets, and an impressive amount of dust.
He scanned titles as he strolled by with his hands in his pockets. At the end of one particular shelf, a book leaned precariously. Noah picked it up, only intending to straighten it, until something caught his eye. The gold lettering on the cover glinted in the sun filtering through the windows. He tried to read the title and quickly realized it was in Latin. He’d had to take one year of Latin in school but never saw the point in spending a lot of time or attention on a dead language.
He flipped open the book and found himself fascinated by some of the beautiful scrollwork on the capital letters at the top of each page. It wasn’t like a religious text. There were columns that looked like bullet points. Like lists. It almost looked like a recipe book. He frowned at some of the text, but he recognized the word for gold and couldn’t help being curious.
Dante was better at Latin. He had taken two or three years of it in school, and Noah wanted to show this to him. There was something about this book…
* * *
“I think this is alchemy,” Dante said as he examined the book a few hours later. “You brought me a book of ancient science experiments, turning lead into gold.”
“Seriously?” Noah exclaimed.
“Yeah. From what I can tell…” He got up off the couch. “Let me get my iPad. Maybe we can find some kind of Latin app or downloadable translation software.”
“You don’t have to do that now.”
“I’m just glad to get off my ass and do something. I actually watched the fishing channel, and the only thing more boring than fishing is watching people fishing.”
Noah laughed and followed him as far as the hallway.
The whole time he was fetching his iPad from his bedroom, Dante kept talking. “You’re the science geek. Maybe you can set up a lab in the spare room.”
