Read Online Red Fox by Karina Halle - Free Book Online Page A

I was used to seeing.
    “ Of course I care. I mean,
you know…I’m worried about you. The medication withdrawal, meeting
an old friend-”
    “ He’s not a friend,” he
said. He picked up the origami bird and shoved it down the bottle
of his empty beer. He took out a match from one of his pockets, lit
it on the table and dropped it in the bottle. The paper began to
curl and smolder, smoke rising out of the neck. I watched,
fascinated.
    “ What do you mean?” I asked.
“You were in the same band, same school…”
    He raised the bottle up and
watched the smoke snake around. “I don’t have to tell you that it
all means nothing. Do I?”
    I guess he didn’t. I hated
90% of the people that I went to school with.
    “ Well, OK then,” I said,
annoyed. “You know, I have to work with you for the next few days.
I just want to make sure you’re OK…OK?”
    I put my hand on his
shoulder and squeezed it lightly. There was something so
irresistibly vulnerable about him. He eyed my hand for a moment,
then spat in the bottle to put out the flame. Pretty disgusting way
to ruin a moment, Dex.
    He looked at me. “Don’t
worry about me. Just worry about yourself.”
    That was easier said than
done.
    “ I am worried about myself,”
I blurted out.
    He raised his brow, the
eyebrow ring glinting. I said too much. Now he looked
concerned.
    “ Remember I said I’d get to
the bottom of you…”
    I nodded and switched the
subject, “So do you trust Maximus here?”
    Dex held my eyes for a few
beats. I could see he wasn’t satisfied. But he looked over at
Maximus who was now walking back over. “I don’t trust anyone Perry.
Neither should you. But I’ll give him the benefit of the
doubt.”
    “ Your refreshments,” Maximus
said proudly, placing our drinks down. I think he knew we had been
talking about him but it didn’t seem to bother him. Wish I had that
ability to just shrug things off like that.
    As we drank our drinks, the
conversation went to more “normal” topics. Unfortunately, they were
topics that seemed to make both Dex and I a bit apprehensive. I was
asked a lot about my life: what I did, my family, my personal life.
I felt like I lied through all of it, even when I told the truth.
Guess I was just so used to it now. Dex could tell too, he was
watching me, which made me even more nervous. I’m not sure why I
still felt like I had to lie and pretend everything was peachy back
at home but there it was. It was like I had more power in the
lie.
    Then Maximus told us a bit
about what he had been doing after college and how he got into the
business of “ghost mediating.” Apparently he always had the gift, I
guess you could call it, but just thought he was a bit mad. But, as
interesting as it was to me, the more Maximus talked about the
dead, the more annoyed Dex became. And any mention of their times
together in college, or in the band, were always approached with
caution and tension. Dex reminded me of the sketchy addicts that
wandered around in Portland’s Chinatown.
    Thankfully, by the time
that Dex finished his Jack Daniels (straight up, by the way) and we
talked about the show and what we wanted to do with it, he had
loosened up considerably.
    I, on the other hand,
hadn’t. I felt more apprehensive about Dex with each passing hour,
I wasn’t sure if I could trust Maximus (though I wanted to), I
thought the whole married couple staying with a blind bitch and a
poltergeist was ridiculous, and I was freaking starving. The only thing I had
eaten that day was a bag of chips I pilfered from the hotel’s
vending machine. The beers went straight to my head at a time when
I needed clarity.
    The heat didn’t help
either. When it was ready to roll, we got back into the sweat
mobile, dropped Maximus at his motel and followed his truck out of
town, and into the rocky hills until we came to a sprawling ranch.
We had arrived.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    The Lancaster’s ranch was
spread over a variety of terrain;