Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Before long he heard the sink cut on. Neil waited until it stopped, then went in search of Andrew. Andrew had his back propped against the fridge as he drank his stolen beer. He didn't look up when Neil appeared in the doorway and if he noticed the once-over Neil gave him he didn't acknowledge it. He drank his beer in silence, looking calm and clean like nothing had happened, and Neil watched until he crumpled the empty can in his hands. Andrew left the can on the counter for Neil to deal with and turned toward the door. Neil stepped aside to let him out and Andrew left without a word. Neil locked the door behind him and put the can in Matt's small recycle bin.
He went back to his desk, but he got nothing else done that night.
-
Neil spent Friday night in Andrew's room, but he only watched one match with Kevin. The rest of the night was spent half-buried in a beanbag chair with an oversized controller in his hands. Nicky was a surprisingly patient teacher as he walked Neil through his favorite game, but the copious amounts of alcohol he was drinking made his instructions steadily more unclear. Neil was ready to call it a night by two in the morning, but Nicky was wired from sugary mixers and another pint of store-bought ice cream.
Andrew spent most of the evening smoking on his desk and staring into space. He disappeared into the bedroom around three and kicked Kevin out so he could sleep. Kevin put his laptop back on his desktop, turned the TV down to near-mute, and went to bed. Nicky waited until the door closed behind him before turning the sound back up a bit. He grumbled loudly as he got comfortable again. Despite his protests, he tuckered out not even half an hour later. He dropped his controller to one side and looked at Neil.
"Wait." It took Nicky two tries and a bit of drunken flailing before he could get out of his beanbag chair and on his feet. He stumbled out of the room, rummaged around so loudly Neil knew he had to be waking Andrew and Kevin up, and came back with a blanket. He dropped it in an unceremonious pile on top of Neil and threw his hands up in an exaggerated shrug. "Might as well sleep here! Dan and Matt are probably doing the straight-person nasty. We'll get breakfast tomorrow morning."
He pointed at Neil, stabbed his finger a couple times in silent emphasis, and wheeled away again. Neil waited until the bedroom was quiet before getting up. He stood for a moment by the beanbag chair, debating, then turned off the bedroom light and came back. It was easy to straighten the blanket out, easier to get comfortable, and he was asleep in minutes.
A bell woke him up the next morning, but it took Neil's tired brain a moment to recognize the sound as a phone alert. His phone vibrated in his pocket a second later. Neil scrubbed a tired hand across his eyes and stifled his yawn against his fist. A strident trill in the next room was Nicky's phone sounding off. That meant the bell was Kevin's phone, left out here the night before, because Andrew was as likely as Neil was to have the sound turned off on his phone.
A mass text like that had to be from Wymack. Neil groaned a bit in protest but dug his phone from his pocket. Wymack's morning message was short but more than enough to wake him up: Kengo Moriyama was hospitalized again.
Neil sat up and kicked his blanket aside. He cut the TV on, turned the volume down to a murmur as fast as he could, and flipped through channels. Kengo wasn't important enough to make the regular news, but it was sure to be mentioned on the sports news station Wymack watched every morning. Andrew padded out of the bedroom as Neil finally found the right channel. He spared Neil only a brief glance on his way to the kitchen. Neil had to turn the TV up a bit when Andrew ran the sink to brew coffee, but there wasn't much point straining to hear when he'd caught the tail-end of the clip.
There was no new news yet, but Neil knew there'd be an update as soon as someone made it out to Castle Evermore to harass Riko for a comment. Neil wondered if one of Kengo's people would tell Tetsuji and Riko or if it wouldn't even occur to the main family to inform them. Maybe Riko would find out when someone put a microphone in his face again. It amused Neil, but only for the moment it took his thoughts to wheel to his father.
Nathan was incarcerated, but he was Kengo's right-hand man. Someone would have told him Kengo was ill. It was questionable whether or not Nathan would care. Neil couldn't picture it, but if Nathan was even a fraction as loyal to Kengo as his people were to him, he would be pacing grooves in his cell floor right now. Maybe Nathan would never see Kengo alive again; maybe he'd be released and find himself serving Ichirou instead. Neil wondered what impact Kengo's death would have on the Moriyama family but he couldn't even begin to imagine it. He had no honest idea what the main family was capable of orchestrating. Riko had an alarming amount of pull and he was working with just scraps.
Andrew returned and crossed the room toward him. Neil watched his approach and felt queasy with guilt. The deal he'd struck with Andrew now looked as heartless as it'd been desperate. He hadn't been convinced Andrew could take on a monster like Nathan, but he'd been willing to let Andrew try. He hadn't cared what it would cost Andrew so long as it bought him time to play with the Foxes.
Andrew turned the TV off on his way by. "It is too early to obsess."