by Maria Dean
"So, tell me."
"I will do, but in the morning. I've put you through too much today."
She breathed deeply, drawing in his scent one more time before letting go. "OK, but you're telling me everything tomorrow," she said pushing his chest away conscious she wanted to feel his skin not the fabric of his clothes
"Agreed," he nodded but averted his gaze.
He took the couch to sleep, even though she told him she could sleep there. "It's your house," he reasoned. "I don't want to impose."
But by morning, he was gone. Vanished, just like the rest of them. He sent her a text, wishing her the best and explaining his disappearance. After the last attack, he'd decided it was best for him to practice isolation. To stay away from humans until he felt it was safe again.
"You're the exception," his text read. "If you ever need me, I will be there."
It felt more like a goodbye than anything. But Astrid was already two for two of people she cared about leaving without saying goodbye. At least this time, she'd had some sort of response.
From what she understood, Lorenzo ended up calling the police about the incident before packing his essentials and vanishing north. The last message he sent had a picture of a block of amber he'd begun to sculpt. He sent it with the phrase, "So you're never gone from my side". Though he hadn't begun to craft it yet, she had a feeling she knew what it was.
The rest of Astrid's week was filled with rain. Not what she would've wanted based on her current status of isolation. Her bus rides to work were long and cramped, with the buses taking extra care during the storms.
Look on the upside. You have time to mope without Lorenzo or Nova. Astrid glanced at her phone considering texting Lorenzo before bypassing his name in her contacts.
She dialed a different number and pressed the phone to her ear. As she expected, a voicemail machine turned on. "Hey Nova," she said quietly. "I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing. We didn't get to talk before you left and I, uh," she sighed. "I wanted to say I was sorry for snapping at you. That wasn't fair. I didn't mean to hurt you either. You're the only family I have left." Astrid glanced out the window, watching a mother cover up her two children from the rain. "But it's also not fair for you to have left the way you did. Especially after you told me my mother had vanished the same way. It's okay, though. I forgive you, and I still love you."
She hung up, hoping it had been enough. Astrid couldn't predict Nova's behavior, nor could she expect the woman to forgive her for lashing out. The least she could do was hope things would work out. That's, at least, what she told Winston and Sally when they asked her about how she was feeling.
"I can't control her actions. I just need to stay faithful, you know?" She tried to explain it so they'd understand. They both nodded.
"Hey guys," Tom ducked into the office, "just wanted you to know they caught those guys who were ransacking places. Get this. They claimed they were dragon slayers."
Astrid's body went rigid. "What?" She asked, not sure she heard him right. Hoping she hadn't heard him correctly.
But Tom was already pulling up a news article on his phone. "Local home invasion ring crashed when police officers catch them in the act," Tom read aloud. "The criminals claim to be hunting dragons for an ancient Catholic order."
The words swirled around in Astrid's head. Whatever was going on, it had only just started. And something told her she was about to get stuck in the middle of it.
CHAPTER THREE
Frozen
CHAPTER 1
"So, it said on your profile you went to law school. Getting hypothetical here, what are the odds you'd be able to like, bail me out of jail if I was arrested for arson?"
Astrid Pfeiffer stared at the man in front of her, mouth agape, as he switched his gaze between her dating app profile and Astrid herself.
"Well," Astrid said, trying to formulate a response that wouldn't anger her date, "I can't really do that. I'm a will executor, so I can't exactly help you unless you want me to write your will while you're in prison."
The man sighed. "Oh, that's disappointing," he said.
This is, undoubtedly, the worst thing that's happened to me this week. Astrid kept a straight face, sipping her wine and tuning out as the guy started covering his tracks about the arson comment. The date was one of Winston and Sally's many plots to get Astrid "out there". They'd constructed a dating profile for her using her company head shots and a bio that could've come straight out of a romantic comedy. Astrid was a little annoyed by the part that said, 'I'm ready to get out there!'. She definitely wasn't ready to get out there and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the self-declared 'outsider artist' in front of her.
His name was James, and he ran a Kombucha business out of his apartment. The apartment was shared with three other guys, each of them described themselves as outsider artists. James's speciality was body paintings. At first, Astrid thought that meant he painted with his body. It wasn't the weirdest art form she'd heard of.
No, he meant he painted other people's bodies and took pictures of them.
"This is a work I called, Dripping in Gold." The picture was of a man's penis, dipped in gold paint.
Astrid decided after the appetiser, if he asked her to model for his next project, she was making him pay for the wine.
Despite his possible history of arson at a rival Kombucha business, James seemed nice. In this context, nice wasn't the word she wanted to use to describe a potential partner. She wanted interesting, or pleasantly surprising, but not just nice.
Lorenzo is what she wanted.
It'd been at least three weeks since Astrid had seen the youngest Russo brother. After he disappeared with nothing more than a few vague texts and a promise he'd be there if she needed him, Astrid realized she was interested in him. There was something about his casual, crafty, and calloused personality that made her feel warm inside. He made her feel safe when he was around.
But his casual warmth was gone and Astrid had to face the fact she was on her own again. Not that anything had really started.
"So, going back to your job," James distracted her again. "Do you know anyone who could bail someone out of jail?"
Astrid pretended to care, setting her wine glass down and avoiding eye contact. "Anyone can pay bail," she said as she began to cut into her fish. "If you're looking for a defense attorney, you might be better off looking at Russo and Yuma." There was no denying Giovanni's firm was a massive force to be reckoned with. Astrid wasn't happy her date was turning her free time into work. But that wasn't the worst thing she'd run into by any means in the last few weeks. Astrid only agreed to go on the date because she hoped she could create a social life away from the Russos.
James looked away awkwardly. "I'm, uh, legally not allowed in twenty feet of them. Their homes or their business." He poked at his vegan risotto as it if was some kind of road kill. "I may or may not have set some dumpster fires around there in protest of the Davidson case."
"The Davidson case?" Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't that a big pharmaceutical suit from three years ago?"
In her post-Lorenzo downtime, Astrid had done as much research about the Russo family as she could. The Davidson case was a Russo-Yuma anomaly, one of the few cases Giovanni worked where his client lost. Knowing Giovanni and his track record, Astrid registered the case in the back of her mind as something she'd interrogate him about later. As much as she liked Lorenzo, he wasn't Giovanni mental match. As lawyers they worked in the same field, more or less, and she was eager to pick his brain about his cases. Even if he made a lot of shady deals under the table.
"Everyone knows Giovanni Russo threw the case," James started going off about the lawsuit. "He was supposed to be the best criminal defense lawyer in the area. There was no reason Keith Davidson should've lost."
"Forgive me for asking," Astrid said, "but why were you on Davidson's side? His apothecary practices were linked to at least seven different deaths. And that was just his
list of clients. There were a lot more coming out of his company."
James sighed. "The Como Apothecary is a locally owned alternative healing business that was clearly being attacked by big pharma." He gave her a dirty look, as if her commitment to not letting clients die was a sin. "Obviously, Russo was paid off by Mayo."
Astrid tried not to scoff. Giovanni was a sketchy lawyer, but he wasn't an idiot. There had to be a good reason he threw the case. "So of course, you set the company dumpsters on fire because that's such a great protest." James nodded. "And you aren't in prison because...?"
"I had a good lawyer," he shrugged.
And you're a white man who lives in an artist's commune in Mac-Groveland.
"Anyway. I can't go there now, so I would have to look somewhere else. Hypothetically." James scooped up another bite of his risotto. "Shit, I don't think this is vegan. Waiter?" He tried to flag their waiter down.
As James flailed around, Astrid leaned to the side and froze when she looked at the bar. There was a ridiculously handsome man in a designer polo staring at her. He was daintily sipping a cocktail, his heated gaze burning into her skull. She then realized he wasn't staring at her. He was glaring at her date. James was just moving around too much.
Unfortunately, now James was out of the way, the man realized Astrid had caught him.
"I'll be back in one second," she said to her bad Tinder date. Astrid rose a little too quickly and had to stop herself. She couldn't look eager. If anything, she needed to be annoyed. She was annoyed. The Russo men needed to stop meddling with her life.
"Astrid! Funny seeing you here," Christian Russo slurred into his martini. "What a coincidence you and I are at the same overpriced restaurant at the same time."
Astrid slid onto the stool next to him. "You better hope this was a coincidence," she reproached. "There's no reason you should follow me while I'm on a date."
Christian burst out laughing. "That's a date?" His martini sloshed onto the bar. He set it down as to not spill any more of his drink. "You can't really be dating a Kombucha brewer. I thought you had better taste than that, Astrid."
She rose an eyebrow. "How the hell do you know who I'm on a date with?"
The eldest Russo brother put on his classic, puppy-dog look and said, "I just guessed?" Astrid's flat glare shut him down. Christian deflated into a pout. "Fine. I went to your office to come see you today but your coworkers said you were on a date with a Kombucha brewer from Tinder."
So naturally, you stalked me. Astrid sighed and flagged down the bartender. "Whisky on the rocks. On his tab." It was the least Christian could do for following her on a bad date. "Did you ever intend on coming and talking to me, or were you going to stare at me and my date for the rest of the night?"
"No, I was going fucking laser him with my alien eyes and explode his head," Christian grumbled.
The bartender brought Astrid's drink over. She looked from the drink to Christian and said, "I'm sorry. Did you just quote Kanye West at me?" When Christian nodded sheepishly, Astrid downed her drink. "Christian, how drunk are you?"
"Enough," he sighed. "It's been such a long week, Astrid. I can't find my baby brother and my sister is telling me it's my fault. Now Gio is telling me I need to go find out where 'Zozo is but..." He sniffled and searched for a napkin. "But I can't find him! And now my good friend is going on a date with a big dumb kombucha brewer who sets fires."
"Oh my god," Astrid sighed. "All right." She glanced back at James, who was now ranting to the waiter about his non-vegan vegan risotto. "Did you drive here?" Christian shook his head. "Good. I'm going to go cancel this date. You will pay your tab. Then, I'm going to take you home to my place so you don't go out and explode someone's head."
Drunk Christian perked up. "You're taking me home?" He wiggled his eyebrows.
"Not like that," she muttered. "I would get you to your place if I thought it was safe," she said. "But since the last time I saw Lorenzo, his house was being torn up by bullets, we're not touching a Russo estate." Astrid beckoned the bartender back over. "Please make sure he gets a glass of water before he pays out," she asked him.
Before she could get to her table, Astrid's former waiter met her halfway. "Ma'am, were you and the young man you were with going to pay together or separately?" The waiter glanced over Astrid's shoulder. "Because he's currently in a heated argument with our head manager."
As she listened closely, she picked up on the shouted phrase, "This is the worst discrimination I have ever seen in my life."
"Separate. Very separate." Astrid reached for her wallet. "And for the record, he was the one who ordered the bottle of wine, not me." She handed him her debit card.
The waiter nodded. "No problem, ma'am."
Astrid sat down at the table and paused, eyeing the still half-full bottle of wine. She sighed and poured herself another glass. The least she could do was enjoy the free alcohol. When the waiter returned with her check, she said, "You know, if he causes any more conflict, I know a couple lawyers who could sue him for you." A slightly tipsy Astrid paid the waiter a large tip and slipped a business card into the check book. She rose and smiled, heading off toward Christian.
Behind her, she heard him chuckle. "If we have any more legal problems, I'll be sure to let you know, Miss Gray."
Astrid slowed to a halt. She turned around, finding the waiter had disappeared. "What the hell?"
The restaurant felt crowded to her. There were too many people, some of them giving her knowing grins and others too focused on their menus. But everyone looked like they knew something.
"How did he..." She felt a presence loom over her. Christian, from the scent of his overpowering cologne. "We need to go." Astrid grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the restaurant.
"'Strid? What's wrong?" Christian's voice was much more slurred. He'd drank more while she was away. "You look angry. Did someone make you angry? I can eat them for you. Just straight up eat them."
Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse, Astrid thought to herself, Christian wants to result to cannibalism. Maybe it wasn't cannibalism, technically, but it was still messed up. Astrid shushed him and reminded Christian it wasn't socially acceptable in human society to eat other people.
There were two options to get home. She could either drag Christian onto a bus and expose downtown Minneapolis to the dragon's drunken ramblings, or she could bite it and call a Lyft. That would be more money, but she could always just put it on Christian's tab.
"Rich friends make for good drinking buddies," Christian mumbled when she asked for his phone. "Call us a little car man!"
Now he really wasn't making sense. "Christian, I'm going to need you to calm down," Astrid said. "Okay? Don't be an ass hole to the driver."
"I'm never an ass hole, 'Strid. I'm a perfect gentleman." Christian tried to straighten himself up, pulling down his fancy polo and trying to tuck it into his shirt. "Gio's the asshole. He likes money more than he likes his own brother."
Their Lyft driver pulled up to the curb. Astrid shoved her friend inside, sliding in after him. "I'm apologizing in advance if he says anything stupid," she said to the driver.
The older woman smiled. "Honey, it can't be worse than some things I hear those frat boys say over at the U. I drive around that area a lot to pick up kids who're too drunk to drive home from parties. It's the least I can do while I'm retired. But some of those boys," she clucked in tongue in disappointment. "I'd hate for their mothers to hear what they say."
Astrid understood. She'd spent time at the University of Minnesota. Though she was in graduate school then, there were still enough obnoxious frat boys to go around. Seeing their hazing practices on the campus, along with trying to navigate her way home without running into the drunken students, was enough to drive her insane.
Christian leaned forward in his seat, squinting at a photo the driver kept on her dashboard. "Who's that?" He asked.
Their driver sighed, turning down a street close to Astrid's a
partment. "My son, Jericho. He passed away last fall in an accident."
The Russo son gasped. "Oh," he said. "I'm sorry."
"He was hit by a drunk student," she continued. "I don't think the poor girl knew what she was doing. I don't blame her, but I still can't forgive her mistake when she could've found another way home." The woman tapped the driver's wheel. "That's why I do this when I can. So I can help prevent as many accidents as I can."
The driver was trying to make the world a better place. It was much more than Astrid could ever do with her current job. "That's incredibly kind of you," she murmured. "There need to be more people in this world like that."
Their driver pulled up to the curb in front of Astrid's apartment building. "I do what I can, sweetheart." She let them out with a wave. Astrid made a mental note to ensure Christian tipped the woman well.
"All right, you," Astrid said to Christian. "Let's get you upstairs. Please don't throw up on anything I own. It took weeks to get Winston's vomit out of my carpet after the Halloween party."
Christian, in his drunken stupor, frowned. "Winston? Are you dating him?" He tumbled into the elevator after Astrid. "I dress better than he does."
"Winston's gay, Christian," Astrid corrected him. "And he's dating our boss."
One of Astrid's neighbors got in on the second floor. Astrid's apartment was another few floors up, so she tried to keep Christian quiet for as long as possible while her neighbor openly stared at the man dressed six months of her salary.
"That person was looking at me," Christian noted when they entered her apartment. "Why?"
"There aren't many people who dress like you in this building," Astrid shrugged. "We're a pretty varied building, income-wise. But no one wears polos with a Gucci monogram on it."
Christian poked at the offending symbol. "What about Armani?"
Astrid forced him onto the couch so he wouldn't poke around in her business. She brought him a glass of water from the kitchen. "Armani is worse. Anything that's a designer brand is worse. I'd say the fanciest shit I've seen here was something from Vera Wang. But there's a difference between the expensive clothing at Kohls and the clothing at Macy's."