Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 02 - Out of the Darkness (9 page)

Amanda is watching him appraisingly, and she holds out her cigarette. “Just a drag?” She invites. “I’ve got gum; nobody ever has to know….”

Dan shakes his head. He doesn’t care what other people know. “Thanks, but I’d better not. Slippery slope, or whatever.”

She nods and takes one more drag before crushing the cigarette under the toe of her shoe. “Good for you.” She smiles a little. “So, how do you like working for Evan?”

“It’s fine. It’s pretty much the same job I’ve had for years, long before I knew who Evan was.”

 

“Is that right? And did you have the same level of… involvement… in the personal life of your previous employer?”

Dan smiles a little. “Actually, yeah, I did. Bit of a pattern with me, I guess.” And he
understands
that they’re just being protective, but that doesn’t mean that he has to like it. “It’s sort of my thing. I’m too lazy or maybe too stupid to keep a job in the regular way, so I just fuck around, earn my keep on my knees. The horses are just a cover for my real passion—whoring.” Okay, maybe he’s laying it on a little thick, but he’s had enough. “Lucky for me, my employers are too stupid to see through me, and they just sit back and let me take advantage of them. Evan and Jeff, damn, they’re so naïve and trusting. Hardly even a challenge for a hustler like me.” Dan’s been leaning against the railing, but now he pulls himself upright. “Hey, I hear you and Blaine are rich too—what’d’ya say, wanna have a turn?”

Amanda stares at him for a couple beats, and then her face cracks into a smile. “Damn. You’re a little touchy. Good for you.”

 

“Yeah, my personality is here for your approval.”

 

She holds up her hands in surrender and then nods her head down the street. “Hey, let me buy you a drink?”

 

Dan frowns at her and nods back toward the gallery. “There’s free drinks inside.”

“Nah, there’s free
wine
inside. I want a damn
drink
.” She walks over to him and loops her hand through his arm playfully. “Come on, a gold digger should never turn down a free drink… and if you need any more tips on the subject, I can introduce you to my mother. I’m sure she’s got lots to share.”

Dan is baffled. Amanda puts a gentle pressure on his arm, and he moves forward, letting her lead him down the stairs. At the bottom she looks both ways, then at him. “I don’t know this area. Do you?” At his head shake, she shrugs and gestures with her head at a bar across the street and a few doors down. “There?”

“I guess, okay.”

She beams at him like he just recited a sonnet, and they continue on their way. The bar is crowded when they get to it, but there’s no line and no cover, so Dan isn’t complaining. They make their way to the bar and don’t say anything until the bartender has come by and taken Amanda’s order for a double vodka and Dan’s for a Wild Turkey. Then she turns to him and smiles. “So what are your intentions toward our Evan?”

He frowns. “Okay, stupid speeches aside, what have I said or done to make you think I have any damn
intentions
toward Evan? I mean… Blaine was worried about me and Jeff, originally.”

She throws her head back, and her laugh sounds genuine. “Blaine? Blaine hears hoofbeats and thinks ‘zebras’! Jeff’s a big boy, and he can take care of himself. Evan, on the other hand….”

“What, Evan can’t take care of himself? Seems like he’s doing a pretty good job to me.”

Amanda looks at him consideringly. “Yeah, I guess maybe it does… maybe he can.” She tries another direction. “Blaine said you shut him down pretty hard this morning. That’s good. Blaine only respects people who stand up to him.”

“Yeah, ’cause it’s really important to me that I have Blaine’s respect.” Dan takes a sip of his drink. Who the hell do these people think they are?

“Well, maybe it isn’t… but maybe it should be. Blaine is Evan’s best friend, and it seems like you’re interested in spending some time with Evan—surely it’ll be a lot more pleasant for everyone if you two can get along.”

“Really? I’ve got to tell you—I’ve been out here for a while now, and you’re right, I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Evan. And I’ve never heard him even mention Blaine’s name. So I don’t actually think it’s going to put a serious damper on my life if Blaine doesn’t like me.”

Amanda looks a little sad. “What friends
have
you heard Evan mention? Other than Jeff, who does Evan hang out with that doesn’t work for him?” She shakes her head. “Maybe Evan hasn’t talked about him, but that doesn’t mean that Blaine’s not important to him.”

Dan doesn’t really know what they’re supposed to be talking about it, but if this is it, he’s about done with the conversation. “Okay, fine. Blaine’s important to Evan. Is that… is that my business somehow? I mean… what are we doing here?”

Amanda gives a mockingly scornful look. “We’re drinking! Duh.” And she takes a big swallow of her vodka.

 

Dan lifts his glass and knocks his drink back, then sets the empty glass on the bar. “Okay, then, I’m done.”

“Well, you can just be a gentleman and wait for me to finish, all right?” For the first time, she sounds a little sharp. She ruins it by sighing almost immediately. “Just… just wait for a second, all right, Dan?”

He doesn’t know what he’s waiting
for
, but he stands quietly. After a minute she smiles at him and starts talking. “Evan was the brightest star in the sky when we were at school.” She glances over at Dan. “We all went to high school together. Did you know that?”

Dan just shakes his head. “Like I said, Evan’s never mentioned any of you.”

“Yeah, okay.” She looks a little sad. “Well, he was… something else. Just so warm and happy and at peace with himself. I mean, most people struggle a bit with their sexuality, right? Most bisexuals, at least, but Evan barely blinked. It was all great—it just meant more people for him to love.” She smiles in reminiscence. “He was just golden. Like he was favored by the gods. Everything worked out for him.” She stops and takes a long drink. “I was with him when he found out about his parents. We’d all gone to Stanford together, and we were sitting around one night, drunk and high and happy, and he got a phone call… and it was like the light just went out of him. Like it was the first time he’d realized that the world could be a hard place.”

She looks at Dan as if she’s expecting a reaction, but he doesn’t really have one, so she continues. “That was about five years ago, and ever since then… he works so hard, takes the whole weight of the world on his shoulders, even though he doesn’t have to. I mean, Tat could go to boarding school—lots of girls do. I did, and so did Monica. But no, Evan was raised at home, so Tat has to be as well. And the business—Evan never had any interest in it, never had any plans to pursue it, but now he works at it all the time. It’s… it’s hard to see, you know? To see that golden child turn into….”

“Turn into a grown man?” There’s a part of Dan that feels for Evan, for that loss of innocence, but…. “That’s the big tragedy? That he keeps half an eye on his sister, with the help of the world’s best housekeeper and the world’s most understanding lover, and a staff of whoever the hell he needs? And that he has a damn job? That he’s taken some responsibility for himself and his family?” Dan shakes his head. “He made it to twenty-two years old before he realized that the world could be a hard place, and you expect me to feel
sorry
for him? Jesus Christ, are you serious?”

He steps away from the bar. “Evan’s fine. He loves his sister, and he likes his life. If this little speech was about to build up to some warning about how you don’t want to see him get hurt again, you can save your breath. I’m not trying to hurt him, but he’s a grown-ass man, and he can take care of himself, and he doesn’t need a bunch of people wailing and crying about how he’s less than he used to be.” Dan leans in a little closer. “Maybe you need to consider the possibility that he’s
more
than he used to be.” He steps back again. “Now if the
lady
wants an escort back to the gallery, she’d better knock back her damn drink, ’cause I’m heading out.”

Amanda just stares at him.

“Not coming? Well, it seems like a pretty safe street, but I’ll tell Blaine where you are. He can come and carry you home if you want.” He turns to go, but she grabs his arm, and when he turns back to look, she silently tips her glass and finishes her drink and then hops off the bar stool.

“Damn,” she breathes. “You could make things a little bit interesting, couldn’t you?” And she hooks her hand through his arm and lets him lead her back into the night.

Chapter 6

D
AN
and Amanda walk back to the gallery in silence. Dan’s a bit tense, but Amanda seems happy as a clam. He’s having some trouble figuring this woman out, but he tries not to let it bother him. She’ll be gone soon enough.

When they get back to the gallery, it’s even more crowded than when they left. Dan can’t see Jeff or Evan, and he can’t seem to find anyone to take Amanda off his hands. For her part, she seems perfectly content to stay with him. Great.

He’s looked at all the pictures, and it’s too crowded to wade back in just for a second look. That seems to leave conversation as a way to fill the time. He casts a doubtful glance at Amanda. Does he really want to try that again? But Amanda doesn’t give him a choice.

“So, Dan, tell me about
you
. Evan said you moved out here from Kentucky. Is that where you’re originally from?”

He’s aware that this is a perfectly suitable topic for small talk, but given the context, it feels like the start of an interrogation. Still, he’s already been pretty rude, and that didn’t get rid of her, so maybe it’s time for a different approach.

“I lived there for quite a while before coming here. What about you—if you went to the same high school as Evan, does that mean you’re from the Bay area originally?”

She smiles charmingly. “That’s right! Although my family lived right in the city, not out in the sticks like Evan’s. My mom still lives here, only… about a ten-minute drive, maybe?”

“But you’re staying with Evan instead of with her?”

 

Amanda looks like maybe she’s not so enthusiastic about having the questions turned around. “Well, Evan’s is where the party is!”

“Yeah, of course.” Dan thinks he got just the right amount of mock understanding in those words. “But it’s your mom’s place? Is your dad not around?” This is getting pretty personal, he knows, but hey, she can always walk away. Or at least let go of his damn arm.

“No, Daddy lives in New York now. With his new family.” There’s enough honest bitterness in her tone that Dan decides to change the topic a bit. He doesn’t want to be a total bastard.

“And you and Blaine? How long have you guys been together for?”

 

Amanda wrinkles her nose. “Forever, off and on.”

 

Dan nods, and then decides to actually make the conversation interesting. “And Evan and Monica?”

 

Amanda shoots him a look. “They used to be pretty tight. But… not so much anymore. You know—not since Jeff.”

 

“Oh, yeah? And how does she feel about that?”

And now it’s Amanda’s turn to go on the offensive. “Why, are you concerned? Thinking maybe she’s moving in on your territory? Tell me, Dan, is there honor among thieves?”

Dan’s whole body stiffens. “Did you just call me a thief?” he asks quietly. He can’t say why this is the insult that’s going to push him over the edge, but he’s like that sometimes. He takes things for a while, and then he stops.

Amanda’s face is blank. “It’s a figure of speech.”

“Yeah.” Dan uses his free hand to lift her fingers off of his arm, and then he steps away, working his way through the crowd. His patience is used up, and he doesn’t really feel the need to keep Amanda company anymore. The room is getting hot. Dan has no idea where Jeff
or
Evan has gotten to. The night is not going too well. He’s pleased that he got to see the horse, but other than that, he wishes he’d stayed home. He tries to remind himself that this night is about Jeff, not about him, but how does that help? Jeff’s been busy with other people all night and now he’s disappeared, so it’s not like he needs Dan to be there.

Dan remembers Evan’s plan for the three of them to get together after the show and checks his watch. There’s an hour and a half to go until the official closing, and he somehow doubts that things will shut down immediately once the clock hits the designated time. He’s already feeling tired and sort of discouraged; he can’t imagine he’s going to be feeling a lot better after a couple more hours of this. He decides to look for Jeff or Evan, see if he can talk them into postponing the rest of the night.

The gallery is essentially one large room, but there are some partition walls in the middle sections, giving more wall space to hang paintings on, so it takes a while for Dan to be sure that neither Jeff nor Evan is there. It doesn’t take him much longer to notice that Blaine and Monica are gone as well. He sees Amanda talking to someone on her cell phone and thinks that he could always call if he has to. But it seems a little pathetic. They’ve apparently left without bothering to let
him
know, so he doesn’t really think he needs to go to any great extremes to hunt them down.

He heads for the front door and sees Jeff’s agent on the way. Dan can’t remember the guy’s name, but they’ve been introduced and the guy’s in sales, so he must be good with remembering people. Dan decides to give it a try.

“Hi,” he starts when he catches the man’s eye. “I was just looking for Jeff to say goodbye. Do you know where he’s gotten to?”

The agent looks a little frustrated himself. “I have no idea. His mother arrived, and he just stepped outside to talk to her because she doesn’t hear well in crowds, and then… he’s just gone!”

“His mother?” There’s another complication. “I didn’t know she was coming—doesn’t she live out of town?”

 

“She’s down from Seattle. Apparently it was a surprise.”

“Yeah, okay.” So Evan’s off somewhere with Monica, Jeff’s off with his mom, and Dan is stuck here, waiting for them to get back? That doesn’t sound quite right. And surely Jeff will be busy with his mother after the show, so their original plans will need to be changed, even if Evan
does
make it back. “Uh, would you maybe be able to tell him that I left? I’m Dan.”