Isolation Play (Dev and Lee) (68 page)

My father looks up. “How did it go?”

“
Um.” I run my paw through my head fur, flattening my ears and letting them spring back up. “Not...not bad. Surprisingly not bad. I might’ve done something right, for once.”

The other fox turns and gives me a wide grin. For a second, I still don’t recognize him, because he’s so wildly out of place that my brain doesn’t even process who it is. “Hi,” I say, and then, “what the fuck?”

A blue-gowned ermine gives me a severe look and wanders on down the hall. Hal Kinnel gets up and extends his paw. “When you said you were gonna give me an endin’ to the story,” he says, “I didn’t think you were gonna go all dramatic on me.”

“
How...” I shake his paw. “What the he-eck are you doing here?”

“
Wahl,” he drawls, “I kinda know Corcoran—Firebirds’ owner—”

“
I know,” I say.

“
I was just tellin’ your dad. So when I got your voicemail an’ did a little snoopin’, I found out what you got put in jail for. Called Corcoran and told him what kinda shit was goin’ down.” A red fox in a blue gown, walking by, makes a tutting noise at Hal’s language. Hal ignores him. “He’s a big family guy. All I hadda say was that one of his players had a father in the hospital. He was on his other phone gettin’ the plane ready before I even hung up. Didn’t even have to tell him who it was or talk him into a damn thing.”

He seems disappointed. I glance at my father’s grin, then back at Hal. “You ‘did a little snooping.’”

“
Ain’t so bad a reporter, I guess.” He lifts his muzzle, smug.

I incline my head. “So Corcoran called Dev—”

“
We-ell, actually, I b’lieve Coach Samuelson did.”

“
And you got to go along.”

He spreads his paws, eyes wide. “The jet was in Chevali. Had to take off from there anyway. Costs him the same if it took a passenger or not. Seein’ as how I was right outside th’airfield anyway, he was pretty agreeable.” He winks. “Got there at midnight but they couldn’t take off ’til four, so I just slept in the car.”

“
You know him that well?” my father says.

“
Oh,” I say, “they’re not drinking buddies or anything. But you remember a few years ago when the Firebirds had to dump a lot of contracts?”

“
No.” My father shakes his head, but Hal’s ears are up and he’s grinning at me.

“
Right around that time, there was a nice long piece on the Chevali front office. Nice profiles of the owner, the general manager, and the chief financial officer. Who was the owner’s son-in-law.”

“
Jennie Corcoran ain’t the brightest when it comes to pickin’ guys,” Hal says. “First husband stole her car and a fifty-thousand-dollar gold watch.”

“
And her second husband isn’t CFO any more,” I say. “He’s managing one of Corcoran’s furniture stores. Pretty big drop.”

“
People settle to their level,” Hal says. He grins. “Y’ain’t so bad a reporter y’self.”

“
So I figure,” I say, “you know more about why Corcoran’s son-in-law was dismissed than showed up in that article.”

“
That first husband was a lot of bad publicity,” Hal says. “Corky figured folks didn’t need to know about another stupid kid his daughter married makin’ a mistake, long as he handled it privately.”

“
Keeping family business private.” I cough.

Hal flicks his ears, and grins. “I knew it’d come in handy someday. Even if not ever’one agreed with me at the time.”

My father raises his eyebrows. “So you called in that marker for this story.”

Hal waves a paw. “Don’t go thinkin’ I like your son or nothin’. This is my story, and if it’s wrappin’ up here, I should be around in person. Much better’n second-hand accounts.” He raises an eyebrow at me. “If I’m ’lowed to write it.”

Father looks at me, too. “I’ll need to ask Dev,” I say, “but I don’t really know how we can say no, now.” I’d have to disclose before I got a new job, anyway.

“
Good,” he says, “cause I was on the phone with my bud at the Herald just now, and he’d like to run it.”

“
Good for your bank account.” It occurs to me, then, who he means when he says ‘not ever’one agreed’ with him. “And I bet that’ll show Cimarine, huh?”

His ears perk even further up than I would’ve thought possible. “That’s the gen’ral idea. Course, happy endin’s sell better.” He sniffs in my direction.

I glance toward the closed door. “We’ll see how the ending comes out.”

Father breaks in. “You sounded optimistic.”

That relaxes Hal. He nods to Father. “We been talkin’, too. How come you didn’t tell me ’bout your mom when you told me about the tiger family there, huh?”

Father looks a little pained, but gives me a nod. I move as a nurse carrying a tray of cups comes down the hall. “Don’t know. Didn’t seem relevant.”

“
That’s why you’re not a reporter.” There’s his smug smile again. “I can start writin’ this on the way back. Long as I can get a quick quote from Miski, senior.”

“
Don’t know how much he’s going to want to talk to you. He’s pretty private.”

Kinnel taps the side of his nose. “You leave that to me.”

He looks confident and happy, his tail has an arch to it, and he’s even got a light designer fragrance on. If this were the first time I’d seen him after the press conference where we met, I’m not sure I’d recognize him. It’s nice to think that I gave him this chance, that opening myself up to someone helped him get back on track. I can almost forgive him for the tabloid article. Which was my fault, anyway.

Both our ears perk at the sound of shouting from inside the room, but I can’t distinguish words or even whose voice it is. I assume he can’t either. After that one outburst, it subsides. We look at each other. “Until I hear the crash of furniture, I’ll assume it’s okay,” I say.

“
You know best,” he says. He asks me and my father about my childhood and college years, how they handled my coming out. My father does most of the talking, while I stare at the door, trying to imagine what’s going on inside. Once Dev’s over the relief of me being okay, once his father tells him what happened...are we going to have another fight? A bigger one, this time?

Hal and my father are talking about some news scandal when the door to Mikhail’s room opens, and the conversation dies away. I can’t read Dev’s expression as he steps out and then eases the door shut behind him. He stands, staring at the door for a second, then turns and sees us in the hallway. Behind me, a patient room is open, empty and sterile. Dev walks past Hal in two steps, takes my shoulder, and says, “In here. Now.”

Hal raises his eyebrows. I fold my ears down and say, “I’ll be right back.” Dev’s expression is unreadable, his tail flicking at the tip, his scent confused. I follow him into the room with no idea what to expect.

He kicks the door closed. The room is bright, the window open, but he’s standing in front of it and I can only see the reflection of the white wall in his eyes. I move to one side to get a better view; I only get a glimpse of my own sunlit face reflected in his shiny golden eyes before his paws snap out with frightening speed and hold my shoulders.

“
I’m not trying to get away,” I say.

“
I know.” The words are hard, tough.

He doesn’t follow up. I say, tentatively, “So...is it okay?”

He gives his head a quick shake, not a negation, but more like he’s trying to clear it, or shake something loose. “You beat up my dad.”

I flush. My ears, warm, fold down, and I dip my muzzle. I stare at his toes, orange and white, dirty and real against the tile. “I, uh, really I just...” My tail curls down between my legs.

He squeezes my shoulders. “You. Beat up. My. Dad.”

I stare up at him and try a smile. “Yeah, well, he called me a girl...” I break off, because he has a strange look on his face, like if I’d grown a second tail or something. “What?”

He shakes his head again. “You. Are you ever going to stop surprising me?”

His paws are trembling. I lift mine to hold his wrists and meet his eyes. “I don’t plan on it.” He starts to say something, but I cut him off. “But I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

He makes a strangled half-laugh and then crushes me against his chest, pressing his nose between my ears. His breath is hot and moist and wonderful. I wrap my arms around him and push my nose into his chest, his Firebirds t-shirt soft over the hard muscle. I inhale, the happy and scared and angry and tigery musk filling my world. I close my eyes to shut out everything else.

“
You’re a crazy fox,” he murmurs, and washes down the fur between my ears with a warm tongue.

I start to reply, but he cups my cheek ruffs and stares down at me, his nose an inch from mine. “You’re crazy, and wonderful, and precious, and you are not allowed to go anywhere, because I don’t know what the hell I would do without you, and I don’t want to find out.”

“
Okay,” I say, but I really only get the first part of it out before our lips are touching, and then our tongues, and then I can’t see his eyes anymore. I’m lost in the little shivers in my body, in his, our tails swaying together. The world stops turning for a moment to let us hang there and just be, together. And the knowledge that everything is going to be all right is mine again, a warm, orange and black-striped promise to my heart.

Time starts again. Reluctantly, we slide apart, though only physically, and he keeps his arms around me. “So,” I say, “you’re okay with your dad?”

He rumbles, softly. “I guess you impressed him.”

“
With my ah-key-dough?”

He doesn’t laugh. “Coming up to see him. All that stuff you said about talking to each other, about who I am and used to be and...” He lowers his muzzle. “Where did that come from?”

I brush my whiskers against his. “I finally listened to what he was really yelling about. I remembered our fights, how things work out when we just listen.” I grin. “Also, I was desperate. I thought telling him you were the top would work and it totally didn’t. I needed to try
something
.”

His eyes flick toward me. “Did you really tell him that I fuck you?”

“
Yeah, well.” I flick my ears. “He’s family, y’know. I thought it’d be important to him.”

“
Oh, yeah? Did you tell
your
father?”

I hiss. “Shh. He’s right outside. You want him to find out I’m gay?”

Sunlight sparkles in his eyes. “Yeah.”

“
Fine. I’ll tell him at Thanksgiving,” I say. “‘Hey, Father, pass the potatoes to the bottom fox.’”

There, he gives me a little laugh. “Oh...I think I’m going back for Thanksgiving. Home.” He smiles at my wide eyes. “And I think I can get you there, too.”

“
Really?” I flick my ears up, and play-snarl. “If I’d known that was all it took, I’d have beaten up your dad first thing.”

“
No more fighting.” He glares down.

“
Hey,” I say, “I told you a long time ago that I could take care of myself.”

It takes a second. Then his sides start to shake, his arms squeeze more tightly, and he staggers to one side, laughing, dragging me with him against the wall. I protest theatrically but fall against him as he leans, back to the wall, muzzle pointed to the ceiling, stomach still shaking with giggles. “Yes,” he gasps, “you did.”

I poke him, giggling a little myself. “You should listen to me.”

He calms a bit and wipes his eyes, holding on to me with the other paw. Now his eyes are the ones lit up by the sunlight, dazzling gold. “Yes, I should,” he says, and cups his ears forward. “All right, then, what do we do now?”

“
Oh, you know my usual answer to that.”

He chuckles, dropping a paw to my rear. It’s warm, affectionate. Nothing else. “Doesn’t feel like either of us is in the mood right now.”

“
I know,” I say. “And in a room with an empty bed. What’s wrong with us?”

“
Not the right place,” he rumbles down to me.

“
Not the right time.” I take a breath, look up. “Want to ride back with us to Hilltown? Unless you’re supposed to take the private jet back, or something.”

He scratches his whiskers, and pulls his phone out to look at the time. “Ten-thirty. The pilot said if we’re back by quarter after eleven, I’d make it to afternoon practice. I just gotta be sure everything’s settled here.”

I cup my ears toward him. “‘We,’ like, you and Hal, right?”

“
Hal?” He raises his eyebrows.

“
The reporter,” I clarify. “The swift fox. Come on, you flew up here with him.”

Dev stands straight and pulls my hips against him. “I was kinda hoping I could talk you into comin’ down to Hellentown. I know you said no, but y’know...” He lowers his muzzle to one of my ears. “I’m more persuasive face to face, too.”

“
I’ve...rrf...heard that about you.” I can’t stop my tail from wagging as he mouths my ear.

“
Besides,” he growls, “I don’t think I can leave you and my dad alone. I’m tired of this fucking hospital.”

“
I promised not to fight any more.”

“
So did he.” He sighs and shakes his head. “But I want you to come with me anyway.”

I hide my happiness at his father’s promise, except for a wag to my tail. “Do you think my father could come along too, maybe?”