Captain's Surrender Read online

  “Grand Magician Drake is not accepting guests this evening.” When he lifted his thumb off the button, the only sound to come through the speaker was a barrage of barking. He looked to Drake who immediately ran his diamond around the rim of his glass. The crystal glass sang out that clear, resonant note that directly precedes shattering. A fresh round of barking drowned out the sound.

  Adam turned back, in bewilderment, to the speaker.

  “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” As he spoke Adam heard Drake’s glass shatter.

  “Don’t send him away!” Drake ran from the patio and slammed his hand onto the oval button that started the elevator moving up. Adam stepped back from Drake, baffled by the sudden reversal. Drake smiled at him in what looked like a feeble attempt at reassurance. “I believe I know that dog.”

  Drake pulled the front door open and lunged into the foyer. The lighted display above the elevator indicated the car had reached the tenth floor, then the eleventh.

  Drake’s expression was one Adam had never seen outside a movie theater—a sort of agony of hope.

  Adam’s only thought was that Drake was not the sort of man who he’d imagined as having such an intensely emotional relationship with a dog, and by the sound of the bark, a small one. He could see Drake having affection for an albino python, maybe, or a raven. But to Adam, love of a cuddly pooch did not jibe with Drake’s spider-shaped ring. The thought that he might have judged another man’s character on fashion accessories alone generated a grimy, shallow shame in Adam. Briefly, the notion crossed Adam’s mind that the dog was inhabited, but by who?

  An ex-lover? Certainly the expression on Drake’s face communicated the importance of the dog, whoever it was.

  Whoever it was, he wouldn’t be happy to find Adam here, certainly.

  This evening should be over, he thought, and aloud he said, “Perhaps I should go,” but the grand magician didn’t answer.

  Above the elevator the number thirteen lit up and the doors slid open.

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