Shadow Unit 15 Read Online Free

his usual route to the high security area and the support group meeting in the vast and empty cafeteria—to a smaller wing, with only a handful of residents.
    Two of them are standing out by the nurse's station, accompanied by the usual complement of quiet, watchful staff. Dice smiles at the first, a slender young woman.
    "Hey, Susanna."
    She smiles back, after a delay and a half-halted wave, then she slips into a room and shuts the door quietly, avoiding any further contact, but the other woman turns around and smiles widely.
    "Dice," Natalie Summers says.
    "Natalie," Dice answers, and up his arms come, a mirror of hers as they step closer together and hug. it's a close squeeze, though Dice is one-armed because of the second box of kolache and the grocery sack, but when they step apart Natalie's got a light in her eyes. Her red hair is natural, from the soft fuzz on her head, but not as vivid as he was used to seeing it, and she reminds him of a young Sinead O'Connor, with huge eyes and the hollows of her cheeks filling in a little.
    "It's so nice to see you," she says. "I've met your brother." She acts like the guard standing just out of reach and to her right is personal security. She's probably used to having personal security.
    "And now you know everything." Dice laughs.
    Natalie lays a tan-gloved hand on his arm as she laughs along.
    "Hardly. Kylie was just here," Natalie says. "Last Sunday."
    "Oh, good! Good," Dice says, and sets the box down at the nurses' station occupied by Sam, who isn't a nurse but was studying to be one, and rocks back on his heels. "I'm glad."
    "Me, too. She never stopped being my friend, Dice."
    Dyson already knows. Kylie wrote him a message on Sunday. "That's good."
    "Is your brother okay?" Natalie asks, and Dyson can't hide the expression that goes with his stomach dropping to the floor. "It's probably nothing," she says quickly. "He's not in observation, but he's been keeping to himself today and yesterday, and you can't usually get him away from the windows in the recreation room. He sits in the sunlight," Natalie says.
    "Should I tell him that you were wondering if he was all right?" Dyson asks, and she shakes her head—and then changes her mind and nods.
    "It's good to know that somebody's thinking about you," she says. "Susanna was, too."
    "I'll tell him," Dyson promises.
    Natalie goes off to the TV room. Eddie comes out not long after, smirking at Dice.
    "The rich girl talks about you, brother."
    "She asked if you were doing all right. She says Susanna was worried about you, too."
    "The kid? No fooling. Wasn't feeling social. Let's play some chess."
    Dice plays because Eddie likes to. They start a Catalan opening by silent agreement, and leave the clock off. Eddie doesn't rest his left arm on the table, doesn't talk much, glancing at the other end of the room where Natalie sits and watches a show with vampires of some kind.
    "You sure there's nothing going on there?" Eddie asks, and Dice nods.
    "I'm sure."
    "Not like you could go on dates with her anyway. She's got the treatment already."
    "Ah."
    "She's already going for walks," Eddie goes on. "I'm not even at walks yet."
    "When you get there, do you want to take a spin around the gardens?"
    "You should go on a spin with her."
    "Eddie."
    "Okay, okay. But she likes you, man."
    "I know she likes me, but it's not like that."
    "Like you and that tattoo babe you date."
    "We go to the movies together sometimes."
    "But it's not like that," Eddie grumbles, and his left shoulder rises until he notices it and shoves it back down. "Can't you just get laid?"
    "Eddie."
    "Okay, okay. You're seriously into this sensitivity cra— stuff. Why not get your leg over?"
    "How would Natalie feel if I used her like that?"
    "Fucksake, Dice. You never fucking quit. It pisses me off."
    "I don't know what you mean."
    "Yes, you do," Eddie says. "Never mind. Let's do some chess."
    Dice reaches for his knight, and squeezes the horse head, resisting the urge to take