I closed my eyes and found it hard to breathe. Under my fingers, the bar was still wet where I’d spilled my drink, and the barest sensation of water made me feel as if I were drowning. “Her name, Roscoe. What’s her name?”

“Karly.”

I still couldn’t open my eyes. I was too angry with myself, too frustrated with my mistakes. The Dylan in this world had learned his lesson before it was too late. He’d changed. Not me.

“Am I happy?” I asked.

“Yes, you are. For the first time I can remember, you’re at peace. Plus, you’ve got—”

He stopped.

“What?”

“I’ve told you everything you need to know.”

“There’s something else. What is it?”

Roscoe shook his head. “I’m sorry. There are things that belong only to Dylan, not you.”

“I’m Dylan.”

“No, you’re not. Not here.”

I dug in my wallet and put money on the bar. “I have to go.”

“Where?”

“Home,” I said.

I began to get off the barstool, but Roscoe grabbed my wrist. For a small man, his grip was like steel. “Do not interfere in his world. He’s come too far to have it ruined for him. You had the same chances he did to turn your life around, and if you regret the choices you made, that’s on you.”

I looked into Roscoe’s eyes, which was a gift I never thought I’d have after I lost him. We’d known each other since we were kids. We’d grown up together, gone through all my struggles together. He was the most decent man I knew in any world, whether as a doctor or a priest.

Somehow I knew this was the last moment between us. I’d had one final little bonus, and now it was over. One way or another, alive or dead, I’d be gone from this world before the night was done. I would never see him again.

At least I had the chance to hug him and kiss him on both cheeks and say a proper goodbye this time.

“I’m not going to interfere in Dylan’s life,” I promised my best friend before I left. “I’m here to save him.”

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 30

I stood among the trees of River Park in the twilight. It would be dark soon. The Dylan I needed to kill was here, not far away from me. I could feel him on the other side of a milky cloud. In the same way that he could read my thoughts, I was beginning to read his, too. The last time, he’d been waiting for me inside the apartment, but I saw nothing to suggest that he was there now. Neither was the Dylan who really lived here, and neither was Karly. That worried me.

Whenever they came back, they’d both be targets.