“Sounds great. You’re welcome to join as well, Awe,” Emilena offered, dragging herself to her feet and away from the warm spot on the couch. She left the room was halfway to the balcony when she spotted something more important than the pool; Axel was standing in the conservatory, smoking and looking at the exotic plants.
Emilena doubled back to the garage, fished Marita’s laptop out of the backseat of the Model J, and joined him. “Axel, you’re good with computers, right? Marita’s focused on some stupid thing involving a music video, so I think it falls to you to sift through this safehouse data. She mentioned it contained the location of Brennan’s HQ, where we were hoping to head next.”
Axel scoffed. “Yeah? Whatever, sure. It’s not like I had anything better to do anyway.”
Emilena didn’t hand the laptop over right away. “Hey. We’ve been through a lot, and I hope you know that if you ever need to talk, I’m here.”
Axel took a long drag of his cigarette and blew it in her face. “Don’t you worry, only thing bothering me is that Tony’s got the zinnias right between two racks of succulents.”
“Well, that might be more true than you think,” Emilena replied, wrinkling her nose. “I just visited Lily today. Now she’s dead.”
Axel inhaled his next puff too quickly and coughed for several seconds. “What, really?” he gasped.
“Yup. Less than twenty minutes ago. Tony drove me to our old safehouse for a meeting, and she was all chained up and drugged out. By a woman who looked just like her.” Emilena studied him, looking for a reaction. “She used me for some voodoo magic, stripped Lily’s powers and stopped her heart. Lily never even felt it.”
Axel flicked his cigarette stub into a bird-of-paradise. “Well, thank god. Didn’t think anyone could do it, but if she’s really dead, I owe you one.”
“Axel, have you met this doppelganger of Lily?” Emilena pressed.
Axel rolled his eyes. “She told you something, didn’t she? Look, when I followed Flora into that alleyway, nobody told me what was going on. I just did what I had to do to leave in one piece. To be done with Lily and all the bullshit around her." He threw his hands in the air. "Which is how I’d like things to be, even right now. Just consider me removed from that whole little sordid affair. Case closed.”
Emilena sighed. “OK, Axel. If you don’t want to get involved, I won’t tell you anything else.” She allowed him to take the laptop from her hands and stride out of the room.