In Between Dreams (6 page)

“Where’d you go?” Bailey breathed out. Sam was still rubbing her back, trying to comfort her. She walked away from his touch. She liked feeling comforted, and he did a great job of it. But she needed to focus on the task at hand.

“To the lobby. I have an idea.” Halene grinned proudly.

Halene motioned for the two to sit on the couch, and as they did so, Sam picked up the newspaper to read the headline. “‘China appoints
new Tibet governor, hard-line policies to remain’?” He showed Bailey the front page.

“
No!
Look at page six,” Halene instructed. Sam turned the pages quickly. When he got to the sixth page, there was an image of a group of people in a rural area. The group was of mixed race and all were grinning at the camera with big pleased smiles. “‘Yearly Tourist Excursion to Lijiang, China, to depart in two days,’” Sam read, and looked up at Halene with confusion.

“The tour leaves tomorrow,” Halene said. “And Mei is going to be on that train.”

four.

A
loud, unhumanlike noise made Bailey jump. Sam scoffed and pointed at Daniel. “It was him.” Bailey heard the noise again and realized it was Daniel’s horrendous snoring. She pouted a little bit before kneeling on the ground next to him, looking at him, obviously thinking something over as she stared at his unconscious state. He was drooling out of the side of his mouth, and his continuous attempts at being cool were in real jeopardy. His sleeping state was making him look very foolish. His clothing was twisted and wrinkled from sleeping in them, with the odor that comes with overindulging in whiskey before he went to sleep. He made a sudden move of his head, which was facing Bailey, and he exhaled. She winced, turning her head to avoid the booze breath in full force. She stood and looked him up and down. She then looked up at Sam with an evil smirk, and he shook his head.

“What are you going to do, Bailey?” he asked. He looked at her skeptically and moved the hair out of his eyes as if to give her a more meaningful look. “I suggest you back away from the passed-out drunk man in the middle of our hotel room.”

Her grin was wicked, and Sam’s jaw slacked as he saw Bailey’s hand reach up to pinch his nose closed. Sam looked like he might say something, maybe “stop” or “don’t,” but he didn’t. He let her do it. She pinched Daniel’s nose tightly, and his snoring stopped for a moment. Bailey smiled in triumph, and Sam shook his head in disapproval.

“What?” she said with a giggle. “I’m having fu—”

Daniel cut her off by choking and coughing. She took her hand off his nose as fast as she could. He squirreled around on the couch. For a moment, he looked like he might fall on top of her so she put her hands out to catch him. “Daniel!” she yelled loudly, accidentally waking up Mei. Sam could hear her groan while hearing some motion from her room as soon as Bailey screamed.

This was why they never tried to have fun. Something like this always happened.

Daniel’s eyes opened. His face was so close to Bailey she could smell the whiskey on his breath. Her eyes were wide with surprise, and Daniel was still half drunk. Bailey scrunched up her nose at his breath. “If you wanted a little something, all you had to do was ask,” Daniel half slurred.

Bailey screeched and tried to push him all the way back on the couch but was unsuccessful. She wasn’t very strong, and Daniel was a large man. Daniel didn’t seem to want to help either, and he sat there laughing at her. Sam walked over, and as soon as Daniel saw him, he rolled back onto his spot on the couch. “I don’t need your paws on me, translator.”

Sam gritted his teeth and turned around, his eyebrow lifting a tad. As irritating as Daniel was, Sam didn’t want to fight with him. He knew it wouldn’t do any good for anyone. They needed to stay out of conflict and stay sharp. Obviously, Daniel was going to make it a difficult task. He decided to walk into Mei’s room to make sure she was okay. “Want to come with me, Haley?” he offered.

“Yeah,” she said. “We’ll tell her the plan.”

Bailey stood up and brushed her clothes as if Daniel had left cooties on her. Daniel smirked at her. “Oh, please. You’d kill to have me on top of you.”

Bailey and Daniel began a stare-off. Bailey glared at him and Daniel looked right back at her. He knew he was getting under her skin, and he liked it. Considering the picture of him in his last minutes of his whiskey hibernation, the thought of him touching her was disturbing to her.

Sam cleared his throat loudly from Mei’s room, as if the noise might stop Daniel. Daniel grinned, turning the direction of his face toward the
bedroom where Mei and Sam were. “What? She would, and you know it.” Daniel said as if he expected a response from Sam. The comment was met with silence.

Bailey slipped her shoe off and pointed it at Daniel in a threatening gesture. “Just stop,” she said, waiting for an excuse to throw it at him. Daniel grinned back, his smile getting bigger, showing her he didn’t plan on stopping. She threw the shoe at his head, and he caught it with ease and quickly put it under his seat.

“That was stupid of you. Now come and get it back.”

“How old are you?” Bailey asked, and smacked him playfully. Before her hand connected with his face, Daniel grabbed her and pulled her down so he could whisper in her ear.

“You can be on top if you want,” he said before releasing her. As he let go, she pulled back and stepped away from him to a safe distance.

“You’re disgusting.” Bailey’s voice denoted her overall impatience with Daniel’s antics.

“What? Hales isn’t in the room,” he offered before sitting up and tossing Bailey’s shoe back to her. “What’s gotten you so riled up?” he asked as Sam made his way back into the main area, closing the bedroom door quietly behind him.

Sam put his index finger over his lips, signaling for Daniel to keep it down. “You guys need to remember why we’re here,” he glared at Daniel. “This is not the time or the place for your antics.”

“You guys?”
Bailey protested in a whine with her mouth opened wider than needed for emphasis. She played the victim, like she did not antagonize Daniel during the verbal volleyball. She acted as if rousing a drunk would not stir up some trouble.

Sam shook his head before looking at her. “You act like a child around him,” he told her with a meaningful look, and she allowed her jaw to unslack. Sam sounded like a corrective parent. Bailey considered making a more elaborate defense but thought better of it.

Daniel scoffed loudly making both of them look his way, “What did I
just
say?” Sam said harshly but in a lowered voice. Sam tried to tie off the discussion so they could move off the subject. Bailey grew
concerned and bit her lip out of nervousness as she looked between the two men.

“You’re a fruit loop, mate,” Daniel said, still not lowering his tone as he stood and stretched. “We were just lairing it up and you have to go ‘parental’ on us.” Daniel clearly tried to gather his thoughts within his cloudy hungover brain. His tongue rolled over his teeth, and he grimaced, tasting the remnants of the drink from the bout with his bottle. His tongue shot out of his mouth a couple of times before he looked frantically for something other than booze to drink to clean out the taste.

Sam took a breath and looked over at Bailey for an explanation. She explained, “Fruit loop means—like fool or foolish. Um, lairing is like joking around, screwing around.”

“That’s my girl,” Daniel said, and made eye contact with Bailey, which she quickly broke.

Sam was clearly done with Daniel. If he were a cartoon character, he would have had steam coming out of his ears. “Look at you.” Daniel chuckled. “You’re mad as a cut snake.”

“That means—” Bailey started. Sam’s irritation with Daniel had overflowed onto Bailey. He wouldn’t even look at her.

“I got it,” he loudly whispered as he held his hand up to stop her explanation. “I need you to keep your voices down so Mei can go back to sleep.” He gestured toward the bedroom to make his point clear. Maybe all the time they had spent in the apartment was wearing on all of them, and Daniel’s stunt with the bottle only made the situation worse.

“Where the fuck is Halene?” Daniel asked loudly, walking toward Sam like he was the reason Halene was missing. He looked through the foggy glass in Mei’s room to see if she was in there.

“What did I
say
?” Sam asked again, hushed and angry. She had never seen Sam like this. He was normally pretty calm.

“Keep your voice down,” Bailey offered quietly. She had yet to move since she got her shoe thrown her way. She was increasingly becoming concerned the fists were going to fly. There had always been a macho tension between these two, but it rarely escalated to this extreme state.
Not that Bailey could remember, anyway. But Bailey sensed there was a competition for leadership with the sometimes-caustic relationship between the two. Their roles were different, but each wanted to prove their worth was more than the others.

“Where is she?” Daniel asked a little quieter, still too loud, but Sam didn’t say anything. Sam walked past him, knowing Daniel was talking to him. “Sam! Why aren’t you answering me?” Daniel moved like a matador allowing the bull to storm by. He pivoted and maintained his aggressive stance.

“She’s in there with Mei helping her fall asleep. Come on, Daniel.” Sam had reached his breaking point, the strain on his face was apparent. Daniel’s eyes were telegraphing a different message. His brow was furrowed, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Sam. This confrontation mixed with a hangover could have an escalating effect.

Daniel shot Sam his infamous wicked smirk. “Let me get this straight. Halene leaves the room, and you grow a pair and decide to talk to
me
like
that
.” Daniel squared his stance. This was a tell to both Bailey and Sam that Daniel was in serious mode. Sam was willing to risk his wrath. He too was reaching his limit.

Bailey made her way to a chair and sat down to put her shoe back on. “Listen, Daniel, keep it down. Mei is trying to sleep,” Bailey said calmly. She was attempting to alleviate the tension between the two men by invoking the name of the client.

“I don’t give a pig’s arse what she is trying to do,” Daniel noted. His voice was no longer playful. “Sammy Froufrou needs to learn how to speak to me with respect.” The smell of testosterone was wafting through the air. Daniel was clearly getting ready for a physical fight. In slow motion, he moved his right leg back slightly like a soccer player getting ready for a kickoff.

“You don’t deserve my respect,” Sam said under his breath. He crossed the short distance to Bailey’s side. “While you were drunk and passed out, Bailey and I were actually trying to sort out the situation.” His words were becoming more accusatory in tone.

Daniel broke his icy stare at Sam long enough to look at Bailey for an explanation. She shrugged. “I don’t know why you’re getting so angry.”

“Did you tell Halene about what happened to Mei?” Daniel asked with pursed lips.

“Of course we did,” Sam scoffed. “You were passed out, and we can’t wait for you to do everything. I don’t know if you’ve noticed: we’re in a situation here.”

“Rack off!” Daniel blurted in frustration. Bailey had never heard him utter the term before but knew it meant something like “screw you,” or more likely “fuck you.”

“You didn’t.” Daniel muttered toward Sam, his eyes darkened. The words were an allegation.

“We had to,” Sam defended. “How can Halene tell us what to do next if she doesn’t have a clue what’s going on? We need to get her insight one way or another. She is as much at risk as any of us. If she is going to be around this, she has to be brought up to speed. Bailey and I are aligned on this, Daniel. Let’s move on.”

Daniel’s posture relaxed, and he was showing signs of frustration, but the aggression dialed back. Daniel knew the briefing of Halene had to be done, but he wanted to control the situation.

Daniel scoffed, and his eyes went back and forth between Bailey and Sam with a look of disdain so harsh, it gave Bailey chills. “You two are such pushovers! Why I ever leave you two alone with her is beyond me.”

Bailey stood up to defend herself, but Sam beat her to it, walking up close enough so he was directly in front of Daniel’s face. Daniel was much taller than Sam. It looked a little ridiculous that the smaller of the two was trying to intimidate the other. “Listen,” Sam said with a note of frustration very apparent in his voice. “You need to take the ‘me’ out of team and realize we’re all here for the same reason. We can’t leave unless we all work together, so how about you stop blaming the two of us”—Sam motioned between himself and Bailey before looking Daniel right in the eyes—“and keep your voice down, will you?” Sam finished through gritted teeth.

Sam began to walk away but turned back to Daniel suddenly, “If you would stop drinking so much, maybe you wouldn’t have been passed out. Then you could have told Halene yourself.” He said it like it was
a side note, but it sparked something inside Daniel instantly. Daniel’s alcoholism was like Fight Club. No one talked about it, like it was a rule.

Daniel grabbed Sam’s sweatshirt near the neck to pull him in close to his face, and Bailey acted quickly to break them up before they got into a fistfight. She put her hands on both of their chests and pushed them apart. They didn’t budge.

“I don’t know what your deal is, kid,” Daniel said through his teeth to Sam, speaking right into his face. Bailey was sure Sam could smell the stale whiskey on his breath, “but if you don’t stop with the whole high-and-mighty act, I will crack into you so hard you won’t remember last Tuesday.”

“Daniel!” Bailey removed her hand from Sam and pushed Daniel backward with both her arms and all her force. Daniel didn’t flinch, and he kept a hold of Sam. “Daniel, I swear to God.”

“Leave it alone, B. This is between us,” Daniel muttered, keeping his eyes locked on Sam. Sam moved both of his hands to grab Daniel’s right wrist. Bailey jumped back quickly. With a quick smooth action, Sam moved Daniel to his side. He pulled Daniel’s arm downward and used his two hands against Daniel’s one, lifting him off the ground. Sam then twisted Daniel’s left arm in a backward move as Daniel crashed to the floor. Daniel was clearly caught off guard; he was expecting Sam to back down. The whiskey left Daniel in a vulnerable frame of mind, and Sam was able to take advantage of the weakness.