It had been a long time since I’d had anything close to a “normal” schedule. Even in high school, I’d been such a night owl that I was usually asleep during classes. But being the last one out of bed was actually a great way to start the day. By the time I was awake, coffee had already been made, leftover breakfast was waiting for me in the fridge, and everyone was so preoccupied with work that I usually had uninterrupted time to work on my own projects for a bit.
But some days, the first thing I wanted upon waking wasn’t coffee or microwaved breakfast leftovers. Today, I just wanted company.
So I rolled out of bed, trudged down the attic stairs, and stumbled straight into Jason’s bedroom.
He had his headphones on, so he didn’t hear me come in. I expected to find him working, his screen covered with long lines of multi-colored code. It was enjoyable to watch him work, even though I barely understood a word of it. The rapid click of his fingers on the keys was relaxing.
But he wasn’t working. He was scrolling through real estate listings.
Stepping closer, I narrowed my eyes at the screen. All of these places were in New York. He jumped between towns, idly bobbing his head to whatever music he was listening to as he opened up photos of an overpriced McMansion.
Shit, we didn’t have that kind of money.
He jumped as I slid my arms around his chair, grasping his shoulders. He tugged his headphones off, saying, “Damn it, you scared me! These are noise-canceling, remember?”
I pulled his chair back, grabbing his face as I leaned down.
“Mm, you do look good when you’re scared,” I said. “All wide-eyed.”
“H-hey.” He pushed his hand against me, but his protest dissolved the moment I kissed him.
“What are you looking at anyway? Slacking off from work?” I squeezed my way into his chair, basically forcing him to sit on my lap. It made his feet dangle off the floor, which absolutely tickled me but made him huff in exasperation.
“I was only taking a break, for like five minutes.”
“Sure, sure, just a quick five minutes browsing for houses.” I scrolled through the listings, wincing at some of the prices. Shit was so expensive.
“I’ve been thinking about it more,” he said suddenly, his voice reserved. “I know Manson and Lucas are putting it off, but Jess’s car is going to be fixed soon…”
He felt like he was running out of time. I’d had the same fear lately, although I’d been trying to ignore it. I was determined to go with the flow, come what will, let fate take its course.
But Jess felt too important to leave up to fate anymore. I’d come dangerously close to telling her as much that day at my parents’ house.
Manson had already confessed to her; he’d told us so. I thought he was being overly cautious by demanding she not give him a response yet, but maybe I was too eager. When I fell for someone, I fell fast and hard. Not telling Jess as much had me ready to explode.
Why all the secrecy? Why the hesitancy? Because this was uncharted territory, and she was new to this entire scenario. She had plans and none of us wanted to interfere with that. Her life was already in the midst of turmoil and change, as was ours.
We all feared how things like love and commitment would complicate that even further.
“I don’t think she’s going to bail as soon as she gets the car back,” I said, frowning. “Don’t you think we’ve moved past that?”
“Probably,” he said. “But it’s not just that. She’s going to get hired full-time at that design firm. I know she will. She was talking about it at the gym the other day. Her review is coming up.”
Jess had been excited about that review all week. I was damn proud of her, but that hadn’t stopped the apprehension from creeping up on me. If she got the job, her moving away wasn’t optional. Sure, there was a discussion to be had for long-distance, but we didn’t plan to stay in Wickeston either. The entire premise of the five of us splitting up just felt…wrong. Extremely wrong.
“I saw Manson looking too,” he said. “For places in New York. He can’t let her go.” He sighed heavily. “I…I don’t think I can let her go either, Vince.”
Resting my chin on his shoulder as I stared at the screen, I said, “Yeah. I feel the same way. Have you told her?”
“No. I mean, not exactly. Not everything I wanted to tell her.”
I could be a goof about a lot of things, but when it came to love and relationships, I’d had to teach myself to slow down. Obviously, with Jason as my primary partner, being too frivolous with who I “brought in” wouldn’t be fair. After all, just because we weren’t monogamous didn’t mean it was a free-for-all.
So there were things I hadn’t said to Jess. Feelings I hadn’t admitted. Fate had thrown this second chance in my lap, and in some ways, I wondered if I was squandering it. Was I being too cautious? Hesitating too long?
As I held him tight, he turned his head to press his forehead against mine. Our breath mingled, and I closed my eyes.
“Do you still plan on coming with me to stay at Dante’s this weekend?” I said. There was no point in driving back and forth to work every night when I’d picked up double shifts. Luckily, I didn’t really mind the long hours. I enjoyed my nights at the club. But I really hated coming back to an empty bed.
“‘Course I am,” he said, stretching with a groan before he rubbed his eyes. His dark circles were coming back again, an indication that he’d been missing sleep. But I knew why. He always slept worse around this time of year.
“Are you okay?” I said, and he tried and failed to act like my question surprised him.
“Yeah, yeah, totally. Just distracted. Work, and…you know…” He waved his hand vaguely. “Everything.”
“Is it everything or something more specific?”
He sighed. “Goddamn it, Vince. You know I hate talking about it.”
“I know. I just hate to see you struggling and not saying anything. Have you thought about calling your brother this year? Seeing if he’ll talk?”
He shook his head. “He’s almost fourteen. I don’t even know his number anymore. My parents would flip if I tried to contact him on Facebook or something. Who knows what they’ve told him about me anyway? He probably doesn’t even want to hear from me.”
His brother’s birthday always hit him hard. He hadn’t seen the kid since his parents kicked him out, and that was five years ago now. They’d been close before that. The thought of being cut off from my own siblings made me sick, and it pissed me off to no end that his parents insisted on keeping them apart.
“Well, I’ll find a way to keep you distracted this weekend,” I said. “Maybe I’ll take you to work with me and just keep you tied up under the bar top.”
“I’m sure your boss would love that,” he said.
“She wouldn’t mind. It would probably bring in more customers.” He gave me a shove, and I laughed, getting up out of his chair. “I’m pretty sure Dante will be here soon to pick up his car. He’s going to leave us the keys to his place, too. Are you going to come down and say hi?”
“I’ll be down. Gimme a minute to get some real clothes on.”
***
There was a lot on my mind as I made my way out to the garage. Dante was upstairs in the garage loft, chatting with Manson. Lucas and Jess hadn’t returned yet, but he’d texted the group to say they were on their way.
“Hey, what’s up, my man?” Dante rose from his seat to greet me, grasping my hand and pulling me into a one-armed embrace. “Good news. You and Jason get the place to yourselves this weekend.”
“Oh, fuck yeah.” I grabbed the keys he offered me, slipping them into my pocket. “Where are you going to be?”
“At the sideshow with this dude,” he said, laughing as he clapped Manson on the shoulder and sat back down. “We have to show off the T-Bird, man. Those new headers are fucking sick.”
Dante was a tall guy, although not quite as tall as me. His long dark hair was bleached blond at the ends, and his face was pierced with multiple gold hoops in his lip, nose, and eyebrow. He’d been the shop’s first true client. He’d entrusted his car to Manson and Lucas with permission to go nuts — do whatever it took to make the car a champion.
Dante was well-off; business-savvy parents had led to a business-savvy son, besides having a sizeable trust fund. He had plenty of money to spend and was willing to do it here.
“I guarantee you’ll be the one to beat,” Manson said. “Hell, I wouldn’t race you, not now. I think your car is the best build we’ve ever done.”
“Damn right.” Dante turned in his seat at the rumble of the El Camino’s engine as it pulled up to the garage. Jess got out of the passenger seat, and when he turned back around, his mouth was hanging open. “You have to be shitting me. That’s the girl y’all are all over?” He whistled long and low. “Goddamn, how the hell did you pull a cute little thing like that?”
“It was our award-winning personalities,” Lucas shouted up to us, raising his middle finger to Dante. Dante flipped him off right back.
“Yeah, you’re a real catch, Bent!” he yelled. Lucas and Jess joined us upstairs, and of course Dante had to dial up the charm as he shook Jess’s hand.
“Pleasure to finally meet you,” he said.
“Likewise.” Jess smiled easily as she shook his hand, then sauntered over to Manson so she could greet him with a kiss, before coming to me. I picked her up off her feet to kiss her, grinning, because I could smell sweat and sex on her and had to wonder what she and Lucas had gotten up to.
Before she could settle in on the couch, Dante leaned forward in his seat, looking between us conspiratorially. “Listen up for a second. I’ve been meaning to bring up something to you guys. There’s…uh…”
His eyes flickered to Jess for a moment, uncertain. She didn’t notice, so I said, “Baby, would you go up to the house and see what’s taking Jason so long? He’s been holed up in his room all damn day.”
“Sure! I’ll get him out here.” She rubbed her hands together with a mischievous grin before she disappeared back down the stairs and outside. Lucas took a seat next to Dante, and I noticed for the first time that something was different about him.
“What the fuck happened to your wrists?” I said as he rubbed the reddened marks on his skin. Manson was on high alert instantly, jerking upright in his seat to look.
“Nothin’,” Lucas said quickly. But he caught Manson’s eye and winced. “There was an incident at the outlets. We ran into those old bitch friends of Jess’s and they planted something on me. Almost got arrested.” Then, under his breath, he added, “I almost got tazed…”
“You fucking what?” Manson was out of his seat and by Lucas’s side in an instant, grabbing his wrist so he could have a better look. Lucas’s face couldn’t have reached a deeper shade of crimson.
“Damn, easy there, Daddy,” Dante said. “Your boy is still alive, he’s okay.”
“Thanks to Jess,” Lucas said, shaking his head. He looked weary, and rubbed his hand over his head. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Manson still didn’t look happy. He stayed where he was, planted against Lucas’s side as we finally gave Dante his chance to speak.
“Now look, I don’t want to scare y’all and I didn’t want to scare your girl either,” he said. “But there’s some weird rumors floating around. Apparently there’s some people that really have it out for the four of you.”
“No fucking shit,” Lucas muttered.
“Well, it’s getting serious, because I’m even hearing about it,” Dante said. “Guys are saying someone is out to sabotage you, and I’m not talking about just slashing tires or some good old sugar in the gas tank.” He lowered his voice, taking a quick glance down into the garage as if he was afraid someone else might hear. “Someone wants you dead.”
Manson was nodding slowly, and Lucas’s jaw tightened up until it ticked. When Dante saw our grim expressions, he said, “I take it that this isn’t a surprise to you?”
“Unfortunately not,” I said. “There have been some issues.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” said Manson. “Are you thinking something is going to go down at the show this weekend?”
Dante shrugged. “It’s a possibility. That’s why I wanted to warn you. I’ve got your back, so do my people. Just say the word.”
I’d never questioned who exactly Dante’s “people” were. He had connections in both low and high places, and that was all I needed to know.
“We appreciate that,” Manson said. “We’ll keep an eye out. Maybe we…” He glanced at Lucas again, at the marks on his wrists. “Maybe we shouldn’t take Jess with us. To the show.”
“Aw, don’t do that to her,” I said. “She’s been looking forward to it.”
“We’ll be looking out for you,” Dante said firmly. “Don’t doubt it. Just keep your girl close. I don’t know who these dudes are or what their problem is, but they’re willing to play dirty.”
“We’ll keep her safe,” Lucas said firmly. Whatever had happened today, it seemed to have lit a new fire in him. “Not a damn thing is going to happen to her.”
I didn’t like the idea of the three of them going to that show without us now that Dante had voiced his concerns. Not that there was much I could do about it, but we were stronger when we were together. Splitting up just made us more vulnerable.
But laying low hadn’t helped us. Trying to ignore the problem hadn’t made it go away. Whatever happened now, we were going to have to start fighting back fast and hard. No mercy. These assholes were getting too bold. And whether Reagan was behind it, or if it was just the same old bullshit, it didn’t matter.
We had to protect each other, no matter what that took.
And that meant people were going to have to get hurt.
