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We go to bed soon after that, and I’m almost asleep when my phone buzzes from inside my pants pocket on the bedroom floor. I don’t want to get up and risk waking Graysen, but after what happened with Ella and Martin over the summer, the late-night phone call worries me.
I ease myself out of bed carefully and answer the phone.
“Hello?” I say softly.
“Hey Alexei. It’s Joe. I need your help.”25GraysenI’ve never seen Alexei this upset, and I saw him in every possible mood when he was at Beckett.
“Fucking bastard,” he rants. “He just lied right to my fucking face.”
“I know it hurts, but it’s not unusual behavior for an addict, babe.”
“I’ve never wanted to kick anyone’s ass so much.” He paces across his living room. “What a cocksucker.”
“Try to relax,” I tell him.
He gives me a look that tells me that’s impossible, and I understand why. When I was asleep, around 2 a.m. earlier this morning, Joe called Alexei asking for his help.
Alexei jumped, of course. He got out of bed and got dressed, leaving me a note that he had to go help Joe with something. That something, it turned out when he picked Joe up in a seedy South Side neighborhood, was money.
He had outstanding debts with a drug dealer from before he went to rehab, Joe told him, and the dealer had put a bounty on his life. He’d left home because he was afraid the dealer would approach his wife and kids, maybe hurt one of them to get Joe to pay up.
“If you could have seen the desperation on his face,” Alexei says, sinking down on to the couch and burying his face in his hands. “He was in tears, babe.”
I go sit down next to him. “You did what any caring friend would do in that situation, don’t beat yourself up.”
Alexei told Joe to get into the car, and they drove to an ATM machine, where Alexei withdrew the $3,000 Joe needed. Then he drove Joe back to the seedy neighborhood, offering to go with him to pay off the dealer.
Joe said he could handle it, but Alexei said he’d wait for him. Joe disappeared down the block then, and Alexei waited. After half an hour, he got worried and started texting Joe, but he didn’t get a response. After an hour, he got out of his car and went looking for him.
It took him three hours to find Joe passed out in a crack house, a needle on the floor next to him. Alexei said he almost puked, afraid he’d given Joe the money for the overdose that killed him.
Alexei checked his vitals, though, and Joe was alive. Alexei got him a room for one night at a hotel and left him there, then came back to his place to wake me up. I’ve been trying to talk him down for a good forty-five minutes now, but nothing’s working.
“I didn’t even know he had a drug habit,” he says, giving me a helpless look. “I thought it was just alcohol. And he told me he’s been clean every day since rehab.”
“I thought it was just alcohol, too. And maybe back then it was.”
“I’m never answering another call from that lying bastard,” Alexei says, still fuming.
“He was desperate,” I remind him. “You can’t fathom the desperation of a heroin addict. It’s a hundred times worse than alcohol.”
“I don’t give a shit. That fucker promised his wife and kids—he promised them, Graysen. Just think how they must feel. They might not even know where he is. He could be dead in an alley somewhere. He’s got a responsibility to his wife and kids.”
“You’re right. It’s different when you have a family.”
“I just lost all respect for him. He’s never getting another dollar from me.”
I rub my palm across his back and say, “I know you’re feeling hurt and betrayed right now, but you can’t take responsibility for Joe’s actions.”
“Should I go tell his wife?” He lowers his brows in concern. “What if she doesn’t know?”
“He can’t hide a habit like this from her.”
“Yeah, but are her and the kids okay? What if they need some money?”
“You could call and ask her how things are going, see if she offers any information. But…”
“What?”
I hesitate for a second before saying, “I’m really not supposed to tell you this, so it stays between us. Joe’s wife is from a wealthy family. They’re the ones who paid for Joe’s rehab. I talked to her parents several times while he was there, they’re good people. Her father was ready to throw Joe to the wolves and take her and their kids in, but her mother wanted to give him one more chance. They’ll take care of her and the kids.”
His face relaxes. “Okay, good. I hope she leaves that miserable son of a bitch and never looks back.”
