“Rainer has probably wanted to throw a wrench at your head for years."
“Yeah, he probably has one already picked out.”
I almost smile.
“I mean it, Sky,” he says, and the quiet in his voice settles over the room. “There is no way I am going back in there. I don’t want to fight some asshole because I still haven’t learnt to keep mytemper in a cage. I don’t want to wake up one morning to find I’ve wrecked everything that matters, because wrecking things is the only skill I’ve ever really perfected.”
The room goes quiet.
The boy I loved hid every fear he had behind smirks, blood, and spectacularly bad ideas, and would stand in front of me with split knuckles and call it a scratch. He outran everything.
This man sits on the edge of a mattress and tells me the truth.
“Has something happened since you’ve been out?” I ask.
“Yeah, fucking Griff.”
The name drags something cold through the room like a window opening in winter.
“He came looking for you?” I ask.
“The day I got out. He’s been circling since.”
“What does he want?”
“Money. A fight. Blood. Probably all three served in that order.”
“What does he say you owe him?”
Zane’s jaw tightens and I can tell I’m not going to like it. “The last fight. The one I missed the night I got arrested.”
Something lands in my chest.
It’s not quite surprising since I knew Zane kept secrets from me back then. He sees it appear on my face.
“You told me you had stopped fighting,” I say.
“That was supposed to be my last one.”
Supposed to be. The anger comes quiet and clean. “You didn’t tell me shit back then.”
“I know.”
“You made choices in the dark and handed me the wreckage in the light.”
“I know.” His voice doesn’t flinch from it. “That’s why I want to be truthful this time.”
He lifts his eyes to mine. “All of it. No edited versions. No protecting you from things you have a right to know.”
Honesty from Zane Rivera feels like a hand reaching through broken glass. You want to take it. But you are also aware it might shatter.
“So what are you going to do about Griff?” I ask.
He runs a hand through his hair. “Don’t know yet. Rainer knows about it. He told me not to bite.”
“Good advice.”
“Annoying advice.”
