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“Yeah, I live there. It’s…so fucking far from here.” At my remark about the distance, Amber began to crumble.
“Joseph,” she whispered, closing her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I can’t leave him.”
“You aren’t. You are just getting your shit together.” She nodded slowly, got up, and made her way to the bathroom.
“Laz is a good man,” she assured me. “He has always been good to me.”
“No, he’s not. He’s a could’ve been.” She pulled the door shut, and I pulled some spare clothes from my bag and stuck them in the bathroom for her. It amazed me she could think of Laz that way when the situation I’d entered last night was anything but wholesome. He was getting his cock sucked by a zombie, and she was being forced to watch.
My sister sure had a contorted image of good. Then again, this was all she knew.
I changed into a T-shirt and jeans and made my way next door, expecting to find Daniello gone. I was surprised when I found him dressed and waiting.
I smiled and he didn’t. I wanted to go to him, run my fingers through his hair. My sex pulsed at the thought of us repeating last night. I wanted him every minute I was with him. I wondered if he felt the same. He’d been so open last night. It was obviously a fluke because he was slightly closed off this morning.
“I think—”
“Don’t you dare. You cannot change your mind. This is not your decision!”
“Do you know who he is?!”
“Yes! I’ve known him my whole life. And now, apparently, someone got an update while I was next door. How the hell did you even find me anyway?”
“Why even question how?”
“Because you invade my life! You demand my body and demand answers and give nothing in return!”
He moved to stand in front of me, his eyebrow quirked. “Nothing?”
I blew out all the air in my lungs as he smirked. “You like seeing me this way, agitated and pissed off,” I concluded as I put my hands on my hips.
“I like you other ways as well,” he murmured as he slid his hands underneath my T-shirt and caressed my skin with his fingertips.
His thick lashes shadowed perfect, golden eyes as he studied me. “Just let me try this my way. If it doesn’t work, we can do it yours.”
He nodded and took a step back just as Amber knocked on the door. I opened it and noted that Daniello made himself busy loading his bags and bringing them to the trunk. Apparently, he didn’t want an introduction. So I didn’t give him one.
I handed Amber my phone, asking her to text Laz and have him meet me at our place. She had a question in her eyes but did as she was told. Driving into Dyer, there was an eerie quiet in the car. Daniello didn’t miss anything as he surveyed the ghost town and caught my eyes in the rearview. We passed what would have been the town square, which were just a few buildings opposite of the
other, all abandoned and crumbling brick. The further we went, the more the dread in my chest built. It was everything I’d remembered it to be: desolate, deserted, and forgotten. Desperate to escape the town I’d fled, I gripped the wheel tight as Amber stared out the window emotionless. This was all she knew.
Daniello remained quiet as I slowed past our old farmhouse to study its state, curious about my father.
“He died a few years ago, heart attack.” I nodded, knowing that it had everything to do with meth and wondering why fate had taken so long to take him. Daniello’s stare burned a hole through me in the rearview as he caught my eye, no emotion in my face. I concentrated on Laz as I pulled to a stop on the dirt road that separated our old houses. I looked at Daniello then back at Amber.
“There is forty grand and a cellphone in my bag in the trunk. Use it to start over, Amber, get Joseph back and leave. I have a friend named Cedric programmed in the phone who knows about you. He will get you two set up and back to Charleston.”
“I will get her to Charleston,” Daniello spoke up. “You do not need to go alone.”
“Please, we agreed,” I pleaded. Daniello glanced out the window and nodded.
I gave him a long look, memorizing his features, and he refused to look at me. I could see the tenseness in his body. He was fighting with everything in him not to end this on his terms.
I made my way down the dirt road toward our pond, a thousand memories hitting me like painful bricks. I took a deep breath as I saw the truck that Laz had driven last night.
“He with you?” I heard as he rounded the truck bed and looked past me.
“He’s in the car,” I answered. “So is Amber. I’m taking her home with me, to get clean, for her son.”
