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It also meant that I knew Heavy was surprisingly observant, so I should’ve known he’d start picking up on the tension brewing between me and Daniel. It had been bad for the past two years, but we’d kept it under wraps, mostly because Daniel had stayed away. The first time we’d been thrown together at Lia’s baby shower still made me want to die. I’d wound up sobbing in her bathroom and Heavy had to smuggle me home, pretending that I’d gotten violent food poisoning.
The next time I’d seen Daniel, he’d had the gall to give me a pitying, superior smile, and from then on, the cold war between us only festered. Poor Heavy, who’d accidentally told Daniel the truth—although he’d thought I’d been crying because of a death in the family—was now aware of it and hated it, though he’d learnednotto try and help us make up.
“I’m sorry, Sara,” Heavy said, and I glared at him, then realized he was drunk.Verydrunk. “I wish you two would make up.”
“Heavy, stop,” I said in an undertone, as I squeezed his shoulder. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.” Heavy shook his head. “He’s not fine. He’s gonna go off the edge one of these days.”
My heart squeezed in my chest as I wanted to scream,don’t tell me this, I don’t want to know this, I can’t do anything about it—I am nothing to him.
I wished that Daniel was nothing to me, but I’d been trying to hate him for two and a half years and miserably failing.
“What are you talking about, Heavy?” Pasquale asked with a nervous laugh. The sweet, big muscle-head raised an eyebrow at me. “Sara and Danny are pals. All that stuff is ancient history.”
“You know weddings,” I said with a false laugh. “They dredge stuff up.”
“Like what stuff?” Artie asked in a cool tone, and I glanced over to see him frowning. His eyes cut across the room to Daniel and back to me. As though he was putting pieces together and didn’t like the picture. “I thought you dumped Danny because of the gangster shit. I figured you’d figure it out eventually—you were both so young.”
I loved Artie, but his old-head, ruthless blunt honesty rarely had a time and place. And it usually, like now, had the worse timing.
Worse, I couldn’t pin a smile on and laugh or shrug it off because this was the first time that I’d heard this version of events.That’s what Daniel fucking said? That’s what he went with?
“Why does it look like this is the first time you’re hearing about this?” Artie asked, his voice deepening with anger, and a flashwent through his eyes. “Is that not what happened? Did that punk hurt you? I don’t care who he is, I’ll kick his ass.”
“Pas,” I said and grabbed his arm. “Help.”
“Yo, yo, Art, not at Ty’s wedding,” Pasquale said.
“Tell me what happened,” Artie demanded. “Is that why you don’t come around a lot?”
“Artie, you were right, we were young—it’s nothing, please.”
“It wasn’t,” Heavy said sadly, and I went rigid. “It’s ‘cause he took over and more people know he’s maybe related to the Reaper.” A huge sigh exuded out of Heavy as he shook his head. “It’s super fucked up. And now the Reaper is out—”
Artie and Pasquale both closed ranks, radiating a violence that made me glad I was their friend. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“It’s rumor but, I don’t know, I’m freaking out,” Heavy said in a low voice. “Do I tell Daniel?”
“No,” I said in a tight voice and all three men looked at me in surprise. “No. Not until you know it’s true—and not until this wedding is over. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Pasquale said, sounding dazed.
“Kiddo, I don’t know if that’s your call,” Artie said slowly. He patted Heavy’s shoulder. “Christ, no wonder you got drunk. You’ve been sittin’ on that all night?”
Heavy gave a miserable nod. “Found out about an hour ago—buddy of mine sent me a message.”
“Who?” Pasquale demanded.
“Slinky—you know he knows shit before anyone else.”
My heart was beating unevenly. “It’s probably not true,” I said, wondering if maybe I just wanted it not to be true. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff on the internet.”
“No, there’s a report that Sal Michaelson got gunned down in a prison break,” Heavy said softly.
“No way,” Artie scoffed.
“Exactly,” Heavy said. “Sal found a patsy, and he’s out. I’m tellin’ ya, I can feel it.” He crossed himself. “And Pasq, you don’t know. Me and Art, we know. We saw Danny after Sal tried to kill him and that shit haunts me to this day, I mean how that kid survived is a miracle—”
