“Yeah, well, you know what? I don’t give a fuck what you think.” Joe steered the car into the Hercules Security parking lot, pulling into a space and stopping. He turned off the ignition and then turned to look at Drew. “If I were a hypocrite, I’d’ve taken Finn up on his offer to dump you. If I didn’t love him, I’d leave him and this fucked up mess of a relationship that apparently isn’t making anyone happy. So what’s your angle, Joker? Because I may love Finn, but I don’t give a shit about you personally, and it won’t hurt my delicate feelings if you say the same.”
Drew studied Joe in silence, and then he gave a little “what the hell” shrug. “We don’t give a shit about each other for different reasons. I don’t know you well enough, so the only reason I give a shit about you is because Finn loves you. You’re important to him, so by extension, you matter to me. You, however, see me as competition. I’m an intruder, and you’ve got up some pretty thick walls against me even though you don’t need to. I don’t want to take Finn from you. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I don’t want to fuck up your relationship either. It’s older and stronger than mine. I know that. What I’d like is peaceful coexistence so we aren’t all in a fucked-up mess.”
“So tell me this, Mr. All I Want Is Peace, whydon’tyou just bow out? If you don’t want to fuck up my relationship, if you aren’t really competition, why don’t you just go away?” Joe snorted. “If my relationship with Finn is older and stronger, why are you sticking your cock into it?”
“I could bow out.” Drew inclined his head to acknowledge the point. “Finn and I talked about it. He didn’t want me to. I get what you’re saying, Morrissey. The newcomer ducking out is the more honorable move to make. I could still take a powder. It’d hurt a hell of a lot worse now than it would’ve a few weeks ago, but I could do it. So I do the honorable thing and break up with Finn… and then what? He goes back to hooking up with strangers? What if he finds someone else who strikes the same kind of sparks I did? What are you going to do then? Run that guy off too?”
Joe shook his head, feeling defeated. “It’s too fucking late for you to bow out now, and you damned well know it. Yeah, you could have done the honorable thing, but that time came and went, so now you’re stuck. I’ll be damned if I’m going to have you tell Finn I ran you off. I’m not doing that to him, and neither are you, do you understand me? Especially since I get the feeling there’s a price on my head. Someone has to be there for him, you asshole. And you got yourself elected.”
“I accept,” Drew said, a sardonic edge in his voice. “Now are you going to sit here and jaw at me some more, or are we going to go find Finn?”
A cold wave of pure rage flowed over Joe, and he was glad he’d left his gun back with the cops. If he’d had it now, he’d’ve been awfully tempted to shoot Drew and damn the consequences. He spent a single second thinking about choking Drew to death, but then he decide it really wasn’t worth it, no matter how satisfying it might be for a few moments.
“Fuck you, Martin,” he said and then unfastened his seatbelt and got out of the car. All he knew at the moment was that he had to save Finn, no matter what. Though it was starting to look like dying in the process might be a hell of a lot less painful than living.
