I’ve never come close to telling anyone the full truth of what happened to my family. Liz knows more than anyone, about my shitty parents and losing my sister. I never told her how it happened, only that it was an accident and my mom let it happen. No one knows she held her down.
I’m still drying off after a shower when my phone buzzes. Like most people these days, the damn thing is never too far away so I see the screen flash from the back of the toilet seat with Mace’s name.
“Yeah?” I answer.
“We need to talk. Not on the phone,” he adds before I can reply.
“Where?”
The roar of a bike draws my attention, both from outside and in my ear. I walk into my bedroom and pull back the shades to see Mace’s Fatboy rolling up onto my driveway. How the hell did he even know… What’s the point?
I hang up the phone and drag the towel from around my waist, brushing it over my wet body. He’s on the porch by the time I’ve stepped into some sweats, and head down to open the door. There is no greeting as I turn my back dragging the towel over my wet hair.
I’m nothing if not polite but it takes a lot to offer him a drink, he nods and I grab two beers then we stand in the kitchen and stare at one another. I lean back against the counter and cross my ankles.
My house is small, not in the best of areas, and I haven’t done much to make it a home, even after sixteen years. I still have in the back of mymind that nothing is permanent. Or maybe I’m not that big into décor. Or owning shit, other than my bikes and tools.
The way we are standing in silence reminds me of when Hudson and War first dragged him back to the Devil’s Chaos compound. He was locked up in King’s cabin and usually I was the one watching over him.
We didn’t talk a lot, because he was hostile, but we weren’t always silent. And knowing what he did for Waverley meant he got my respect.
Somewhere along the way I lost sight of all of that and it was all because of Cassie.
“You still playing?”
I glance over my shoulder into the sitting room. There is a chess board on the coffee table. A game half way through. I shrug but shake my head. It’s been like that for weeks now and I was playing by myself, not with another player. I don’t know what happened to the one up at the cabin that we used to play.
“Why are you here?”
He sips his beer, then rests the bottle against his thigh. “I have news about Marshall,” he pauses when I straighten up. “We need to talk about something else first.”
“Took you long enough.”
“I’ve been busy with other shit,” he looks around the room so he’s avoiding my face when he asks. “Have you seen her?”
“Not since I dropped her off, I don’t tend to see her often. Why don’t you say what you came here to say, Mace. What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid of anything,” he scoffs turning back to me. “I want to know what your deal is. Why you are agreeing to what she suggested when you have more than a hard on for her.”
“Cassie isn’t like other women. She doesn’t want to be in a conventional relationship.”
“You think what we’d be doing is a relationship?”
“I think it’s what Cassie needs.”
“What does that mean?”
“As much as it pains me to say this, the two of us is what she needs.”
“Do you have any idea how vague that sounds?” he huffs out. “And obvious considering she let the two of us fuck her.”
“Don’t say it like that,” I set my beer down and straighten up.
“Are we gonna fight now?” he drawls. “Cos that’s fine, I don’t mind knocking you about a bit but I came here for a reason. Why should I do this? For the last three days all I’ve thought about is what a fucking insane idea it is and… I still want to do it.”
That knocks the wind out of my sails. He is here getting in my face but wants to understand this.
“You know what people will think,” he says.
