The judge had given him three years as an accessory. And out of the three months he’d served, ninety percent of that time had been spent in the infirmary with a bruised face, cracked ribs, and his spirit bleeding out.
Then the Ravens came.
“I can’t stop lookin’ at you,” Roz whispered, cutting into his thoughts. “The prison told your parents you died. I went to your funeral, man.”
Scar was right. The Ravens had killed them.
Gage sat there, numb before he asked. “What was in the casket?”
“That’s your fuckin’ question? What…? What the hell, G? Why would they say you were dead when you’re not? And you’re…You’re telling me you’re blind now. Like, completely can’t see. You gotta help me out here. Because you’re not the same guy I used to know. You’re…different.”
Gage’s heart clenched.
“My parents?”
Roz sighed before he said softly.
“Your mom looked bad, bro. Real bad. And your dad—” Roz cleared his throat. “He tried to hold it together. Tried.”
A tortured sound escaped him.
“Was my funeral at our church?”
“Yeah. It looked like the whole congregation showed up, even the ones who left when you got arrested. They all really came through for your parents.”
Pain ripped through Gage’s heart.
His parents. His good, kind, almost perfect parents.
The two people he was supposed to honor and respect.
The two people who’d prayed for him every day and night.
The two people he’d shamed.
He was supposed to care for them when they got older, not break them. Not bury them in grief or make them spend three-quarters of their savings on lawyer fees to keep him from doing ten years in prison.
Air whooshed across his forehead.
He shot his hand out and grabbed Roz’s wrist and slung it away from his face with a strength that startled both of them.
“I told you to stop doing that,” he gritted.
“Fuck…my bad,” Roz muttered. “It’s just…You’re doing it again. It looks like you’re staring right at me.”
“Well, I’m not,” Gage snapped. “I can’t see. Of all the things in the world to lie about, you think I’d choose that?”
“Then how’d you know I was waving my hand in front of you?”
“’Cause you’re fanning my danggone face!”
“Okay. Then how’d you know that motorcycle was coming into my lane?” Roz threw back. “Or those railroad crossing lights were about to come on? You warned me that the skateboarder was going too fast and was about to cross in front of me, and I didn’t even see him. And when that sedan door opened in the highway median, you jerked like you thought it was gonna’ hit—”
“I don’t know!” Gage roared. He gripped his forehead and lowered his tone. He was terrified, but none of this was Roz’s fault. “I don’t know, okay?”
Roz breathed out so hard his espresso-scented breath warmed Gage’s cheek.
“You gotta level with me. I’m lookin’ at you, and you sorta look like my boy, but you don’t act like him. You sure as hell don’t sound like him. You’re yellin’ and throwin’ attitude.” Roz paused before he added, “Jail always changes people, but not that fast. Something happened to you, and I wanna know what. No more stallin’, bro. No more bullshit.”
