“They?” Stealth asks.
“The treatment place.”
“Of course not.”
Ghost bites his bottom lip as he nods.
“What?” Stealth says. “You can ask me anything.”
“Okay, how do they know you’ll handle the job stress okay?”
“It wasn’t the job, Ghost. It was personal shit from the past rearing up on me. It was…” He pauses again and my gaze shifts to Shadow, who looks like he might be sick. Stealth drags a hand through his hair, stopping on a tangle. “Real talk? It was my inability to regulate my emotions and how I perceive other people’s emotions and actions. I was seeing someone and it didn’t go well. I have some pretty deep-seated abandonment issues and they took over.”
His voice is light, but his body is tense as he speaks. Shadow is staring at the floor, his jaw ticking with tension. What the actual fuck? I know Shadow and Stealth weren’t seeing each other. For one thing, that’s a hard no for Shadow, but even if something happened, I’m pretty sure he’d be honest with us about it.
“Do we need to kill someone?” Phantom asks, dead serious.
“Nah, man, he’s not in my life anymore. He’s not even in this state.” He half shrugs. “Which is kind of what set me off. Funny thing is I wasn’t in love or anything; I just wanted to be. I was clinging to something that wasn’t good for me, but I have a habit of doing that.” He clears his throat. “At least, I used to. I’m different now.” He glances at Shadow. “And knowing you guys were still here for me and that Shadow trusted me to come back got me through the hard days. We’re, um, we’re family. Right?”
“Fuck yeah, we are,” Whisper says while the rest of us add our agreement.
“We’re happy you’re back,” I say. “Truly. You were missed.”
“Thanks, brother. I didn’t want to leave until I knew I wouldn’t relapse. I quit cigarettes too.”
“Impressive,” Phantom says.
“So it’s business as usual,” Stealth continues. “I’ll get back in the rotation when Shadow’s ready, but as far as how to treat me, it’s the same as it was. The responsibility is on me to speak up if I need support, and you have my word that I will.”
“What about, like, drinking and stuff in front of you?” Specter asks.
“It’s not an issue. Alcohol was never my problem, and none of you do meth or heroin, so I should be fine.”
Shadow flinches again but blows out a quiet breath. “Your room is clean and ready for you.”
Stealth smiles slightly. “Thank you. For what it’s worth, I’m so fucking happy to be back home with you guys.”
“That’s worth fucking everything,” Carnage says.
Stealth grabs one of his bags and turns to me. “Got a second?”
My brow crinkles but I nod, rising to my feet. “Of course.”
I take one of the other bags and follow him up the stairs to his room. Once we’re in there, he opens a smaller bag and pulls out a crinkled piece of paper.
“Here.”
I take it and unfold it, unsure of what this is. On the paper are a bunch of scribbled words that are too hard to read.
“I wrote that to you,” Stealth says. “Obviously, I wasn’t mentally clear when I wrote it, but you wrote me and it meant so fucking much, Wraith. I read your letter every day for weeks because you said the one thing I needed to hear. That I was worth fighting for.” His eyes turn glassy, but he blinks the emotion away. “The others wrote me too, but for some reason it was what you said that got through the noise. So, thank you.”
“Bror, you’re welcome. I’m glad I could help, and it’s true.”
“I know that now. I wanted you to know that it had an effect and I tried to write back.”
“I didn’t expect anything. I’m glad you’re back and healthy.”
“Me too. We’ll see how Shadow does with letting me off the leash.”
