Chapter Thirty
Brick
Lilith let out a slow whistle when I pushed my way through the door to the Steel Rose. “There’s a sight for sore eyes,” she called out. “I didn’t expect to see you crawling back here anytime soon.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I said. “I’m here for a visit, not to move back in.”
She leaned up across the counter, offering me a kiss on the cheek to say hello. “I’ll take what I can get.”
I wrestled down the guilty feelings that were trying to fight their way to the surface, thinking of how I had run off without so much as a goodbye. If there was any saving grace in the way Frisk had demanded another fight out of me, it was the fact that I could move around the city without looking over my shoulder every five minutes. No one was going to jump me right before I was supposed to show up as the prize fighter, which meant I could return to the Steel Rose without sweating the risks.
I wasn’t used to having friends, at least not ones that I kept around. I had the guys I would drink with at the bars around Philly, but none of them were the kind of people I would want to stick my neck out for. The owner of the first bar where I worked was special to me, but he had passed some time ago. Somehow, though, Lilith had worked her way inside of my heart. If she were to ask, I’d just say it had to do with the money she sent my way, but I knew it had started before that. She accepted me for who I was, no questions asked, and I hoped I could show her that same kind of trust in return.
“I blew all the money you sent my way,” I joked. “How about a free beer?”
“You buy yourself a motorcycle?” she joked back, grabbing a bottle for me.
“Comic books.”
We both chuckled, and Lilith poured herself a little tequila. She had a new ring in her nose, and from the way her biceps were popping, I knew she had been practicing the workout routine we talked about. “You going to tell me a story?” she asked.
“Not much of one,” I answered, popping the top off my beer.
“That guy from the comic book store gave you the cash, I take it? I thought you had skipped town, but now I’m thinking you were holed up in a cabin nearby with that cutie and his friend the past few days.”
“You’re closer to the truth than you probably realize,” I chuckled.
Lilith threw back her drink. “What, you falling in love? That doesn’t sound like the Brick I know.”
“Hell no,” I answered. “You know I don’t have space in my life for a thing like that. I’ve still got my eye on the road.”
“You just wanted to have a little fun on the way.”
I turned my palms up. How was I supposed to explain Ezra and Irving to someone else? Even though Lilith understood me, I would still struggle to find the right words. Ezra just had a way of pushing through the walls I threw up and making me smile despite myself. And as soon as I was smiling, Irving would offer me some insight I hadn’t been expecting or throw down a casual compliment that made me feel like I was actually capable of caring for someone. Even when I started raging inside of myself, storm clouds brewing and thunder crashing, the two of them saw past all of it.
They didn’t try to hurt me, and they didn’t try to run from me. If anything, they just wanted more.
And they sure as fuck could take it, too.
I wouldn’t say we had alittlefun the past few days. I’d say we rocked each other’s worlds because no matter how hard I dished it out, at least one of those two was always ready for more. Hell, I couldn’t remember the last time I got myself so completely tired and spent as I did the other evening. The sleep I had in that armchair, with Irving and Ezra cuddled up together in the bed, it was one of the best nights of rest I’d had in years. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a bed big enough for me to crawl in right alongside them.
“Time is up with those two, anyway. I’m mixed back up in some old business, and I told them to stay the hell away from me for their own safety.”
“Is it that bad?”
I peeled the label off my beer as we talked, pushing through the part of my brain that was hollering at me to keep my mouth shut. “The man I used to fight for in Philly has a grudge against me now. He sent that guy after me last week, and now he’s demanding I fight for him this Friday, here in Seattle.”
Lilith poured herself another splash of tequila. “Good thing you’re such a strong fighter.”
“It’s not that easy. For starters, I’m out of practice, and I’m going to be in an unfamiliar and hostile environment. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some dirty fighting ahead. But the worst part is, if I don’t win this match, those assholes are going to expect me to show up with a hundred thousand dollars, and you know as well as I do I’m never going to have that kind of money.”
“I wish I could do something to help you out, Brick.”
I shook my head. “Even if you got a few thousand together, it wouldn’t make a difference. Winning the fight seems like the only solution to me. Until then, though, I’m not spending another second around Ezra and Irving. It’s starting to look like I care about them, and if we get spotted together, they can be used against me.”
Lilith leaned up across the bar, arching her eyebrow. “Lookinglike you care about them, huh?”
I hooked my boot in the barstool, then leaned back. “What does that mean?”
