Page 135 of At The End Of The Day

“Oh, fuck off, Mary. Jesus, I don’t need your shit right now.”

I pulled my cellphone from my pocket, activated the screen, and searched my contacts. Finding the one I was looking for, I tapped it and glanced back at the empty view. Huffing, my elbow banged to the surface to rub at my temple.

“Well, well, well,” a deep, baritone voice chortled in my ear after four rings. “Where the hell have you been?”

I chuckled, some of the distress fading. “Been around. What’ve you been up to, Maximus?”

“Living life, one day at a time.”

“That’s good to hear. How’s Evie?”

He coughed, the mood instantly changing. “Uh, ahem. I, actually, wouldn’t know. We, uh, don’t exactly talk too much these days.”

My brows furrowed and I sat up. “What? No way.” That made no sense, those two had always been as close as Violetta and Vincent, if not more so. “How long?”

“Been a minute,” he muttered.

“What happened?”

“She doesn’t approve of my wicked life choices,” he sighed, his attitude now melancholy. “She’s pissed I’m following in my dad’s footsteps instead of choosing a so-called legit path.”

I clucked my teeth and slouched low in the seat, resting my head to the back. Staring at the ceiling, I sighed. “Sorry, man. Maybe she’ll come around.”

“Hm. We’ll see. Maybe one day when she’s a little older. Right now, she’s still kind of sheltered under Mom’s thumb. I’m hoping college will open her mind a bit, but, for now, I’m just going to back off. So,” he huffed, changing the subject. “How’s life in Alabama?”

I snorted and bowed my chin to my chest, lifting the hem of my shirt to eye the skin scarring over the worst wound. “Does everyone in the family know what I’ve been up to all these years?”

“Pretty much,” he chuckled. “You really think I don’t have eyes watching you, making sure you’re okay?”

My fingertips gently tracing the puckered skin, I glanced toward the window once more. Mary was out there, pacing the deck off to the side. Rolling my eyes, I grumbled, “You really mean that?”

“Of course, I do. You’re family.”

“No matter what?”

He paused, the mood now shifting to tension. “Okay, sounds like we’re about to have a serious discussion. Start from the beginning, lay out the key points, and get to the ending as quickly as possible.”

“Is it safe to talk openly?”

“You know it is.”

“Okay. It started with my wife disappearing,” I stressed to indicate my true meaning. “Because she was cheating on me.”

“Okay, I think I heard about that.”

“Yeah, well, before I could finish processing that bullshit, the leader of the Serpents, not the head honcho, but the one just beneath him, Jackyl, decided he wanted me and several other people dead.”

“Ah, yes, yes. Now this, I definitely heard of. Your parents were very upset at the condition of their home when it was all over with.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes yet again. No doubt, the cops had been all over them, wanting to know what connection, if any, they had to the shootout that happened that night.

“Worried about the house, not their son.”

He huffed, his tone harsh when he spoke. “They never were very in tune with their emotions, but they do love you, Dario.”

“Yeah, so much, they popped up on my doorstep today to tell me they wanted me dead.”

“I beg your finest pardon?” he exploded, something banging in the background.