Page 41 of At The End Of The Day

Again, we glared at the outsider, but he just clucked his teeth and rolled his eyes. “Okay, let’s just squash this shit right now. I don’t care,” he emphasized, curling his shoulders to his ears. “You think I ain’t already kinda figured that out myself?” Tugging at an ear, he looked off to the side and grumbled, “From what I’ve gathered about you two the last couple weeks, she more than likely did something to warrant it.”

A half-smile tugging, I swirled the little bit of beer left around the can. Yeah, I was starting to like the bitch. I wasn’t changing his nickname, but Tyler Warren wasn’t as big a piece of trash as we’d been led to believe.

“Well, yeah, she did, but that’s for another day. Back to what you said.”

Violetta was staring up at Tyler, her face glowing, love emanating from her small grin. Slipping her arms around his waist, she rested her cheek to his chest, sighed, and closed her eyes. He groaned and returned the embrace, nuzzling his lips in her hair.

The smile faltered and my head tilted. Those two truly were in love. I’d been watching them since we’d been here, and they seemed to function as one most of the time, though they didn’t realize they were doing it. Every time one stole a quick glance, the other was already looking. If they were near one another, they were stealing little touches, acting as if they were physically incapable of not doing so. Sometimes, they just gazed into one another’s eyes and smiled, up to a full minute without blinking.

What was it like to have that kind of love? It was making me understand that despite how I’d felt for my wife, it dulled in comparison to what these two felt.

Which made what Jackyl did all the more unforgivable. Had he not interfered, these two would have gotten back together when they were still kids. Tyler more than likely would have gone pro, and she would have become a prominent lawyer by now.

Guilt burning my skin, I coughed and looked away, downing the rest of the beer. He wouldn’t be riddled with pain every single day of his life, forever walking with a limp, and she wouldn’t be wasting away in the Serpents. As proud as I was of my brothers and sisters, most of us had joined a gang because we had no other options for our future. That wasn’t the case for Violetta.

Vincent’s voice was a little fervent, his words rushed with his plan. “I got a friend who lives on the Alabama Georgia border. If we can sneak the kids out without Jackyl seeing, I can drive them out there and drop them off for a few days. They’ll be safe there. Get them out the line of fire.”

She cringed but corrected herself pretty quickly. Tears misting, she withdrew from him to wring her fingers together. “And he’s trustworthy?”

For some reason, he was suddenly anxious, dancing foot to foot and avoiding eye contact with everyone. Crossing and uncrossing his arms, he nodded. “Yeah, he’s cool.”

“No offense, Vinny, but until a few weeks ago, you thought Jack was trustworthy, too.”

When his attention shot to hers, there was something off flickering in his hazel irises. “I would trust my life with this man.”

Something odd gnawed at my gut, my eyelids thinning. Who the hell was this man? I was under the assumption me and Jackyl were the only ones he had a connection with like that. Why the fuck was I jealous over this mysterious man? Who the fuck was he?

She frowned, leaning into the island to tap her nail to the surface. “What’s his name?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed, a muscle in his jaw flexing. “Billy. Why?”

I racked my brain over years and years of memories but could not ever, once, recollect a Billy. I didn’t like this, at all.

Her shoulders rolled nonchalantly. “I just have never heard you mention him before, that’s all. How long have you known him?”

“Since high school. Look.” He huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s up to you, sis. They’re your kids, but I think we need to get them outta here asap.”

I stared into the opening of the can, barely able to see the liquid inside. How cute. A high school buddy he trusted his life with. They were so goddamn close, he never once talked about him. So…fucking…cute.

Whimpering, she slid into Tyler’s hold again and clenched her lids, giving a tiny nod. “Yeah, okay. It’s going to hurt like hell because I’ve never been without them, but you’re right. It’s not safe to make a move while they’re here.”

“Great. I’m gonna run upstairs and make the call.”

All too eagerly, he rushed out of the kitchen, his footsteps thumping through the walls as he climbed the stairs. Peculiar behavior, but okay. Alarm bells were ringing and jealousy clawed the underside of my skin, but I tucked that away for something to deal with at a different time. A time when a very large, very strong, very crazy man wasn’t nearby, wanting us dead.

I went to the sink to throw the beer can in the trash. “It will be too suspicious to do anything tonight, but in the morning, we need to close the blinds on the windows downstairs.” I turned to face them, folding my arms and leaning on the edge of the counter. “We don’t want him to know we’re sneaking the kids out, it’ll let him know we know he’s here. So, keep the cartoons going, hell, keep talking to them in case he can hear. For tonight, they sleep with you. Don’t let them out of your sight.”

She grunted and pushed off him a second time. “Yeah, yeah. I got it.” Her feet dragging, she left the kitchen, too, going to the living room.

Alone with the bitch, my brow arched, challenging him to confront me about Cathy. He just snorted and said, “I don’t care,” again, dragging the words out.

“You don’t care that my wife is dead and your woman has been lying to you about it this whole time?”

He shifted his weight to his good leg to lean on the island. “Listen, I get it. Letta is a full-blown member of your gang. It’s not a choice I would have picked for her, but I don’t make her life decisions, she does, and she is very proud of her bond with you guys. Things that happened before we got back together ain’t none of my concern.”

“And now that you’re back together?”

“All I ask is transparency.”