Page 77 of At The End Of The Day

Rambling incoherently, he was pacing again, shaking his head, the tears steadily flowing. “He married her, he wanted a wife, he always wanted a wife. She’s so beautiful, she’s fucking perfect. He said he would. He threatened years ago when I was in jail. I was supposed to go to him. Becca went out of town, we would have had three whole days.” He paused to look at me, shrugging his arms out. “We never get that much time together, all to ourselves. A few months ago, we had a couple days, but we wasn’t alone all the time. This time, we woulda had no interruptions.”

He skidded to a halt, my sight lowering to bare feet when they squeaked on the hardwood. Staring out the glass doors to the back deck, he muttered with a broken tone, “I told him no. I…broke up with him, instead.”

I dared a couple steps closer, glaring at the pistol. In my mind, I was planning a swift advance where I could successfully snatch it from his hand before he had a chance to react. With the pain still lingering, however, I wasn’t so sure I could do it.

“You…you did the right thing, Vinny. Like you said, he wasn’t never gonna leave her. You deserve happi—”

He spun around and sneered, foaming again, snot smearing over his upper lip from crying so hard. “It’s because of you.”

I did a doubletake and bristled, blinking rapidly. Why the hell did that sound like an accusation?

“If it wasn’t for you, I woulda been there this weekend,” he argued, tucking his wrist inwardly to point at the floor with the barrel. “Nothing woulda changed. We woulda had our time together, his wife woulda come home today, and I would still be his dirty little secret.”

Swallowing the knot in my throat, I panted, “That ain’t no way to live, baby. Someone out there is willing to love you without hiding you.”

“But you won’t,” he replied, further stunning me frozen.

My jaw fell and I began panting heavier, my brain whirling.

“I left him because I love you and now he’s dead.”

Taken aback by…well, every goddamn thing he just said, I choked on an inhale and nearly puked from the rollercoaster of emotions. “What?”

He was swaying, sobbing, wiping at his face with the hand holding the gun. “He did it.”

“What did he do, Vinny?” I ordered, my knuckles starting to hurt from gripping the cane so tightly.

Rage flickering in his eyes, they turned dark, bleak. “Because I fucking love you, he’s dead.” He stood upright and pointed the gun to his head. “And he can’t be alone over there, Dario. He can’t. I can’t let that happen. It’s my fault.”

Adamantly shaking my head, I waved my palm, my insides shrinking and growing cold. “No!” I croaked, again mentally revisiting Georgia.

His frame sagging again, he whimpered, “I did this to him, I owe him.”

Clenching his lids, his lips gleaming over his teeth, I reacted on panic and instinct. The cane clanking to the floor, I lunged forward, tackling him with my shoulder colliding to his chest. We both grunted and he stumbled backward, our weight so severe, we shattered the glass and spilled onto the deck. He landed on his back with an oof, the wind knocked from his lungs. When his arms hit the floor, the gun bumped from his hand and slid across the wood. I clamored to my feet, dripping sweat and holding the worst wound on my right side. Limping over, I scooped it up and clicked the button to drop the cartridge. As hard as I could, I flung it into the woods over the side of the deck, heaving a grunt from the pit of my stomach.

“Are you fucking crazy?” I boomed at the top of my lungs, tossing the pistol aside.

Sobbing, he curled into a ball on his side, shards clanking off, blood staining his back from torn flesh. His arms around his ribs, he wailed, his face turning into the floor. “I killed him, Dash. I fucking killed him.”

Huffing, I released the anger and tugged the thighs of my sweats, squatting, my palm still pressing to the hole in my stomach. Doing my best to ignore the agony, I petted his bicep and gently urged him to his back. When he looked up at me, his expression was no longer that of a full-grown man but a frightened, ruined little boy, desperate for a protective wing. “I killed him.”

Rolling my eyes, I hissed through my teeth and lowered to my knees. Carefully swatting away as much of the broken glass as I could, I flinched, tearing up my palm in the process. Thunder echoing in the distance, I laid down on the deck beside him and scooted closer, cupping his cheek, transferring a tiny bit of my blood to his beard. Whispering, I said, “You ain’t responsible for this, baby. I know it fucking hurts, but you didn’t do this.”

“He told me he would and I said he was bluffing,” he answered just as quietly.

My heart going out to him, I was grieving right along with my friend, his pain mine, his sorrow mine. “You ain’t responsible for his actions, though.”

His features twisting, he burst with a sob, absolutely lamenting. Cursing under my breath, I cupped his nape and tugged him closer, burying my lips in his hair. Scooting the last couple inches between us, I slid an arm beneath, getting sliced up on more tiny shards. Not phased, I embraced him tightly, clinging, petting, whispering, soothing his torment. Even as the rain started, we laid on that deck while he broke down in my hold.

“I got you, baby. It’s okay. I got you.”

Vincent curled further into my chest, his face in the crook of my neck. Weeping uncontrollably, he clung to me and, despite the dismal situation, a selfish part of me reveled with his nearness, that he came to me in a time like this. Though I wish it were under different circumstances, I couldn’t help but acknowledge how thrilled I was to have him in my arms.

Chapter 32

Dario “Dash” Mangiacavallo

It had hurt like hell, but with the aid of the wheelchair Vincent had bought, I managed to get him to my bed. After lying on the deck in the rain for nearly an hour, I finally convinced him to come inside, but he’d gotten frantic again, losing his goddamn mind. Since he knew where my stash was and I was afraid he’d try to get to it, I had slipped him a couple benzos to knock him out. To my surprise, the drugs hit him hard and super fast, his heavy body hitting the floor with a thud that literally shook the walls.