“You miss me so much you had to drive up the coast just to say hi? You could have tried to call first. Maybe send a postcard.”
“Trying to tell me you missed my voice?”
I stared at him for a second, my vision still bleary from sleep, and then we both broke out in laughter. I pulled him in for a quick hug, and we slapped each other’s backs before parting again.
Daryl was bad news, I knew that. But still I couldn’t help but feel happy to see him. We’d grown up together outside of this city, after all, and made our way in the world together as a team, first to Seattle and soon after to Los Angeles. Growing up, he’d been the rich kid down the street, with a respectable family who was actually just as fucked up and abusive as my own parents had been. As much trouble as he got me in, I couldn’t deny that he was still my oldest friend in this world, and we’d always kept each other alive.
“So what the fuck?” I asked. “You didn’t really come up here to see me, did you?”
Daryl shrugged as he sucked on his cigarette. “You sweetened the deal. But no, I’m up here on business.”
“Business?” My stomach tightened, and a voice in my head told me to just walk back inside now. To just go in the apartment, lock the door, and turn off my phone until Daryl disappeared and took his business with him.
“Nothing I’m going to bother you about,” he said quickly. “Although I could have used a driver for the trip up here. I brought some deliveries on behalf of our former employer, had them stashed in the trunk the whole way.”
“Your former employer,” I reminded him. “I worked for you, remember?”
I always clung to the fact, like it made whatever we did right. Daryl did the shady business. He negotiated with the men who paid us, and he knew what we carried in the duffle bags and suitcases that I sped around town.
But me? I was just a driver.
I just went from one place to the next, never saying a word.
I just did what Daryl told me to. It wasn’t the smartest way to act, and I wasn’t proud of myself for it. Hell, every man wanted to see himself as independent, strong, and taking orders from nobody. But I learned pretty quickly: when you’re in a desperate situation, you don’t always make the smartest decisions.
Especially not when there was so much fucking money involved.
“Whatever you want to call it,” he said with a grin.
I rolled my eyes, definitely not awake enough yet to counter Daryl’s bullshit. “You want to come inside? Have some coffee? Lilith should be up soon. We can have a hometown reunion.”
“Throw in some hash browns, and I’ll think we’re back in high school,” he said, flicking his cigarette.
I caught Daryl up on at my life as we walked, and when we entered the apartment, Lilith was standing there in an old bath robe, yawning.
“Daryl?” she asked, bugging her eyes out when he walked through the door. “That you?”
“Hot damn,” he said. “Lilith! You haven’t aged a day.”
Lilith scoffed, then set the coffee she was holding on a side table. “Hardly. But you always were an even worse sweet talker than this one,” she said, gesturing to me. “Can’t say I’m happy to see you, though.”
Daryl and I both stopped. “What’s that?” Daryl asked.
Lilith pursed her lips, shooting him a skeptical glance. “What’s this I heard about the last job you pulled my brother along on? Guns fired at the car while he drove away?” She sighed, then tightened her robe as she turned to walk into the kitchen. “Anyway, come on in. You eat breakfast yet?”
Daryl turned to me with a glare.
“What?” I asked.
“You told her?” he whispered.
“Of course he told me!” Lilith yelled from the kitchen. “He had a fucking bullet hole in his rearview mirror.”
I shrugged. “I had a fucking bullet hole in my rearview mirror,” I repeated.
Daryl grumbled as we headed into the kitchen, where Lilith had tossed a pan on the stove and pulled out a carton of eggs. Daryl and I both took a seat the little table, and Lilith slid us a couple fresh mugs of black coffee.
“Just tell me this,” she said to Daryl. “You’re not trying to get him to do a job while you’re here, are you?”
“Fuck no,” Daryl said so fast I was pretty sure he was lying. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
Lilith arched an eyebrow at him, but when he didn’t say any more, she sighed. “What brings you back to town?’
“Just a side gig,” he said. “No big thing.”
“Seeing your family?” she asked.
Daryl barked a laugh. “You think I’m seeing my family?”
Lilith started cracking eggs into the sizzle of the pan. “No more than we’re seeing ours.”
“Hey,” I said, a memory jumping to mind as I started to wake up. “Lilith, did I tell you I tried to call Mom a couple of years ago?”
“What?” she gasped. “Are you serious?”
“A moment of weakness,” I said. “Anyway, her new husband answered the phone, and, once I explained who I was, he very awkwardly told me that she wasn’t available.”
“I guess it ruins the fantasy of a happy marriage,” she said. “When the children you abused and abandoned start ringing you up.”
“Maybe I should go visit my pops,” Daryl said. “I hear he’s married again. Probably wouldn’t take more than a knock on his door to turn his world upside down.”
“We could all go there together,” I joked. “Remind him of all the reasons he hates us.”
We kept laughing and joking about our pasts over breakfast, same as we always did. It probably seemed pretty dark to most people. I could only imagine what a couple of guys like Franklin and Rory would think, if they heard us trashing our parents over fried eggs and strong coffee. But joking about our shitty families was a way to remember we had escaped them. Even though the life we escaped to was fucked up in its own way, it was a hell of a lot better than living under the thumbs of our parents.
“How long are you around?” I asked Daryl as I gathered the plates to rinse and toss in the sink. “This gig keeping you in Seattle long?”
“A couple weeks, probably” he said. “My employer got me a hotel. I’m just waiting to pick up a delivery for the drive back.”
A part of me lit up when he said that. I missed my friend, and since moving back to Seattle, I’d really only spent time with Lilith and with Franklin and Rory. Lilith I could relax around, but when I was working with Franklin, I always felt like I had to keep some parts of my life secret, pretending to be a more upstanding citizen than I actually was.
Having another person I could be myself around was a relief. I just hoped Daryl would respect the person I was trying to become, too.
“What do you say?” he asked. “Drinks tonight? You free?”
“My best friend in town?” I replied. “How could I say no?”
Chapter Nine
Asher
A couple days later, I was back at the house where Franklin and Rory lived to finish up the shed project. A few hours before, Rory had swung by with Ava in his sedan, and Franklin had hurried off to join them for a few family activities.