He smiles, glancing around the parking lot for a moment. I’m assuming he’s checking to see that we’re alone. The last time Robby and I had an impromptu conversation I nearly bled out from being stabbed. I hope it goes better this time.
“I’m a patient guy,” he says casually. His features shift darker and he leans into me. “But my boss, he ain’t so patient. The clock ran out two days ago, and to be honest, we were being generous. You had six months to sort this out.”
I grit my teeth. “Well, I’ve only been home for two so you’ll have to excuse me if I need a little bit longer.”
He shoves his hands in his pockets and laughs again. “You’re a ballsy one, Perry. I’ll give you that. I think we’ve shown you that we don’t fuck around, and yet, here you are trying to fuck us around.” He spits to the ground and moves even closer to me. I can smell the whiskey seeping out through his pores even though it’s barely nine in the morning. “I don’t think I need to remind you what happens to people like that.”
Every muscle in my body tenses as I fight the urge to knock this son of a bitch out right here behind my dad’s business—but I can’t. Not only can I not get into a fight, but beating on Robby would be incredibly stupid. Could I take him? Sure, but he’s not the king pin, he’s the ‘in-between’. They are far more dangerous because you never know who you’re fucking with until you try to go above them. In high school, the guys and I were under the impression Robby was the one you needed to get around, turns out we were very wrong. Now I’m the only one left here trying to clean up the mess Walker started while I was away.
“You’ll have your money,” I say instead. I toss my cigarette to the ground and steady my stance. “Just give me another month or so to put it all together.”
He rubs his chin, chuckling under his breath. “Another month, huh? I don’t know if Sam’s gonna like that.”
I shrug. “What choice does he have? You can kill me too if you want. Knock us all out and then you won’t get shit. I know that’s an option he won’t like either.”
Robby smiles and my eyes focus on the chip that’s still in his front tooth. All the money he makes and he still hasn’t gotten around to fixing it. “You’re not the last one.”
I shoot him a look. “How do you figure?”
“There’s a pretty little widow at a shop downtown that may have answers.” He takes a step back. “Maybe I should pay her a visit. You call her Bishop, right?”
My nostrils flare and I can feel every last shred of restraint bleeding out. I get inches from his face, spitting with my words. “You leave her the fuck out of it, you hear me? I swear to God I’ll fucking kill you.”
Not amused or ruffled in any way, Robby continues to speak calmly. “Seems I’ve hit a nerve. Guess you’ll be tightening up that timeline after all.” We stand in a face-off for a moment until he pats me on the shoulder. “Two weeks. That’s the new deal and the last chance you get before we have to look elsewhere for payment.” He cocks his head. “You won’t like that option.”
With a rough pat on my face, he turns back to his car. I clench my fist as I watch him walk away. I pleaded with Walker not to take it that far without me. I told him it was a bad idea and he wouldn’t listen to me. Now I’m left with all of the debt and half the money. I have no idea where Walker kept his share or the rest of the inventory. The only person who can possibly know is the last person I want to ask, but it looks like I’m out of options.
The last impression I got from Tess was that she knew everything. I hope she still does.
I finish out the day after all and Mark is extremely grateful. I personally detailed Robby’s car and changed the breaks. It would have been easy to mess with them and cause an unfortunate accident—but I would never do that. It was a test and I knew it.
The whole way home, I play over in my head what I’m going to say to Tess. Ever since she found out what we were doing, she’s been surprisingly cool about it. That’s not to say she was thrilled about the idea of her boyfriend and best friend being drug dealers, but she took it in stride. Sloan was another story. The way she found out was a bit more dramatic, and I have to say, I’m quite impressed she kept it together so well. She could have easily freaked the fuck out and landed me in prison a few years earlier than scheduled.
The fact that I’ll be working side by side with Tess is the only thing I can be thankful for at the moment. The thought of her being alone all day now is not something I want to dwell on. More than ever, she’s going to need my protection.
Instead of driving straight to the shop after work, I take a detour up an old dirt path. I follow the winding road up to the top of the cliffs and shut off the ignition. Sitting behind the wheel, I stare over at the rock. It doesn’t belong to Dean anymore—it belongs to Jeremy.
Taking a deep breath, I step out of my car and walk slowly over to the cliff’s edge. There are always flowers and notes strewn around the rock. Some are from friends, or us, but most of them are from people who didn’t even know Jeremy. The accident was such a tragedy in this town that it keeps getting passed down from person to person. There hasn’t been a party up here since and I don’t think there ever will be.
Coming here to talk to him has been something I’ve been doing ever since he died. I feel his presence when I come up here and I know he’s listening. I would give anything for him to answer me back. That motherfucker was the craziest out of all three of us but was surprisingly the most rational. He could see things in a way we couldn’t, and although I didn’t always agree with him, I always listened to what he had to say.
Shoving my hands in the front pockets of my hoodie, I step to the edge of the rock.
“Man, I really wish you could help me out with this,” I say, my voice penetrating through the open air. “I honestly don’t know what Walker was thinking.”
I laugh as soon as the words leave my mouth. That’s not true. “Yeah, I guess I do, huh? He was thinking about Tess. He wanted to make sure she would be okay if anything ever happened to him.” I laugh again bitterly. “Well, he was fucking wrong, wasn’t he? That’s one thing I’ll never understand. How he thought she would ever be okay without him. You could take away everything they had and she would still be happy if she got to have him.”
“How do I tell her that her husband wasn’t who she thought he was?” I raise my arms up like someone is going to answer and then let them fall at my sides. “I don’t. I can’t fucking do that. If it all has to fall on me, so be it. I’m used to being the bad guy, what’s one more thing? What’s one more reason for people to think the worst of me when all I’ve ever tried to do was set us straight again?”
I lower my head and close my eyes. “I know you weren’t there when shit got really bad, but I have to believe you would have wanted to stop it too.” With a sigh, I open my eyes and stare straight over the cliff. I never look down. “I made a promise to Walker and I intend to keep it. Looking back on it, I think he knew what was going to happen. I think it really got away from him and he couldn’t find the words to tell me.”