Wish for You (17 page)

“
Hold up.” Beau grabs me as I walk by. “We need to talk.”

“
I need to make sure she’s okay.”

“
She’s not the fourteen-year-old girl you always had to save at school,” Beau points out.

“
I thought you were keeping that,” I tip my head at his… daughter, “secret.”

“
I am, but it doesn’t matter.” Beau makes a silly face for Mia. She grabs his sunglasses. “Everyone thinks this is my brother’s youngest kid. Isn’t that right, sweet girl?”

Mia shoves his sunglasses into her mouth, but he doesn’t get mad about it, like he had his shirt. Instead, he laughs. “That’s right, gnaw on it.” He makes a grr sound, and I take a step back, like he’s rabid and I could catch it. He gives me an exasperated look. “Dude, she’s teething.”

“
And I’m supposed to know that, why?”

He tilts his head to one side, lips thinning. “I’m taking Lacey home for you. She called Parker first but he didn’t answer, and Cole scares her.”

“
He does? Since when?”

“
Since he was born. Dude, have you been around Cole lately?”

My gaze skitters away. “No.”

“
He broke up with Rae.”

“
I didn’t know.” Why didn’t he call or text me? That was easy, because I haven’t been around, and I ignored all the times he did call or text me.

“
Whatever you’re hitting, you’ve got to stop. You look like shit.”

“
Don’t lecture me.” I shrug off his hand and start after Lacey. “It’s not like you’ve never done anything.”

“
Couple of years ago, I was into it bad. Lost some people I love. You want that to happen with Lacey?”

“
She doesn’t know.” Then again, I didn’t think anyone knew except Dan and the girls I’d hooked up with, but Beau, for all his dumb jock act, knows. I think he’s known for a while. “No one but you does.”

“
Cole will shi—crap a brick when he finds out,” Beau says, matching my stride. He wraps an arm around Mia, shielding her from a gust of wind.

“
I don’t know why you’re so adamant about this. It’s not like you’ve changed, except for Mia. Taking care of her on the chance she might or might not be yours is amazing. Seriously, I have a lot of respect for that.” I have to give him that. I’d heard through Dan that Beau hadn’t been going to his normal hangouts, sleeping with his usual bootycalls, and had been staying in at night. “But what’s going on with me, what I’m dealing with right now, you can’t begin to imagine. You don’t know what it’s like to watch someone fucking die right in front of you.”

“
You’re right,” he says, opening the passenger side door and putting Mia inside, securing her in the baby seat. I shove my hands into my pockets to keep from opening Lacey’s door. In fact, I pretend she isn’t there at all, but she is and that makes me feel a little bit better. She’s safe and I can trust Beau, for all his womanizing ways, to take her home, because of his Bro Rules.

“
I am?”

He shuts the door, and then turns to face me. “I don’t know what it’s like to watch someone die, but I sure as hell know what it’s like to find them dead and rotting.” With that, I let him walk away, let him get in his truck and drive out of the parking lot with the woman I love. I’m too shocked to do anything else.

All this time, I’d thought the worst of him. All this time, I should have been paying attention. Some friend I’ve been, even if Beau and I hadn’t been the closest. I rub a hand over the back of my neck and eye the restaurant. I have to go back inside because I have two people to take home, and it’s my penance for being an ass to Lacey, a jerk to Dylan, and for not listening to Ella’s advice.

I exhale, then man up and walk back inside.

Chapter Eighteen

Wyatt

After dropping off Dylan and Ella, I start to head home. When my phone rings, and I answer it.

“
Wy-chan!” Dan shouts over the noise. “Party tonight, at my bar. Invitation only.”

“
Not really feeling the party scene tonight.” My hands grip the steering wheel tighter, because I am feeling another hit.

“
But Bailey’s asking for you.”

The mention of Bailey sets my teeth on edge. “Tell her I said hi.”

“
Tell her in person.” The noise dies down. “If you want a new girl, no problem.”

“
I don’t want any girls.” I take the next exit. “I just want to relax.”

“
See you in a few. You know the place.” Dan ends the call, and so do I.

Relax. That’s all I want to do. If it is, in fact, an invitation-only party, he’ll have room for relaxation only, for those not looking to get laid, who only want to drift away and line his pockets before they go.

*** *** ***

King’s is more crowded than I expected for an invitation-only party. The two bouncers at the door showed me in immediately, but there was a line outside. Then again, Dan had to maintain the appearance of respectable club owner.

I follow a woman wearing less than the females on the dance floor. She takes me through the kitchen in the back, and then down a set of stairs.

Dan is waiting for me, grinning. I smile back. It’s hard not to. Dan is my closest cousin and, though he’s my dealer, I do love him. I also hate him for not turning me away. But I can’t hate him too much. It was still my choice to go to him. It’s always been my choice.

Thankfully, no ghostly images of Nathan pop up as Dan opens the door and we walk inside.

“
My very special room for my very special clients,” he says. “I modeled it after the opium rooms that were popular two centuries ago in India.”

That means he actually has opium for his very special clients. I’ve never tried it. I glance around the room. The lights are low, and the cushions on the floor form a plush circle. A half-dozen hookahs are set in the middle.

“
No girls,” I warn him. I don’t want the temptation to be here while I’m smoking.

“
It’s only tobacco,
chibi.
”

“
Right.”

His face turns serious. “I meant it’s
only
tobacco for
you
.”

Now he’s concerned about me. “I want what everyone else is having.”

“
No.”

“
Yes, or I’ll tell Uncle Ren what you’re doing,” I say pleasantly. It’s a good threat, because Dan has always been the black sheep of the family. Not me, though, I’m the good and honorable one. If Dan tried to rat me out, no one would believe him.

His jaw clenches. “Have it your way.” He motions to the girl that led me downstairs. “Follow her.”

We go to another room, with fewer cushions and only three hookahs. Taking off my boots, I sink down into the pillows, my body already buzzing in anticipation. She hands me the pipe and brushes my hair back.

“
Why don’t you go back to the other room?” she asks as I draw the smoke deeply into my body.

It’s thick and makes me want to cough. I clear my throat instead. “I can handle this.”

With a shake of her head, she rises and leaves me alone. I lay down, the pipe in my hand, as I blow out circles. The circles become a track, and I watch Lacey skate around it. I reach out to touch her, but she disappears. Another deep pull and I’m at Paris Island, stuck in the swamps as I wait for Nathan to catch up.

He’s alive. There’s still time to warn him.

“
Don’t go,” I tell him. “Tell them you want out. Tell them that you’re gay and in love with me.”

Nathan grins. “You’re not my type, Tanaka, with what you got swinging down there. I prefer non-swinging, unless it’s a pair of tits. Those can bounce and swing right into my mouth.”

I roll my eyes, our conversation turning back into a memory of what actually happened.

“
Move your ass, Marine,” Nathan shouts at me.

“
Shut it, golden boy,” I shout back, holding my rifle over my head.

I trip, falling face-first into the mud and sucking it down. I can’t breathe; I can’t see. I start panicking, trying to call for help, but more mud goes down my throat.

I’m going to die. My heart races, then stops and starts beating again.

Someone’s beating on me.

“
WYATT!”

I struggle to return to reality but hands are grabbing at my ankles, pulling me down into the mud. I cough, but the mud still flows down my throat.

“
MOTHERFUCKER, IF YOU DIE ON ME, I’LL KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!”

I manage to take a deep breath, my chest bowing, and I cry out. I blink, the room coming into focus, and then going black again.

“
SO HELP ME GOD, WYATT TANAKA. I’LL SCREW LACEY AND TELL THE ENTIRE TOWN. I’LL MAKE A VIDEO OF IT AND PUT IT ON THE INTERNET. I’LL BEND HER OVER THE BED AND MAKE HER CALL ME DADDY.”

That gets me going. I force my eyes open, Beau and Cole’s faces blurring together and blending. They become six, then eight, then four, then one, and finally two.

“
Don’t touch her,” I rasp, bringing my hand to my throat. It feels as though someone shoved a hot poker down it.

“
That’s right, you son of a bitch,” Cole growls. “They had to pump your stomach, shove a feeding tube down your throat, and all sorts of painful things. I had to tell your parents it was food poisoning and that someone had to have put something in your drink.”

“
They buy it?”

“
Yeah, they bought.” Beau says, glaring at me. This time, he’s without his maybe baby. “I’m pretty sure you could be caught with the murder weapon, and they would think someone framed you. The doctors, on the other hand, know, and they’ve sent your files to Dr. Lewis, because your dumbass signed the consent forms.”

“
Shit.” I rub my hands over my face, feeling the tug of the IV that’s stuck in the side of my hand. “Shit.”

“
More like dumbshit. Why in the hell were you using?” Cole asks, his voice sharp and accusing.

“
Better question is how long?” Beau points out. “You didn’t start until after you came home.”

I nod. Dan and I had been hanging out, playing Mario Kart, and drinking beer at his place. He’d noticed how damn jumpy I was and offered me a little something to take the edge off. That had been in October.

“
October, but the rest… December.”
Merry Christmas, cousin, how about some blow?

“
Lacey’s moving out,” Cole says flatly, his blue eyes narrowing. “Don’t know why you asked her to move in anyway.”

“
No.”

He tilts his head to one side. I can see the anger brewing beneath the surface. His temper has always been right below the surface, but he’s never hurt a woman, a child, or someone who didn’t strike him first. He’s like me, or rather, I’m like him now, dealing with events and a life that was out of our control.

“
No?”

“
I agree with Wyatt,” Beau says, and Cole swings his gaze to him. “If these two knuckleheads would get their happy on, then they’d both be less stressed.”

I roll my eyes and reach for the drink on the cart near me, but Cole beats me to it, taking the car of Sprite and opening it. He even puts in a bendy straw and bends it. “You’re a good mom.”

“
Screw you.” He angles the straw and then hands me the can. I start sucking it down, but Cole takes it from me. “Not so fast. You’ll make yourself sick.”

If I didn’t hurt so badly, I’d laugh at the sight of my best friend, all six feet of him, trying to look after me.

“
Did you bring me here?”

“
No, Beau found you.”