“I’m outta here. Be in touch.”
I looked at him, he was talking to Eddie but looking at me, his face was blank but his eyes were assessing.
Eddie told me he was a drug dealer and he talked casual y about ordering people’s deaths. I felt something very sad about that because I had this weird feeling he was a nice guy. I had a feeling that this wasn’t who he was but who he had to be.
Darius left, doing some kind of hand gesture to Eddie and not saying a word to me.
Eddie locked up after him and he and I walked back into the bedroom. He’d put on his t-shirt and jeans to talk to Darius. He took them off in the dark.
I took off my jeans, left on the sweater and got into bed.
Eddie joined me, his hands coming under the sweater and whipping it off.
“I’m cold,” I said to him.
He tucked me into him, front-to-front.
“You won’t be for long.”
He held me awhile and he was right.
I was nearly asleep, don’t ask me how, probably the warmth from Eddie’s body and something to do with his arms wrapped around me.
Then Eddie spoke and made me jerk awake.
“How much did you hear?”
Damn.
Caught.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, “A lot?”
Eddie didn’t say anything.
“It was wrong to listen,” I said by way of apology.
“I would have listened,” he told me.
I couldn’t help it, I smiled against his neck.
“You’re going to have to explain to me about Darius,” I whispered.
Eddie didn’t hesitate.
“When we were kids, we were close. He was a good guy, a little wild, less wild than Lee and me.” From what I learned that night, I thought it would be difficult to be more wild than Eddie.
Eddie kept talking. “His Dad was murdered and he and his family had it rough. He took a road that seemed easy at the time, quick money and a way to work out his shit. That road became harder but he’d chosen the path and, now, refuses to look back.”
“That sounds very sad.”
And it did.
Eddie made no comment. Being Darius’s friend through it al , he knew just how sad it was.
“Why was he here in the middle of the night?” I asked.
Eddie paused, as if wondering whether it was safe to share. Then he spoke. “We work together sometimes, when it’s mutual y beneficial, but we keep it quiet. The Department wants him taken out and they aren’t too happy with our relationship. I’m Vice and not tremendously popular with the brothers.”