Redemption - Garrett Leigh Page 0,31

he went to the supermarket or the pub to catch up with the handful of people he vaguely called friends, but with Luis on his mind, he went straight home. He took a shower and searched the cupboards and fridge for dinner. There wasn’t much, just rice, chicken, and a jar of curry sauce that had seen better days.

He left the saucepan simmering on the stove and decamped to the couch with his laptop to pay bills and catch up on admin. Luis’s wages were stacked up in a separate account, minus the cash he’d set aside to pay him to pay him at the end of the week. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t much, but to Luis, they were everything. Paolo topped them up, including a raised hourly rate for the time he’d managed the cafe alone, but even with the added cash, it didn’t seem enough. Agitated, he shut the laptop and drifted to the big window that looked out over the city. Luis was out there somewhere. Perhaps he’d gone home, but Paolo’s gut didn’t believe it. The road man drive-by had changed everything. He didn’t know how, but it had.

Unable to rest, Paolo turned the stove off, pocketed Luis’s cash, and left the flat. He walked into the wind, hood up, hiding his face in his coat. On every street corner, the kids Dante Pope used to move his drugs rolled around on their bikes, eyeing every soul that passed them.

But they ignored Paolo, and for once he was glad to be a local. He wasn’t in the mood to tell a baby-faced slinger to go fuck themselves or deal with consequences. It had been a while since the cafe’s last broken window.

Luis lived on Crawley Road in the bedsits the council had made out of the tatty terraced houses. The exact address was in Paolo’s phone so he could register Luis’s tax, but he hadn’t memorised it, and as he approached the flats, he didn’t check. Instead, he forced himself to stare at the windows, some lit, some not, and imagine Luis safe inside, cooking his own dinner, standing under a hot shower, perhaps even tucked up in bed, and maybe he wasn’t alone. Maybe he was—

“What are you doing here?”

Paolo spun around. Luis stood behind him, leaning on a lamp post, his hair messy and damp. He looked tired, but not in the way of a man who’d been up all night doing anything fun. It was a different kind of weary, one that haunted a man and weighed him down. “I was taking a walk,” Paolo said.

Luis’s brow ticked up. “Round here? You’re brave.”

“Stupid, actually. I was going to drop your cash off too.”

“You’re walking these streets with a pocket of cash? Fucking-A.” Luis pushed off the lamp post. “Yeah, you are stupid. Why didn’t you just give it to me tomorrow?”

Because you left without saying goodbye, and I was worried about you. Paolo doled out his best Luis-style shrug. “Fancied a walk. And I thought you might need it. You’ve had no money since you got out.”

“Haven’t needed any. You feed me every day.”

“What about bills?”

“Not till next week. And I had enough cash from my discharge grant to top up the electric.”

“Fair enough.” Paolo fished the small roll of bills from his pocket and held it out.

Luis pushed his hand down and hissed through his teeth. “Not out here. Are you fucking nuts? One side will do you for dealing while the other will smash you up for slinging on their turf.”

Paolo rolled his eyes but let his hand drop all the same. “Whatever. You want me to take it home and give it to you tomorrow, or are you gonna invite me in?”

“You want to see my shithole of a flat?”

“I want you to have your money so you can take care of yourself.”

“And give you your coat back, huh?”

“What? No. That’s not why.” Luis was still wearing Paolo’s hoodie. He started to take it off. Paolo gripped his arms and forced them down. “Stop it. I don’t want it back.”

“Then why are you really here?”

“Because—” Paolo pursed his lips. What the fuck was he about to say? That he couldn’t stand the thought of Luis being alone despite the fact that they’d only spent one whole night together? That he missed him and wanted to take him to bed? If Luis didn’t think he was a lunatic by now, he would then. “Because I was worried