wider and his eyes darkened, seeming to put Pushy into a thrall. “You’re hitting on my very good friend, and not in a fun way he’d enjoy. Tell me the truth, boy. What were you doing with Paul?”
“Paulie.” Pushy panted. “Everyone calls him Paulie. He’s annoying. Good. He doesn’t realize everyone’s lusting after him, wanting to be his friend. He just ignores everyone, thinks he’s too good for all of us.”
“The whole truth, boy.” Lifting his hand slightly, Cass sent Pushy to his knees, still hanging onto his fist. “You’ve been fantasizing about my friend Paulie, haven’t you? Naughty thoughts, when you’re with that lovely girlfriend of yours, or that Debbie who’s been going out with your best friend.”
“How do you…? No…” Pushy’s eyes shot to Paulie. “Well, maybe a bit… not much… just curious you know…”
“Do you know why you’re still alive?” Cass’s eyebrows came down and a flicker of flame appeared in his eyes. “You’ve created new life. You’re responsible for it, and the mother you created it with. You will go to your girl, you will propose to her, you will marry her, and you will give that child the life you didn’t have… Understand?”
“But… But my studies. My football scholarship.” Tears were falling down Pushy’s face and Paulie felt sorry for him. But he didn’t interfere. He didn’t know what was on Pushy’s soul and he knew Cass did.
“The garage is looking for a hard worker.” Cass’s hard gaze didn’t falter in the face of tears. “Put in two solid years and you’ll be managing it. You have a good life in front of you, Nathan, but only if you do right by Suzanna.”
Nathan? At least Paulie now knew the guy’s name.
“My dad will kill me.” Nathan was openly sobbing now. “Mom will never talk to me again…”
“They’ll be thrilled you are taking home a fine girl from a good family and your mom will be over the moon when you tell them about the baby.” Cass’s voice was firm.
“Really?” Paulie wanted to close his eyes against the hope in Nathan’s expression. “Do you mean it? I won’t get into trouble. I mean how do you know? How could you know?”
“Cass knows a lot of things, Nathan,” Paulie said quickly. “If he says things will work out with your parents, Suzanna, and the baby, then they will. I trusted Cass once and I’ve had nothing but good things happen to me since. But Suzanna needs you to talk to her – she really needs you. She loves you dearly and she’s really scared. It’s time to be a man about this.”
“A man. I can do that.” Biting his lip, Nathan nodded. Then he looked up at Cass. “Can you let go of my hand now please?”
Letting him go, Cass smiled, a real smile this time. “Don’t forget what I said.”
“I won’t. I won’t.” Nathan scrambled to his feet, looking around, probably for his runaway friends. Then he stepped closer to Paulie and to Paulie’s shock, held out his hand. After a moment, Paulie took it and Nathan gave it a hearty shake before dropping it. “I’m sorry, aye. Guess I was always a bit envious of you. You always seemed to have everything together when my life was turning to shit. No hard feelings?”
Shaking his head, Paulie said, “No hard feelings. I’m happy to help you both with studies in the evenings once you get the job if you like. They run good online classes here. I’m sure you could transfer to those if you explain to the office why it’s necessary.”
“That’s real decent of you.” Nathan looked in the direction his friends had gone. “Seems like a good time to make new friends. I’ll see you around soon, okay? I’d better go and find Sue Ann… I mean Suzanna.”
Paulie waved as he ran off, and then looked at the grinning demon. “Thank you and thank your benefactor for me. I don’t know what was going to happen…”
“It wasn’t going to be pretty. He was edgy, he’s scared because his life is changing so badly, and you were just a target for all that pent-up emotion.” Cass draped a friendly arm over his shoulder and took his back pack from him. “Now, where’s a decent place to eat around here? I always get edgy when I can’t kill someone and gods, now I’ve gone and done something nice for that bully too. Ugh, I need a triple shot coffee and a huge bloody steak to get