FIFTEEN
Ward
"Alright, cut the shit," I demanded as soon as Addy had closed the bedroom door.
I should have known to ask her to give us a minute sooner, before Adler rubbed her the wrong way. And of course he would. That was what he did. If he was that way as a teen, there wasn't much chance that he was going to drop it as an adult.
And he went right ahead and proved it in less than five minutes, making Adalind, who had the disposition of a motherfucking saint get snippy, pissed off, and embarrassed almost simultaneously.
"What shit? I was just getting to know yer girl, Ward."
"Yeah, that's quite a skill you got there. She doesn't snap at fucking anyone."
"Well, to be fair, I guess not everyone sleeps in her bed without permission then insinuates she is loud and likes it rough."
"Yeah, not the best way to make friends, Adler. But you never were very good at that."
"What? The fucking kids again?" he asked, sighing. "They were all--"
"Scared," I supplied. "Confused. Alone."
"Aw fuck off. So were all of us. We weren't sobbin' in a corner for a week on end."
"Because we came from harder lives to begin with, Adler. Not all those kids were raised like we were."
"Don't remember telling ya anything 'bout how I was raised, Ward."
I snorted at that, shaking my head. "Two minutes in your company shows anyone you meet that you had a rough start in life, man. Kids raised right wouldn't have been as jaded as you were about the world at that age."
"Yeah, well, the only reason you know that is on the count of yer mum being such a fuck-up as well."
That was likely very true.
"Level with me, Adler. What the fuck have you been up to? You're not on anyone's radar."
"Right. That's exactly how I want it. That's why I couldn't pop up. The whole point of me is that I'm a ghost."
"What do you do that means you need to stay invisible?"
His head swiveled over his shoulder, looking out at the water, a lone sailboat drifting along lazily. When he looked back, his gray eyes were full of a weight. They always had been, something that told me whatever he came from was leaps and bounds worse than what I had. But this was even more so. This was decades of heavy shit weighing down on him.
"I take out the trash," he supplied, lifting his chin slightly.
He took out the trash.
Hell, it didn't take much deep thought to figure that one out.
My guess was his career started the day he took out the trash that was Walt.
"For the greater good, or..."
"Eh, for the payout. But they're only fuckfaces anyway. Fuckfaces paying to take out other fuckfaces. It's a fair shake."
"Makes sense why you've been in and out of the area then."
"Yeah, the fuck is this place? The mecca of criminals? I swear to shit, ya got a little bit of everything 'round here from the mob to a gun-running MC."
"You forget the loansharks, the gangs, the drug dealers--"
"That's what I'm saying. This place is a gold mine if I find the right organization."
"So you're staying in town?"
"Won't lie. I'm getting a little fucking sick of traveling all the time. Got myself a nice little pile to live off of for a good long while if need be."
"Got a place in mind?"
To that, his lips curved up into a smirk. "Figure if I wait it out, I can sublet your girl's place when ya finally stop dicking around, and move her in here."
"Finally?" I asked, shaking my head. "We've been dating all of a week."
Christ.
Was it really only that long?
It felt like so much more.
It felt like I had known her longer than I knew almost anyone else in my life. Maybe that was because she had come to matter so much so fast.
"Ya look at her like those boys looked at freedom, Ward."
Maybe that was because that's exactly what she was.
She was freedom from a past that had changed me and chained me.
She was that first breath of fresh air after years in a basement.
"If I come into Hex tomorrow," he said as I had been mulling over his previous words, "would ya be pissed if I started brushing elbows, getting to know some local players?"
"If you do it on your own reputation alone, Adler, I don't care who you associate with."
"What? No reference? No 'he beat the piss out of me a time or two' to give me some validity?" he teased.
"Pretty sure you're supposed to purge the shit off your resumè that's more than ten years old."
"Shame, that. I did some crazy as fuck shit in Russia about a decade back. Fucking miracle my arse didn't end up poisoned with the dioxin those fucks love so much."
"Should have known you'd lead a colorful life, Adler."
"What? Couldn't picture me with one-point-two kids and a wife who didn't know I watched boys my age get beaten to death?" he asked, referencing the choice Miller had made, to strive to forget, to be normal. "Or staring at cornfields, brain half-gone?" he went on, meaning Cohen. "There's no fucking way to do normal after what we've been through, Ward. Ya can have slivers of it. Like yer pretty piece in the other room. But ya will never be Joe Nobody like everyone else. Just like I can't. Why try? We are what we are. We've been where we've been. There will always be ghosts and demons. Can't outrun 'em. Best ya can hope for is a slice of normal taking all that crazy, and embracing it."
"You looking for a slice of normal, Adler?" I asked, wondering if maybe that was what made him finally pause, think about setting down roots. Maybe he saw me with Addy, and saw something there that he wanted, but had been denying himself. Maybe seeing that I could have it was the proof he needed that he could strive for it as well.
I agreed with him on most of what he said.
We could never have normal.
So much of our lives had been extreme, the other part just trying to cope with the reality of that forever being a part of our lives.
You couldn't, like Miller did, pretend it didn't happen, lie to the ones you claim to love.
And Delancy was going to get older, less desirable. Young millionaires would come and scoop all the women he usually bagged. And he would be alone. And it would all come creeping back.
Cohen, yeah, well, he was crazy.
The poor fuck.
The only way to be able to have a life of even a small bit of genuineness was to live it partly in that darkness. Me, well, I had lived fully in that dark for most of my life. But Adalind's appearance was the proof that the other part of what he said was true as well. If you found someone, someone special, and you could give them your truth, and they could embrace it, well, then you could have a small slice of normal.
It was well worth striving for at least.
And once he saw that it was possible, he realized he could maybe come out of the dark he had been living in too.
"If she's half as gorgeous as yer woman, yeah, I just might be," he agreed, smile just slightly less jaded than it usually was.
"How the fuck did you get in here?" I asked, not able to deal with the curiosity any longer. I didn't have to ask about Adalind's place. You could get into a padlock with a goddamn aluminum can if you knew what you were doing. But an advanced keycard specially formulated for my door and my door only? That was one lock you couldn't get into with a soda can.
"You ever see your maid, Ward?" he asked, sitting back, rubbing a hand across his jaw, almost, just barely looking sheepish. "Maria fills out that maid outfit like a fucking porn star."
"Seriously?" I asked, feeling a smile pull at my lips. "You lifted the key card? That's it?"
"After fucking her right there in the hallway. There's a blind spot right next to the goddamn ficus. Ya should inform them of that. Or, ya know, use it to yer advantage. It's right in front of the window. You got a thing for fucking yer girl in public. Unclench the fists," he said even as I felt a small growl move through me. "I didn't see shit. It's dark as fuck by those lighthouses. But I think everyone within earshot knew that some woman somewhere just got her world rocked. I'm just imparting some knowledge I found the, ah, hard way. It was a good spot. Tits all pressed against the glass, looking out at the river. It was a good time."
"It's gonna cost a fucking mint to get the locks changed."
"Oh, fuck off. It's just me. No one else got a key. I will give it back if you want it."
"Um, Ross?" Addy called from behind me, voice a strange mix of worried and uncertain, making me turn as quickly as my screaming ribs would allow to see her standing there in her jeans from the night before, like maybe talking on her phone with her mom made her feel weird about being without pants and panties in my apartment.
"Yeah?" I asked, brows drawing together, completely at a loss for why her teeth were worrying her lower lip, why she was shuffling her weight from foot to foot.
"Um, we have a bit of a problem..."
Not liking her tone, I moved to stand, noticing out of my peripheral that Adler got a bit tense at that declaration as well.
That was interesting.
He didn't know her from Eve, aside from sleeping in her bed and likely snooping around her apartment, but because she belonged to me, and because her problems were my problems, he was ready to spring into action.
Even though there was more than two decades between us. Even though we had each built completely independent lives, moving forward from that basement.
He still had my back.
He'd shoot me again if he had to.
That thought almost made a completely inappropriate smile curve my lips.
"What's going on, doll?" I asked, waving her forward, but she refused to move from her spot.
"I just got off the phone with my dad."
Ah, so that's why she was dressed. Hell, I was pretty sure she even put a bra on under my shirt.
"Is everything alright? Did something happen?"
There was a knot in my stomach at the idea of something happening to her family. Maybe I didn't know them, but I knew that they made her who she was, that she loved them deeply, that something happening to one of them could break her.
"They're okay," she said, shaking her head.
"Addy, talk," I demanded, voice a little firmer, wanting to break through whatever guard she was trying to put up.
The absolute last thing I wanted - now that I had smashed my own ones down - was any kind of wall between us.
"My mom is here."
"Oh, fuck," Adler said, dread clear in his voice.
"Wait... what?"
"Yeah. She's a lunatic," Addy said, throwing up her hands, looking up to the ceiling like she was begging for some patience. "She gets these ideas in her head, and then she acts on them without thinking it through, and without - I don't know - running it by me if it was okay or not for her to just show up on my doorstep."
"Addy, what's the big deal?" I asked, lips twitching as she started rage-cleaning the counters that were already clean. "You love your mom. You talk to her every day. So what if she wants to visit."
"Oh, she doesn't just want to visit. Oh, no. She wants to come here, demand a meeting with you, then size you up, figure out your intentions, then warn you that my father has a gun. Which... he doesn't. But she likes to use that line to try to scare people. And she is going to try to scare you. Because, heaven forbid, I get to be an adult and make my own decisions about who I date without interfere... what is so funny?" she demanded, making me realize I had been laughing at her little tirade. What can I say? It was amusing to see her so worked up. Especially over something so inconsequential.
"Addy, I figured you would want me to meet her eventually."
"Well... yeah," she agreed stopping her scrubbing of the sink. "But the key word there is 'eventually.' I mean, this is too much pressure too soon. I don't want you to think I've been like telling her things that..."
"Telling her what? That we're together? That it's going somewhere serious?" I asked. "What about that is not true? And, doll, I hate to break this to you, but I'm not afraid of your dad. Even if he did have a gun. That won't be scaring me off."
"She's going to have questions," she warned me, voice comically grave. "A lot of questions."
"I'll have answers," I said with a shrug.
"Ah, Ward?" Adler chimed in, making us both half turn toward him.
"What?" I asked, brows low. It was a weird fucking time to interrupt.
"Just gonna throw this out there. Have ya seen a mirror today?"
"Oh, fuck," I growled, exhaling hard.
Between Adler's visit and Addy's freak out, it was easy to shelf the pain. But now that attention was called back to it, yeah, I felt it.
The ribs were the worst.
They always were.
And while I could hide the gashes on my back and the bruises on my chest and stomach under a suit, there was nothing that could be done about my mangled knuckles, my split lip, and my bruised and mildly swollen cheek.
"She's here today?" I clarified, wondering if I could get another day, knowing I healed pretty quickly. At least my knuckles would be mostly scabbed over by then.
"My dad said she should be getting in within an hour or so. It's an eight-hour drive."
"So she'll be all tuckered out from the trip," Adler mused. "Ya can likely talk her into settling in for the night. Hell, tell her yer man is working tonight. He can go sit in Hex and pretend so you ain't lying. I've seen him looking ten times worse than this, duchess. Another day, he will look a lot better. And hey, you can always say he does, ah, boxing as a sport, right?"
"See, Adler has it all figured out," I said, giving Addy a smile. "It's fine, doll. This was going to happen. What does it matter if it happens now?"
"It's not too soon?"
"Well, ya met me," Adler supplied, reaching across the island to steal a potato off my mostly-uneaten plate. "And I'm as close to family as this sad sack has got."
Shit.
If that wasn't the truth.
Which was a bit sad in a way.
But, hey, he was here now, right?
There could be bonds forged.
If he could learn not to piss Adalind off with his attitude. Which, well, let's face it, the chances of that were slim. She would get used to him. Eventually, she would get comfortable enough to go back at him, put him in his place.
And we would be a, ah, small little dysfunctional family.
She gave Adler a soft smile, all, apparently, forgiven already. "I guess that's true. And, I mean, you've been to my place. You've shared a meal with us..."
I chuckled at that, liking that she was okay with a little ribbing. Adler needed that. If people let him, he would bulldoze all over them. It was good she was making it clear from the jump that that wouldn't fly.
"Exactly! We're practically siblings at this point," Adler agreed, giving her a wink.
"It's not too soon, Addy. I get that you and your mom are close. The ten times in a row she will call in the morning if you don't pick up is all the proof I need."
"She's going to ask about your intentions, Ross. I'm not exaggerating here. I'm an only child. They take this seriously."
"So I will tell her my intentions," I said, shrugging.
What were those, well, I didn't exactly know how to phrase it even to Addy, let alone her mother who likely wouldn't appreciate a liberal smattering of 'fucks' and 'shits,' but I would figure it out.
I knew what I felt.
I felt like this was different.
This was going somewhere.
You didn't throw away the person who quieted the world, who gave you acceptance, and in doing so, gave you a freedom you had never experienced before.
You held on like fuck to that.
And pray they didn't try to get away.
Hell, maybe that was what I would tell the woman.
It was the damn truth.
"Have you ever, ah, done this?" she asked, clearly still uncomfortable.
"Met someone's mother?" I asked, watching her nod. "Baby, I've never even met the morning from the side of a woman's bed. This is new. But your mother, I'm sure, just wants to make sure I'm not using you and that I can take care of you." I waved a hand around my place, decadent by most standards. "I got you covered."
"I don't want someone to take care of me," she was quick to clarify. "That was never..."
"Pretty sure I know you're not a gold digger since you want to shampoo your own fucking car to get my bloodstains out."
"Oh, yeah, they came and took that about an hour ago. Case you were wondering."
"Took what?" Addy asked, brows together.
"Yer car, duchess. The detail place took it to take care of it."
"I said I would do it!" she whisper-shrieked, turning back to me, eyes accusing.
I hadn't ever exactly been in the position to give a woman anything. But I was pretty sure being angry over a shampoo to get my blood out of their seats would never be considered ostentatious or inappropriate. Hell, or even at all generous.
"I'm sure you could too. But that was my blood. I wanted to take care of it."
"You wouldn't let me take care of it when I got my blood all over your car!"
She had a point there.
"Okay. The next time you bloody up my car, feel free to pay the detail fee. Happy?"
"That's all I'm asking," she agreed, already loosening up, giving me a small smile.
"As soon as your car is back, it might be smart to head home to head her off, get her settled."
"Yeah. I apparently need to change the sheets," she said, giving Adler small-eyes.
"And then we can work out a time for tomorrow. We'll take her to Famiglia."
"Fancy," Adler agreed, reaching for my burger on my plate, tearing it in half, and proceeding to go right ahead and eat it. Thin as always, I had no idea where he was putting it. "I'll have to find a suit."
"You're not invited," I clarified.
"And yet somehow, I don't feel like that is going to stop me."
It wouldn't either.
The crazy fuck showed up at Famiglia.