His brothers in arms stared at him, both of them with lips twitching as they tried not to smile.
“I dig Sam, okay? Is there something wrong with that?”
“Nope,” Tango said.
“’Bout time you find yourself a real woman,” Mercy said.
He sighed, scratched at the back of his neck, suddenly itchy all over. He wasn’t sure if it was nerves, pent-up desire, or the ever-present dread of Greg, sitting on his chest and grinning manically at him. There was a very good chance that traitorous dipshit would be the one dealing tonight, and a confrontation with the man in front of his brothers? Yeah, that wasn’t going to go down well.
“Look,” he said, “we can talk to Dad, and see about all of us heading up there. Or just the three of us can go.” It was growing darker as they stood there, the shadows lengthening, the sky diving into indigo territory.
Mercy folded his massive arms as he considered. “I’m gonna be real straight with you here, okay? ‘Cause you are my brother, and I love you. If we all head up there, and then it turns out to be nothing but a bunch of kids getting wasted, you won’t be winning yourself any points with your old man.
“If we get up there, and it’s a great big mafia ho-down, we’ll call for backup. That’s my opinion on the matter,” he ended in an official tone that was more or less ruined by his Cajun accent. “Your call,” he added.
Aidan glanced between the two of them. “You’d come with me?”
“Yup,” they said in unison.
Aidan nodded and took a deep breath. “Let’s go then. Just us.”
And pray it doesn’t bite us in the ass.
~*~
They geared up first: flak jackets, black hoodies and bandanas, extra magazines and backup pieces, knives down in the tall shafts of their boots.
“We look like banditos,” Tango remarked as they piled into the truck. “And that’s a real bad look for two of you.”
Mercy elbowed him and started the engine. “Think you’re so hot, pretty boy.”
Tango grinned.
“You kids be quiet, I gotta call my old lady and tell her I’ll be late for dinner.”
In the close confines of the truck, Aidan could hear his sister’s tinny voice coming through Mercy’s cellphone. He heard – though he hated to admit he recognized it in his own sister – the mixed regret, affection, worry and warmth in her voice as she said, “You be careful, monster. I’ll save you a plate in the fridge.”
“Love you,” Mercy told her, and disconnected.
“You guys are a little bit sickening, you know that?” Aidan said, without malice.
“You’re just jealous,” Mercy said, piloting the truck into the next turn.
He was, goddamn it. Because before, love had been this nebulous myth he couldn’t define. But now love sat just outside his door, and it had a face, and a name, and tangled ribbons of dark blonde hair that liked to knot together in the breeze.
“Okay,” Mercy said, cheerful at the prospect of a good ass-kicking. “Let’s come up with a game plan so we’re not staggering around in the dark.”
“Right.” Aidan took another big breath, finding it was hard to get enough air into his lungs. Ever since making the decision to take this night into his own two inexpert hands. Ever since touching his mouth to Sam’s. “We’ll ditch the truck on the next street over…”
During the fifteen minute drive, they mapped a course of action. By the time they locked up the truck and cut through the abandoned lot one street over, Aidan was convinced it would be successful.
Night enfolded them like a shroud, the dead leaves rustled overhead, and the wet grass clung to their boots like clammy hands. It was eerie, and he couldn’t deny the chill that rippled across his skin. This street had been full of small mansions like Hamilton House, once upon a time. The same fire that had singed Hamilton House had devoured the rest, and as they walked, here and there a blackened timber thrust up from the ground, a picked-clean rib, the fossil of some long-extinct animal.
Slowly, the pinpricks of light through the trees became rectangles, and they emerged from the woods at the edge of the infamous house's driveway.
Aidan felt like he stepped through a portal into the past. He was seventeen again, pockets full of smokes, ready to walk up that sagging porch and hit the keg straight away. Had anything changed in the years since? A few weeks ago he would have said no. But tonight he was here on a very different mission, and life as he’d always understood it could never be the same.
“Reminiscing?” Mercy asked softly.
