“Fuck off, Deck. If that’s how you want to play it, I’m out of here.”
When I turned to leave, but Decker grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Wait.”
He dropped his hand and didn’t make any move to touch me again. And like a damn glutton, I stood there waiting… Hoping—for what? I sure as hell didn’t know.
“Decker,” I repeated his name, willing him to hear the earnestness in my voice. The want I had in my heart.
“I know it’s no excuse, but you have no idea how hard it is for me to stand here,” he breathed out, like it pained him to admit that.
“Me too.” My heart ached at the two words I spoke.
“You saw Regi.” It was a statement, not a question.
Relief flashed through me that Decker had also seen our girl. “Yes. I thought… I was seeing things. Guess I wasn’t. Did you keep in touch with her?”
He shook his head. “No.” There was so much emotion in that single word, that it cut me deep. “You?”
“No.” This whole time, I thought I was the one left out. But I was wrong. None of us kept in touch.
“I thought… This entire time, I thought you and her…” Decker turned away, as though he too was affected by the news.
Relief hit hard, tangled with sorrow and the images I’d painted in my head of Regina and Decker living life without me. But the truth was worse—we’d each been alone in this miserable world, and that somber thought made me tear up.
“God, Deck. After all this time, you two pop back into my life—on the same night. It’s too damn coincidental. I don’t know what to think. It must be double whammy day,” I admitted, turning away and swiping at my wet eyes.
“Double whammy day?” With a soft snort of laughter, Decker faced me again with a smile so genuine it melted my trepidation. “Look at you. I don’t ever remember you looking this beefed up back then. You look good, K.” He pointed up and down my body.
I wanted to preen at his compliment—at the familiar nickname only he had called me. But this wasn’t the place to get reacquainted with my best friend. “Why don’t we get out of here. There has to be a place where we can get something to eat. I’m starving.”
“I don’t think so, K,” he said mindfully. “All together again, in one city, after all this time? You’re right. This is too coincidental for my liking. I doubt the three of us being here was by chance.” The semi-easy banter Decker had spouted moments ago was gone, and replaced with a cold, hard resolve. “You came for a fight. I came for a mark. And Regi was here… Why?”
That question hung in the air like a stationary pendulum, waiting for the right answer to bump it into motion again, and that answer suddenly clicked in my head. “She lives in Chicago.”
“Most likely,” Decker chimed in, his agreement raising a red flag.
“Who would organize something this elaborate, just to bring the three of us together?”
And yet, if I thought about it hard enough, with the situation that had separated us so long ago, I could accept that sliver of coincidence, and that we were here together purely by chance.
Sirens in the distance cut off my thoughts. We both went stock still and listened. While I looked to my left, Decker scanned toward the right.
“Go,” Decker ordered with finality, reaching into his zipped-up hoodie and pulling out a handgun.
“The cops won’t look here,” I rushed out with certainty. Yet, I couldn’t ignore the niggling fear in the back of my head since being released from prison years ago was pushing me to run.
“You don’t know that. Take off and I’ll call you in a few days.”
“But I just got you back,” I protested, not wanting to lose sight of him again. “You don’t even know my number.”
“You don’t have me back.” Decker stared at me for a long moment, his icy glare sending shivers down my spine.
“But—”
“Fucking go, before the past repeats itself, and this time your ass will end up in jail,” he growled.
A chill ran along my skin at the horrible repercussions I had once endured, the part of my life Decker didn’t know about, yet I didn’t move.
“Decker—” My words were cut off when he aimed the handgun at me. I felt the blood drain from my face, leaving me shocked and then angry. I grabbed hold of my rage and said through gritted teeth, “You point a gun at my face? Where’s the Deck?—”
