“Eh, glad to have some space. Good they’re happy, though.” I scuff my boot on the thin carpet, leaning against the wall by the door. “Listen, I, um…I sorta connected with someone. She, uh, she needs…me. And I wanna see where this goes. So, if ya’ll are good, I might need some more time.”
Chance is quiet. “No shit?”
“I dunno what it is, man. Could be nothing. But it doesn’t feel like nothing.” I find my voice sharing shit I had no intention of laying on anyone, but this is Chance. “Feels like something.”
“Kane, my man. You take all the time you need. We’re good. Rev found someone to take his fights in the cage, since Myka don’t like him fighting. I’m working the door and Inez is watching from the crow’s nest. We’re good.” He pauses. “Who is she?”
I shake my head, even though I’m on the phone instead of face to face. “Not ready to share.”
“You ain’t ever shared the first fuckin’ thing. Someday, you gotta crack open that shell, brother.”
“She’sgood, Chance. Pure.”
“Ahh shit. Just like Rev, you snagged yourself the sweet, didn’t you?”
“Sweet ain’t the word. She looks at me like…” I cut off, choking on the very thoughts, so thick the words die in my esophagus. “Scares the absolute blue fuck outta me, Chance.”
“Say it again, brother—you don’t gotta share with me, or Rev, or any of us. I mean we wish you would, because if anyone could get it, we can. But I won’t push. I’m just sayin’, someday, you gotta give it to someone. You gotta crack open that armor of yours and let someone in.” I hear the grin in his voice. “If it was me, I’d make sure it was someone soft and sweet who I let in there.”
“My shit’s…bad.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to the brotherhood, Kane. We all wear the brand. We’re all broken.”
“What’s his deal, do you think?” He knows who I mean.
“Hell if I know. I’m just grateful as fuck for what he did for me.”
I sigh, head back against the wall. “Yeah, me too.” I hear the shower shut off. “I gotta go, Chance.”
“Fear is the mind-killer, Kane. Push through it, do what you gotta do. Share. Open up.”
I laugh. “Rather take on a platoon with nothing but my sidearm.”
“If it’s easy, it don’t take courage, brother.”
I laugh at this, because he just tosses out nuggets of wisdom like it ain’t no thing. “I’ll call in a few days. Let me know if ya’ll need me.”
“We won’t. If we do, I’ll call.” A beat. “Later, bro.”
“Later.”
I pocket the phone and head back into the room, locking the door. She emerges from the bathroom, then, the door swinging in, steam skirling out. She’s wrapped in a white towel, black hair wet and brushed pin-straight down past her shoulder blades.
“Who were you talking to, may I ask?”
What do I call him? More than a friend, more than a coworker. “One of the guys I live and work with. His name’s Chance.”
“What is it you do, for work?”
“Security at a nightclub.”
She accepts this without comment. “Do you need to go back to work?”
I shake my head. “Why I was calling. They’re good without me for a while.” With her hair down, wet, all the makeup off, she’s so fucking beautiful it damn near gives me a heart attack. “Fuckyou’re gorgeous, Anjalee.”
She smiles shyly at this. “Thank you, Kane.”
She turns away, then, going to her clothes. Hesitating, trying to decide how she’s gonna handle getting dressed in front of me. I make no bones about it—I just watch. Keep quiet, let her decide.
