Page 48 of One Step Sideways

I could hear Emily’s voice from the open back door. Not that I couldn’t be stealthy if I needed to, but it wasn’t necessary.

“What I mean is, how much do you really know about him?”

And yeah, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know she meant me.

“Ginny is fine,” Buck said firmly. “And Danny is your brother. His instincts have always been good.”

“But are theynow?” Emily said. “He was talking about trees, for goodness’ sake.”

“Emily,” Elizabeth snapped, but I’d heard enough and stepped into the room. They all fell silent. I took in Ginny sitting next to her mom.

“You might want to send Ginny somewhere else,” I started and as an introduction, it had a dramatic effect.

“I don’t see why—” Emily began,but I turned on her.

“I’m going to say what I have to no matter what, and trust me when I say this isn’t for her ears.”

Her dad immediately rose and ushered Ginny into the other room that had a TV and shut the door. I was grateful, especially when curiosity didn’t have him coming back. He just stayed with his daughter, and I admired him for that. I looked at the other three sitting at the table. Elizabeth had tears in her eyes, but Emily looked defiant.

“My name’s Kane Diaz and four weeks ago I was released from Ware Correctional after serving seventeen years for assault with a deadly weapon. I was physically abused by my father for most of my life, but that night, for the first time in my life, I fought back.” I yanked my shirt up and turned around. I heard Elizabeth’s muffled cry at seeing my scars and turned back, letting my shirt drop. “But because I also have a scar on my face, no one—the cops, the lawyers, the judges—believed I could be a victim. And they sure as hell didn’t care about scars anywhere else but on my face.”

I focused my attention on Elizabeth. “Danny is important to me, but despite the fact that he may never forgive me for telling you what happened to him, this needs to be said.” So, I did. I told them in graphic detail what had happened to Danny in that hole. I was sorry to scare them, but this was for Danny’s benefit. He needed his family.

“Danny is immensely talented. He suffers panic attacks and PTSD because of what he went through fighting for his country.” I glanced at Emily, who had paled. Buck had his arm around Elizabeth, and she was crying openly. But they had to know, and even if Danny hated me for it, I wanted him to heal. It had taken me five minutes to work out how important they all were to him.

I should be so lucky.

I gazed at Emily, who I had to admit looked a little shaken. “So never, ever say he had acushyjob.”

Emily shook her head. Tears shone in her eyes. “I had no idea. I mean, I knew he was captured and lost weight… But they never tell us anything.”

“Well now you know.” I took a step back. “I’ll go pack my things.” Because I knew they wanted me out of here.

“You damn well won’t.” Buck rose from his chair. “The relationship you have with my son is private between you two, but if it means anything at all, you have our blessing.” He held out his hand, and I gazed at it in shock, then reached out mine and shook. But instead of letting go, he pulled me in for a hug. “Thank you,” he muttered. “You might have just given us a way to get our son back.”

I was stunned. Elizabeth had hugged me the first day, but this? My throat tightened as an image of Archie came into my head. And I hugged him back.

I was back with Danny when he woke and confessed immediately.

Danny just stared at me. “You saidwhat?” He croaked, but then waved his hand. “No, I heard you.” Silence fell, and it wasn’t up to me to break it.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said.

I reached out for his hand, but he snatched it away, and the bottom fell out of my world. This was it. I’d screwed up the only chance I was ever gonna get with someone like Danny. But I should have known. Dad said I was useless. Told me every day I was good for nothing.

Looked like he was right.

I stood and reached for the bag I’d brought, dumping in my couple of tees, boxers, the nicer pair of jeans I was planning on wearing for tomorrow, my toothbrush. Danny was still sitting on the bed staring into space. I looked at him for a long moment, wishing things were different. Even waking up that morning so many years ago, wondering why my face itched like crazy and I felt sick, like I had the flu. Even in prison, because of Archie, I didn’t think my life was over, and he taught me never to give up, to always fight for one more day. And I mentally sent him an apology, hoping wherever he was that he heard it because this time I was done. I just didn’t have any more fight in me.

“Daniel Christopher Sullivan, you get your ass down here.”

The shout seemed to jerk Danny out of whatever place his mind had gone to, and he stood and nearly stumbled to the stairs, and I quickly followed. Emily was mad. Spitting mad, but tears were also streaming down her face. She saw him and put her hands on her hips. “Get down here you little shit.”

Danny choked out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob and practically fell into Emily’s arms. I moved past them both, out of the door, and started walking.

A while later, I realized I hadn’t really thought this through. I had money in the bank, a brand-new debit card, but not much cash, and I also didn’t have much idea how long it would take me to walk to Asheville from where I was, or if there was a bus. Fuck, I didn’t even know where I was going to go once I got there. I guessed it didn’t matter how many times I said fuck now. I heard a car in the distance and made sure I was walking tightly to the side. There weren’t any sidewalks, but I was big enough to see.

Unfortunately.

---