Page 21 of One Step Sideways

“But—” But what? What could I say?

“The easiest thing is to ask Diesel what he saw. I’d suggest a demonstration, but I’m not in the right headspace for anything remotely dark at the moment.”

I gazed at him, not knowing what to say.

“Thanks, by the way.” He flushed, and I let him go as he withdrew his hand. “You know—well, actually I didn’t go into details—but sometimes I get triggered by the stupidest shit.”

It wasn’t stupid. I knew that, but I had a feeling Danny knew that as well, so he didn’t need to hear it from me.

“It was the sirens. Not on their own. I’ve heard loud noises before, car backfiring, things like that, you know, but both together? And all those on their own I can deal with, but I had a bad night.”

“Tell me.” If I could have bitten the words back, I would have. It was none of my business.

He looked at me as if trying to weigh me up, but then he must have made a decision. “I told you we were attacked? Well, we were abducted.”

I nodded.

“They kept us in a pit.” He leaned back and was silent for a moment. “The degradation,” he croaked. “Plus, the shit they gave us to eat messed with our stomachs, and there wasn’t exactly a restroom. One of our guys—Aubrey—he—” Danny swallowed. “He couldn’t take any more. They shot him, but we, Gray and I, knew he’d goaded them into it.”

Danny’s breaths quickened, but he fell silent.

“When I was young, if Dad was mad at me, he’d lock me out of the house. Rain, cold, middle of the night, never mattered. All I wanted those times was to get back inside, and then I spent seventeen years wishing the opposite.” Danny’s eyes were so blue they reminded me of all the nights I’d wished I was looking at the sky, and for a moment, a really long moment, I thought I saw something else in them. Understanding?

At least until we both heard the knock on the door. Danny wrenched his gaze away. I wasn’t that strong. He looked at his phone when we both heard the notification. “It’s Ringo.”

I was off the floor first and extended my arm. Danny took it. The second knock had us both huffing and Danny went to the door.

Ringo didn’t surprise me. Well, possibly the fact that he had ten years on me. Not that I thought bodyguards had an expiration date, and he seemed friendly enough, even if he also seemed hard. There were shadows behind his eyes that I recognized. Maybe he’d been inside? Maybe Rawlings had a type?

Danny informed us he was staying put, so I got in Ringo’s truck. I’d brought a small bag with shorts and a t-shirt.

“Where’s the gym?”

“Not a gym exactly,” Ringo hedged a little. “More a club.” I glanced over.

“What sort of club?”

“Atlanta’s like the Tale of Two Cities.”

I got the reference thanks to Archie’s books, but I didn’t think he meant London and Paris. “You mean socially.”

He shrugged. “Economically, whatever.”

“Okay.” Most places were.

“Father Peter runs a safe place where kids can go to hangout. Diesel and the guys support it. It has a gym attached that has proper fights. Kids are allowed certain days and times.”

I didn’t think anything more could have surprised me that day, but yep—that’d do it. There was a small parking area, but I wasn’t shocked to see Ringo park on the street where he couldn’t be boxed in. I looked at the buildings, dark, rundown, and felt right at home. There was a tiny church at the end of the block and what looked like some sort of industrial unit next to it. I watched as two teenagers got off a bus and headed over. “That’s the gym?”

He nodded, and we both reached for the door handles simultaneously until I saw the guy following the kids and stopped. Some distance away. Shoulders hunched, head down. But I clocked the gate, shoe size, the width of his shoulders,and his exact height and before I even registered the facts going through my mind, I knew who it was.

The guy from the gas station. The enhanced that had recognized me and hadn’t said a word. I saw the small gym bag he carried and knew in that instant he wasn’t there to rob the place.

The problem was, what the fuck did I do now?

Chapter Nine

Danny

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