Page 55 of Escape From Me

“Good. Sounds like we are on the same page. That, and I really like the idea of sharing something like this with your family. Sign me up for a double wedding. Courthouse. Vegas. I don’t care. Just as long as it’s with you.”

My lungs appreciated the next calm breath I took. I pulled her hand, grabbing her arm close to me.

“Maybe someday you tell me what that haunted look was?” she asked me quietly. All I could do was swallow and nod.

“Yeah.”

I was finally focusing and seeing the room again. Cas and X still watched me like I was going to retreat back to my rooms and not come out, again.

“Alright, maybe we need to tell our origin story highlights so that Zeid here doesn’t go all hermit on us. It’s been a while and all, but well, Daisy, you need to be aware. Then maybe we go head to the gym?”

I shifted on the couch, grabbing Daisy so tightly there was a small little nag of concern she might not be able to breathe. The calming stroke along my neck said otherwise, so I just held her.

“Okay, so Cas and I were neighbors to Zeid, but he was that strong silent guy as a kid. Anyway, we had each other's backs. Zeid was always real good with a blade and even better at striking when no one was expecting it. I think we’d each saved one or the other’s backs through elementary school and up into middle school. By high school we were pretty much untouchable. That being said, I think we owe that to Zeid.” X pushed me aside and wedged himself next to me, like he had when we were kids. Like he had when he knew I needed something but couldn’t say what any of it was.

“This fucker here tried to take on ten—or was it twelve?—full grown Spectors.” Cas smiled at me as I looked over at him.

“Twelve. It was twenty-four feet. Twelve pairs of really worn shitkickers.”

Fuck. I still remembered the view from the floor as someone pushed my head into the threadbare carpet that reeked of shit, beer, sweat, and years of neglect. Mom was better off dead. I remembered that.

“Yeah well. They tried to mess with Zeid. Tried to take him out of the picture like that was going to stop Cas and I. Nah. Zeid though, he’d gotten a few good cuts in. One guy bleeding out. Another unable to do anything but crawl away. Another guy missing an eye. God, remember finding the eye later?”

X laughed at the memory. The bastard was a sick SOB.

“Yeah. We remember. You literally asked the guy if he could see himself dying and if it seemed like an out of head experience,” I said.

Cas glared at X and finished the story.

“Long story short, we watched everything in that neighborhood and we saw the trouble. We followed men that were no longer fit to wear the Spectors’ mark and we made sure to fix that. We’d come in fully armed and ready for a fight, but it hadn’t spared Zeid all the pain. Still, he distracted them while we paid each and every one of them what they were due. Zeid had a few broken ribs. The first of a bunch of broken noses. What else, brother?”

I cleared my throat.

“All of it healed, that’s all I need to remember. You got there in time.”

No one was going to talk about what could have happened.

“Yeah, well, my boy here is the reason we all went into hiding. We grabbed Miss Winnie and hopped around in a few motels until we stumbled on these warehouses. Taking down the dozen or so asshats that night turned the tides. No one would come after a bunch of kids that had taken down the second and a whole slew of lowlifes,” X said, looking away like he was almost remembering it like a dream rather than a nightmare.

“Right. Let me finish this little shit-tale for you all. A few more years of picking off men one by one. Selling some of my art to cover up our crimes but finding some pretty strange buyers out there along with the extra profits we got from drugs and cash we could get off the old guys, and we came out on top. Taking down our leader was easy by the time we’d gotten to him.” Cas smiled, something rare, but he smiled as he told the rest of the story.

Rylee leaned into Cas, holding him like he was the only one in the world, and in her mind, I suspected he was. But for me? I turned to Daisy.

“I… so… yeah. No crowds. Any other requests?”

She was silent. Her teeth worried her lower lip as she stood and seemed to take a step and then stop, then turn to maybe sit, but finally she reached for me and crawled into my lap.

“No. No other requests. None other than please don’t hide your past from me. Please don’t ever hide from me.”

TWENTY-FOUR

daisy

A wedding?I swallowed.

A wedding?

“Winnie can be the officiate. Xander and I were thinking about the roof garden. Rylee and I have been spending our time up there making it a little paradise. What do you think about that, Daisy?”

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