Page 115 of Two for Joy

Zac let go of Chad, then looked about. His gaze raked over Romeo, but he didn’t react, there was no recognition in his expression, but Chad blocked him from taking another look just in case.

“Tell me though, yeah? I was worried.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Easier said than done. We’ve only just got you back … again.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m sick of the sight of you and Gareth.”

Zac laughed, leaning against the wall. Chad followed him, making sure he was between Zac and Romeo a few meters away on the ground.

“We’re worried about you.”

“There’s no need. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, and no one expects you to be.”

Chad didn’t say anything back.

“I didn’t tell you, but … I went to see Romeo in prison.”

“Yeah?”

“I asked him to let you go.”

Chad leaned the back of his head on the wall. “And what did he say?”

“Well, I’m paraphrasing, but simply put it was a no.”

Romeo stared at the side of Chad’s face, catching the flicker of a smile before he controlled it, forcing it back.

“He did let you go in the end. You’re free again, and in a messed up kinda way, I thank him for that. For not … going back to prison and stringing you along, or going on the run, keeping you always wondering. He gave you an end to what happened between you, and I think you needed it.”

“I prefer to think of it as he gave me a new beginning.”

“Yeah, that works, too.”

“And for this new beginning, I have to start somewhere new, too.”

“What?” Zac stepped away from the wall and stood in front of Chad. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t stay here Zac, not with everything that happened.”

“Romeo, and Marc—they’re both gone.”

“My team turned on me. The press turned on me. Everyone that read their stories about my childhood, everyone that found out I’d visited Romeo, turned on me, too. I can’t carry on working or living here. I need to move away, start again.”

“Where will you go?

Chad took a deep breath. “Despite the mistakes I made, my questionable choices, my mind being flipped, and twisted, and reshaped to whatever the hell it is now, I still feel like I’m a good person, at least a part of me is.”

“You are.”

“And I’m good at catching bad guys, sometimes they catch me though.” Chad laughed and shook his head. “I still want to catch criminals, now more than ever, to right my wrongs, and find some kind of balance. Maybe a kind of justification, the more murderers I catch, the less guilt I’ll feel about everything else.”

“You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

“Yes, I do. Trust me, I do. I’m gonna ask for a transfer, a different city, different station and homicide team, providing I pass the psychological evaluation. I need to go somewhere far away.”

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