Page 79 of Daddy Issues

“Sure. I’ve got some errands to run, but I’m not working tonight, so rest sounds like a good plan.”

Coffee in hand, he crossed the kitchen to me, dropped a kiss to my lips, and did exactly as he’d offered. I watched, unsure of how to handle myself. The idea of dating Puck, of it being more than casual sex—not that there had been anything casual about that—was a lot to process.

I could probably get used to it.

If I could shake the drama with Ghost.

***

There were large concrete drainpipes that led into the Dry Valley River from the Bends. The white trash neighborhood butted up against some of the mountains that surrounded us. When it did rain, there was nothing there to soak up the water, and it ran here, filling up the riverbed and twisting around through the system of pipes until it reached an actual river.

There hadn’t been a good rain in so long, though, that scraggly bushes were growing in the river and dust filled the big tunnels. When we were young, Ghost—or Zach as he’d been then—and I would hide from the bad shit here. We played here. Dreamedhere. The tunnels weren’t very long usually, though one set ran under the highway, near where the frat boys had been found.

In combat boots, cut offs, and a Desert Kings tank, I scurried through the desert and into the tunnels until I saw him. Ghost sat inside one of the shorter ones, leaned against one curved wall, legs up on the other, a bottle of whiskey in his hand. I didn’t see his bike, so he’d probably walked from wherever Jerry Wayne or Wanda had him holed up.

Half his face was swollen, his eye black, and his bottom lip busted and crusty.

“Jesus, what happened to you?” I sat opposite him, my knees bent to my chest, since my legs wouldn’t reach the other side. My voice echoed a tiny bit, which brought back the nostalgia for this place.

A tiny scorpion ran out from the sand near his hip and took off toward the daylight and away from us. I must have disturbed him.

“Your boyfriend.” Ghost took a swig, laughing without humor.

That smacked me right in the gut. Puck hadn’t said anything about running into Ghost, much less beating the shit out of him. “I’m sorry.” But was I? “Was it over JoJo’s shit at the Fall Fest?”

“Yeah.” He cringed. “I’m sorry about that. It really had nothing to do with us at all. Jerry Wayne was just looking for a way to needle Puck about the kid. You happened to be there and made it easy picking.”

It was never his fault, something I’d learned a long time ago.

No use in arguing with him.

“That why you’re here now, to apologize for getting your own ass kicked?” I hadn’t seen a scratch on Puck that I hadn’t thought came from the brawl with JoJo’s boys. Ghost was scrappy, but not like that. Puck was something else, entirely. I’d seen him in action—battling monsters.

“I used you as part of my in story with the peckerwoods. Iamsorry for that. I should have come up with something better, but I was thinking on the fly. I’m only there because I’m the MC’s mole.” That was shit he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, a reminder that one time we’d told each other everything. He finally looked at me, squinting his good eye. “You’re okay, though? I heard David gave you the boot.”

“More Nadine than David, but yeah. I’m fine. Got a place to stay, working shit out.” I ignored the bomb he'd just dropped on me. MC business wasn't my business. Telling me was the very reason he'd make a horrible spy. He never knew when to keep his mouth shut.

In Dry Valley, knowing too much could get you killed.

“Still at the strip club?” He didn’t say it with any sort of derision, just asked without judgment.

Talking like this reminded me of when we were kids, and when we were friends, before he’d started looking at me as just a tool to get what he wanted. That little boy he'd been was the only reason dread coiled in my gut. This was a bad idea. I was closer to Puck now, but I'd already outed Ghost to the MC once.

I didn't have the heart to do it again. The MC would keep him safe, I had to believe in that. The table wouldn't just throw Ghost to the wolves and leave him there to be torn apart.

“Yeah.”

“I bet the tips are insane, even for a server.”

“Yup.” I laughed.

He smiled over at me, sort of sad and lost. “When you get enough, get the fuck out of here. You’re too good for this place.”

I thought of Puck and Eli, about my friends, and how close I’d come to doing just that. But I wouldn’t have been happy, not truly, leaving all of them behind.

“I don’t think I want to. I think I’ve finally found somewhere I belong.”

“Good.” He took a long swallow straight from the bottle. “But I’d feel a lot better if you weren’t in Hayes County for a while. Shit’s about to go sideways.”

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