“When they pound relentlessly on my door at a six a.m. You’re lucky I haven’t got a gun out.”
Dom stared him down.
He was weak; he knew it.
Backing down, Casey let Dom into his apartment, closing the door behind them.
“Welcome to my kingdom,” he muttered with little enthusiasm.
His buddy’s face was unreadable, so he wasn’t sure what was going on in his mind, why he was there until he said, “I can’t believe how tragic you’ve become.”
There was no judgment in his voice. In fact, there was nothing at all.
“Ya, well, we can’t all be perfect, can we?” Case snapped on him. Limping to the one recliner, he sat down, removing his prosthesis that he’d forgotten to take off the night before. Or rather, he’d passed out with it left on in a drunken stupor.
Shame washed through him at Dom’s pitying look as he stared at his stump—the bane of his existence. The reason his life fell apart.
“What are you doing, Casey?” The silence finally broken.
He knew his friend wasn’t asking about the lotion he was rubbing on his leg. Not answering because it wouldn’t be anything either of them wanted to hear.
“Is this really what you want? To live in this dump and go to bed drunk every night? Wake up looking like you were hit by a truck? ‘Cause, Case, man, you look like fucking shit dumped twice.”
He was right; it wasn’t what he wanted with his life. He’d been on a downward spiral for years, helpless to end it.
“I’ll give you a choice. Come with me, right now, and I’ll get you out of this shit hole. Help you get your life together. Or you can stay here and waste away, turn into the useless piece of shit your old man always thought you were.”
“Fuck you,” Case snarled at him, not needing the reminder of how much of a failure he’d become.
“No, man, you’re the one who’s fucked.” Dom paused reaching into his pocket for something. “Call me when you decide.” He dropped a card with his number on it. “You’re worth more than all of this, Casey. You just need to realize it.” With that, Dom left him alone.
The click of the door closing was like a nail in his coffin. Was he ready to finally reach out for the help he needed? Could he handle being around Dom—the most self-controlled person he’d ever known—when he was such a mess?
The answer should be simple, only it wasn’t. It was the hardest decision Casey had ever been faced with, so he did what came naturally since his life went to shit…
He grabbed the bottle of Jack on the table in front of him and drank until he passed out.
Five months ago
There was nothing Casey loved more than the peace and quiet of a long drive. It had taken him a long time to get to where he was today; he had been a broken mess after Dom found him over three years ago—telling him to get clean or he was gonna die, basically.
After he’d drunk himself into a two-day hangover, he really looked at himself in the mirror. Knowing it was time to decide if he was going to fight for his life or continue to slowly kill himself.
Thankfully, self-preservation prevailed and a week after Dom found him, Casey had called him back. Practically begging the other man to help him get his life together.
Dom had picked him up the next day. No judgment. Just a brother helping a brother. They’d hated each other growing up but joining the Rangers when they were eighteen was one of the best decisions either of them could have made.
He received the shock of a lifetime when they got back to Dom’s small farm, and there’d been a baby there. He looked identical to Dom right down to the scowl that said don’t fuck with me. Together they became one parental unit for the little boy. Took Dom nearly a week to finally name him, though, so until then, they’d called him mini-D.
The name Jaxson had finally been settled on. Case couldn’t even remember why anymore. Jax had stolen both their hearts, and it turned out the baby boy was great motivation for his recovery and to get his ass in gear. He’d made a ton of regrets over the years, the biggest of which was pushing Dom away.
When his friend showed up at his apartment all those years ago, Case had been bitter and hateful. It hadn’t been until he was living in Dom’s spare room for three months that the man finally confided in him over how Jax came about, and how this girl he was bringing home now—the reason Casey was on his way to the airport—had impacted his frame of mind. She was someone Dom had been protecting since she was a young girl but over the years started to care for. When he found out her father was selling her, he’d gone ballistic, blew his mission, and went on his own downward spiral of recklessness from there.
In all honesty, it made Case feel better about his own flaws knowing that Dom wasn’t perfect and had screwed up an assignment. He felt petty for it, but it was what it was. They both held some bitterness inside from the past.
Dom seemed to be working through his.
Casey was left feeling dead inside.