Order (Tattoos and Ties 2)

“I will, but if I found this, someone else will. They’re combing everything, Alec. Work this as fast as you can. Get the family protection, do whatever you do, because I promise you, this isn’t good,” she said, pointing to the folder.

Alec nodded as the waiter placed his plate of food in front of him. His appetite had waned, worry taking its place. He looked down at the file folder, knowing the information inside was most likely going to rip his heart out.

Keyes parked the tire shop’s service truck next to his best friend Devilman’s motorcycle in the parking lot of Chain Metal, a seedy little hole-in-the-wall dive bar. As teenagers, he and Dev had snuck into this place more times than he could count. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him why Dev had gone to the bar tonight. Keyes cut the engine and was out the door, pocketing his keys as he headed for the entrance.

Dev was apparently trashed per the bartender who had taken his keys away over an hour ago. Keyes had been halfway to Alec’s place—because he was such a fucking pussy; he’d missed Alec and planned to surprise him even at this late hour—when he’d gotten the call to come get his boy.

He guessed Dev’s pretty new girlfriend, who’d had him taking responsibility seriously, was wearing off. They were back to the future, or maybe it was better said that they were back to the past. Either way, Keyes was always Dev’s designated driver, meaning he wouldn’t be sleeping next to Alec tonight.

He pushed through the bar’s front door. The place was dark. It usually took time for his eyes to adjust, but he didn’t need them tonight. Dev was loud, and it was late, already close to midnight, only the barflies and stragglers were left behind. Keyes started toward Dev’s loud mouth, walking past the bartender who dangled Dev’s keys his direction. He shook his head, “Hound’ll be by in a minute to grab his bike.”

“My brother,” Dev called out, Keyes’s voice enough to gain all Dev’s attention. Dev jumped up, knocking his chair backward, staggering as he came forward, his arms wide falling into Keyes while trying to give him a hug. “Where you come from?”

“I came to take you home,” he said, chuckling at the exuberance of the hug.

“Nah, man! Have a drink with me,” Dev insisted, not letting Keyes go. Dev’s arms tightened around him, causing Keyes’s brow to furrow. He angled his head, trying to see what was going on with his friend to cause this extended hold.

“You okay?” he asked and grabbed Dev’s biceps, moving him back several inches to look in his face.

Dev’s mocking grin was instant, and he pointed a finger in Keyes’s face. “I drank too much tonight. Did you know?”

Any worry eased, and Keyes laughed at the certainty of Dev’s slurred tone. “Yup, that’s what I heard.”

When Dev took a step to the right then another step to help keep himself upright, Keyes anchored an arm around his best friend’s waist, moving to help carry/walk him out of the bar. “I gotta get us home. Come on.”

“Best friend a person could have,” Dev called out to the whole bar as he pulled from his hold. He did a twirl, pointing to Keyes so everyone could see. That forced Keyes to bust a quick move to catch Dev before he completely lost his footing and face-planted on the concrete floor.

“Come on.” Keyes struggled to keep Dev focused on leaving even as he got them through the bar and out into the parking lot.

“I miss you, man. We were together all the time,” Dev said as he missed the sidebar to Keyes’s truck, falling face-first into the seat.

After missing the sidebar again, Keyes had to partially lift Dev into the seat to get him inside the cab.

“See all that fuckin’ meth tonight? My old man fuckin’ killed it. I could use a bump, brother.” Dev’s head slumped forward, and he passed out as Keyes tucked him in then climbed over Dev to lock his seatbelt in place. He went around the truck to the driver’s side and climbed in to a long, sinus-filled snore from his passenger.

So many things were wrong with what Dev had just said. Shit was getting harder to ignore where his buddy was concerned, specifically his growing fixation on crystal meth. Keyes had only tried it a couple of times. He didn’t like the chaos it created in his head when his body sped up that way, nor did he like the way it wrecked him when he came down. He also didn’t like the fire-breathing dragons his parents had become when coming off their highs. He never wanted to be like that. Dev, on the other hand, struggled to stay away—the drug had fucked up everything for his friend when they were in their late teens and early twenties. Keyes prayed he wasn’t using again.