Until one night at a school football game, Rian stood next to me in line for snacks and offered to buy my Coke. It was that simple. He was just suddenly there. You’re Daley Halloran, right? Let me buy your food. I told him no, that’s okay, but he did it anyway, and then he asked me what teachers I had, and the conversation flowed so naturally I forgot we were in public until Megan ran over and demanded an introduction.
We were friends after that. He was a senior and I was a sophomore, but it wasn’t that weird. Most guys kept their distance from me since they all knew who my father was, but Rian never seemed to care. I wonder now if that’s why he sought me out back then. If that’s why he bought my soda and made me his friend, so he could tell himself he wasn’t afraid of the clans and the mobs and the crews any more than he was afraid of his shitty life and his asshole buddies or anything else.
“Why did you end up joining my dad?”
I glance at him, and if the question bothers him, he doesn’t show it.
“Same reason everyone else does. There’s not much opportunity in Delco these days. It was either join the clan or work for minimum wage. I chose the clans.” He shrugs when he reaches the doors of the next building. People stream around us like we’re stones in a river.
“You used to say you’d rather flip burgers than kill people. Do you still feel that way?”
He shakes his head slowly. “My views on burgers and death have evolved over the years.”
“I’m sure they have.” I stare into his eyes hoping to catch a spark of his old self again, of that boy who stood next to me in the stands of the football game and made jokes about a social studies teacher we both had, but it’s gone now, buried beneath nearly a decade of hardship and pain. “I’m going in.”
He doesn’t follow me inside. It’s a relief, but it doesn’t last. I get a big salad and a bottle of water to go, and he’s right beside me again when I head back to the office to eat my lunch at my desk.
We don’t talk this time. He seems distracted and on edge. I wonder if it’s what I said to him—if he’s questioning the decisions that led him here.
I hope he does. I hope he questions a lot of the things he did back then.
I don’t know him anymore. I have to keep reminding myself of that. There’s an eight-year gap between the last time I saw him and today. Even if he seems the same on the surface, I know there’s a lot more going on down beneath. It simmers, angry. There’s pain in him, that’s obvious. Pain and rage.
I step up to the curb, lost in thought, remembering old football games and parties with Megan, smiling a little bit at some of the jokes she used to make, and trying to ignore the stab of anger that jolts through me as I find it harder and harder to recall everything we went through, as it all begins to fade year after year, and I take a step forward into the street, the cross-now sound up ahead chirping into the street.
I look left, take a step forward, and that’s when I see the black SUV barreling toward me, engine growling like a demon.
Chapter 5
Rian
I grab her arm as the SUV comes barreling toward the intersection. She’s the first person in the street, and that fucking thing’s not slowing down. She turns back in surprise as I yank her back toward me, dragging her into my chest.
The SUV blows through the light, kicking up dirt. A couple of other pedestrians curse as the thing speeds away and makes the next left, still not slowing down.
It would have killed her. No doubt in my mind. It didn’t slow and it didn’t try to swerve. If I hadn’t pulled her back, she’d be a pile of broken bones and oozing blood right now, a shattered corpse on the street.
She stands there, breathing hard, heart racing. I can feel it against my chest, and a sudden spike of possessive desire runs through my body. Those bastards, they tried to kill her in broad daylight, tried to run her over on her goddamn lunch break. It was inches away, so close I could smell the exhaust. I bend down to look into her eyes, holding on to her shoulders.
“Are you okay?”
She stares back at me, blinking rapidly, trying to process. The irony of this isn’t lost on me. How it’s always cars with the two of us.
“I’m fine. They just blew through that light.”
“I know. Nearly ran you over in the process.” I stare at her intently. “Did you see who was driving?”