“I told Isiah I had changed my mind. I didn’t want to do the interview anymore. So how do you know what happened to them has anything to do with me?” Tangerine said.
“Because the people at my boy’s job heard him say the fella you was fucking was a two-faced son of a bitch. Then him and his husband end up dead with their brains all over the sidewalk,” Buddy Lee said. Tangerine flinched at the vitriol in Buddy Lee’s words.
“I told them it was dangerous. I told them, but Derek was mad and Isiah was determined. They didn’t understand what they were dealing with at all. That’s not my fault. If you think I wanted them to die you can take me up on my first offer and get the fuck out of here,” Tangerine said. Ike jumped into the fray.
“Look, all we want from you is the name of the guy you were seeing. Who is he? We’ll take care of the rest,” he said.
“I’m not telling you that. I shouldn’t have told Derek and Isiah. I should have just let it go when he broke things off. His life is complicated. I knew that when I met him. Look, I was drunk and I was venting at the party. I was all up in my feelings. That was a mistake,” Tangerine said.
“Telling Derek about your boyfriend?” Ike said.
“Yeah. That too,” Tangerine said. Ike could see the resemblance to her mother, but she had more in common with the boy in the pictures.
“If you don’t want to tell us, tell the cops,” Buddy Lee said. Ike turned and faced him. He couldn’t have been more shocked if Buddy Lee had grown a second head on his shoulder.
“I want to find the people who did this and I don’t care how it gets done. If you don’t want to tell us, tell the fucking cops,” Buddy Lee said.
“I’m sorry but I can’t be a part of this,” Tangerine said.
“A part of this? You are this. It’s all about you. You killed my son and his … husband, but all you care about is saving your own ass,” Ike said.
“Listen, babyboy, I don’t know if you noticed, but the only person who cares about my ass is me. Don’t come in here laying your bag at my feet. You hollering about how much you care about your dead gay sons because you treated them like shit when they were alive,” Tangerine said. She pushed a lock of hair out of her face. Ike shot up off the couch. His fists were clenched tight.
“You don’t know shit about me and my son,” Ike said.
“Oh, I don’t? I bet you tell people how much you loved him, but you only loved parts of him. Not all of him. Not everything. Now you want me to risk my life to make you feel better about yourselves. That ain’t my job, booboo,” Tangerine said. Ike took a step toward her. She looked up at him and smiled.
“I know you. I’ve always known men like you. You strut around like Billy Badass, but you lie to people about your son and his ‘roommate,’” Tangerine said as she made the sign for air quotes. Ike felt his fists unfurl. The accuracy of her statement made his head hurt. It was like she had been peeping in his window for the last ten years.
“We know we ain’t shit. You ain’t gotta tell us. We do enough of that to ourselves every day. But that don’t mean our boys should rot in the ground while your boyfriend gets to skip all across God’s green earth because you’re too chickenshit to come forward. I know you know he’s looking for you. He got some badass biker boys trying to hunt you down. He wants them to take the top of your head off. Now if we found you, how long you think it’s gonna take before they do, too? You come with us and you tell the cops, they can protect you,” Buddy Lee said.
“No, they can’t. Everything that’s going on, it’s not him. He’s tied into a situation that he can’t control. The people he answers to are the ones behind this. Rich-ass wannabe movers and shakers who control everyone and everything in their orbit. He’s as much a victim in all this as—”
“If you say Isiah and Derek, we are going to have a fucking problem,” Ike said. Tangerine licked her lips.
“He once told me they wanted him to be a lion and a lion doesn’t feel guilty for eating a sheep. They’ve abused him all his life and they don’t care how broken he is. You have no idea what kind of shit you’re dealing with,” Tangerine said. Her hazel eyes seemed to glow.
“You don’t really believe that horseshit, do you? He is trying to kill your ass and mount it on his wall,” Buddy Lee said.
“I’m telling you, you don’t know him. You don’t know what he’s going through. This is way bigger than you think,” Tangerine said.