Cody chuckled, smiling slowly. “And I’m the cocky one?”
The mood shifted as his oldest friend sat forward to fully face him. “So, what are you doing with your life, Ryder?”
A gust of disquiet blew through him. The two baggies he had left in his front pocket burned like an admission of guilt. Before he’d met up with Cody, he’d gotten rid of enough to appease Dare, but that appeasing had left him covered in a sticky slick of contempt.
“What is this? Some kind of intervention?” Ryder tossed it out light. A joke.
Cody laughed, but there wasn’t anything playful about it. “Nah, man, just want to make sure you’re good. I want you to know that I’m always here, no matter what is going on in your life. What you’re going through or dealing with.”
No doubt, Cody hadn’t been blind to the deviance Ryder had devolved into.
“I appreciate it, man, but I’m all good. And I hope you know the same stands for you.”
“I know you’ve always got my back. Just…” He let his attention wander over the crowd before he returned his focus to Ryder. “Be careful out there, yeah? Take care of yourself. Don’t want to have to hunt some shady motherfucker down for messing with my best friend.”
He tacked a tease on the last.
“Don’t you know I’m the shady motherfucker?” Ryder grinned, all teeth.
Cody cracked up. “Hell yeah, man. If I didn’t know you, I’d cross the street if I saw you coming. Why do you always look like you’re about to commit murder?”
“Now you’re just hurting my feelings.”
It felt good. Joking with Cody this way. Easy the way it used to be.
He could feel the change coming. The fact he hadn’t been high in two weeks was proof of that.
Ryder had come to realize there was no outrunning the shame. He couldn’t cover it or distort it, and he knew there was no fucking way to blot out the sound of his mother’s voice. He’d tried, but it didn’t work, and it might fucking destroy him to let himself feel the full force of it, the grief of losing her, but it was time.
The truth left agitation clamoring through his spirit.
Because it wasn’t like he could dust off his hands and walk away from the life he’d been living, but however it went down, he was going to find a way.
Cody drained his beer and slammed it down on the table. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to go take Luce up on her offer.”
“Ah, I see how it is, ditch me to get your dick wet.”
“Don’t blame a man. Have you seen her?” Cody pushed out of the booth, dug into his wallet, and tossed two twenties onto the table. “Do you want to join me? Her friends are usually game for a good time.”
Ryder polished off the last dregs of his whiskey. “Nah, man, think I’m going to call it.”
“Your loss.”
“I’m doing you a favor. Luce gets a closer look at me, and we know it’s your ass that’s going to be getting ditched.” He grinned as he slid out.
Chuckling, Cody leaned in and clapped him on the back, the teasing going nonexistent. “Fuckin’ missed you, brother. Thank fuck you’re coming through.”
Ryder clapped him back. “I’m right here, man.”
Ryder pushed out the swinging door and into the night. The sound of country music and the clatter of voices faded behind him as he crossed the lot and took the side street, heading in the direction of his duplex.
He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, enjoying the feel of the cool breeze on his face.
He’d walked since he was only a couple blocks over.
It was about eleven-thirty, and most of the town was sleeping, only a few intermittent cars passing by, a peace in the air as he took a turn at Elm. He was almost to Manchester when something drew his attention to a deserted parking lot.
The glare of red taillights where a car was parked beneath a big tree and hidden in the shadows. He didn’t know what it was, but a stir of energy cut through the tranquility.
Tossed it into chaos.
A feeling that beat like a drum in the middle of his chest.
And he guessed he wasn’t even all that surprised when the front passenger door suddenly burst open and Dakota stumbled out, barely able to catch her balance as she wheezed, clutching at the top of her dress that was ripped at one side.
“Stay away from me. I said no,” she gasped through the jagged words.
Ryder was already moving that way by the time the prick climbed out from the driver’s side, the slur of his words that he spat over the top of the car dumping acid into Ryder’s veins.