Chapter 28
28
Grayson Hawk
I’m sitting in the corner of Ruby’s with three empty beer bottles on the table before me and a fourth I hide. There’s a heavy cloud hanging over us all as we remember the screams and cries of our last call that ended our earlier shift.
Drinking before ten in the morning in a bar that isn’t even open to the public yet is a bad sign. Coop knew without asking that we all needed this.
Choir practice, the support of the men that stood side by side while watching a mother grieve the loss of not only her husband but her only child.
Hayes and Hollywood sit across from me. Coop is sitting on a barstool behind the bar, Brax and Atta sitting opposite him. Fed, the crazy bastard is laying on his back on the pool table and Myles, he’s face down on the table next to me, after way too many shots.
“I can’t get the sound of her crying out of my head,” Coop says through the silence of the bar, each one of us reliving the horrific night. “Me neither,” I confess.
“Five minutes,” Hayes says.
“Even three,” Hollywood mumbles and we all know what they mean without asking.
It’s the amount of time that would have made a world of difference. We could have saved them had we arrived a few minutes earlier. A woman wouldn’t have been a widow and she wouldn’t feel like her entire world has ended knowing she won’t be holding her little girl anymore. No more little giggles in the night.
“You’re gonna have to give Joey and Axel a call,” Fed grumbles from the opposite side of the bar. “They may have to scrape the eight of us up off the floor before they open this place later.”
“Call was made on the way over here,” Coop assures us. “They’ve been warned.” It wouldn’t be the first time they cleaned up our messes and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
“Did you call Skye?” I look up at Hayes and shake my head. “Not a good time.” I didn’t want her seeing me like this. “I’ll explain later.” Or maybe I won’t. “She’s working anyway.”
The hours tick by. We’d gone through all the stages. Grief, anger, acceptance, and now we’ve rolled right into incoherence. Singing along with the radio, boxing while standing on top of the bar or even the pool table. Probably not the best choice considering most of us could barely stand on two feet without swaying.
“Who wants to see me do a backflip?” On a normal day I could do it hands down. “Off the pool table,” I add with a satisfied nod.
“Don’t even think about it.” I spin around to find Joey, Coops’ brother standing in the doorway of the now open door. “It’s time to wrap it up, boys.”
“Buzzkill,” one of the guys complains, followed by several other vulgar comments.
“Wagon is waiting by the curb to take you all home.” He motions for the front door. “Get the hell out of here so I can get this place presentable again.”
Glancing around the entire room sways but I can see enough to know he’s right. The place was a wreck. Empty glasses and bottles, tipped over stools, and wrappers on the floor.
One by one we are shuffled outside and loaded into the van. We’d worry about our cars later, we all needed to sleep off the haze.
I wake up on the living room floor of my apartment. I didn’t even remove my boots when I stumbled inside and crawled a few feet before giving up. The floor felt cool against my overheated face.
My stomach rolls and my head throbs. I lift it up to look around. It is dark out and I groan thinking I’d completely blown the entire night.
Rolling onto my back, I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. Waking it I see a missed call and voicemail from Skye and a text from Scarlett.
“I talked to Scarlett and she told me what happened. I’m here if you want to talk, and I understand if you just want to be left alone. I just wanted you to know that I’m thinking of you. I do that a lot.” I imagine her smiling when she admits that. “So anyway, like I said, I’m here if you need anything at all, just yell or come over.”
The call is ended and I read Scarlett’s message saying basically the same general thing that Skye said.
There was a second message from Dad telling me to call him tomorrow and I figured he’s seen the news too. The little girl and her father’s picture had been all over the news all day and it’s part of what continued to fuel our need to drink away the pain at the bar.
Sitting up, I place my elbows on my knees and breathe through the dizzy spell. Closing my eyes I try my best to make the room stop spinning. When I feel like I can move without losing the little food I’ve consumed I crawl to the couch and use it to help get some leverage to lift my body off the floor.
I’d managed to drink away the memories of last shift, but in doing so I feel like complete shit now. Finding my way to the kitchen I dump out the Tylenol onto the counter and hold my head under the faucet to get a drink.
A knock on the door has me growling, knowing I’ll be forced to walk across the entire apartment once again just to answer it. It seems so far away.
Dragging myself toward the door I flip the lock and pull it open only to find Gia on the opposite side.
“Hey stranger.” She leans against the frame, pushing her breasts up in the barely there shirt. “It’s been awhile.”
My stomach starts to coil and the bile starts to rise. I should have gone to bed without answering the damn door. Or at least used the fucking peephole first.
“Still playing house with your neighbor?”
“What do you want?” I can barely get the words out, feeling my mouth water. Trying to outdrink Coop was a mistake, a huge, massive mistake.
“You need to—” Quickly I cover my mouth and turn, jogging toward the bathroom. I barely made it before heaving.
“Wow,” I hear Gia grumble from behind me before getting a washcloth and wetting it. “Poor guy.” When she attempts to wipe my mouth like some caring girlfriend I grab the rag.
Standing, I wobble on my feet and grab the mouthwash on the sink, lifting it to slosh some around in my mouth.
Spitting into the sink I repeat it once more then chase it with water.
Turning to face her, she is waiting just outside the bathroom door. “You might want to think about taking that off.” Pointing at my shirt I look down.
A huge wet spot is in the center making it stick to my chest.
I lift, pull it over my head and toss it in the hamper.
“Like I was trying to say earlier, you need to go.”
“Don’t pretend you aren’t happy to see me.” She licks her lower lip and looks over me from head to toe. “I figured by now you’d be bored of playing house.”
Bracing myself on the bathroom sink, letting my body relax forward, I feel my stomach tighten once again with the threat of more.
Without warning Gia comes forward and presses her lips to the corner of my mouth. Quickly I jerk away holding up my hand.
“What the hell?” Pissed I glare at her. “Get out!”
“Come on, Gray.” She attempts to reach out for me and I push her hand away.
“Go!” I’d never hit a woman, but I was raging. My patience was slipping faster and faster the longer we stand there.
My face must have said it all because Gia steps back and turns around walking toward my front door, where I see Skye waiting. Any amount of strength I’d had left disappears as my entire body feels weakened by the sadness in her eyes.