BLOODY WEDDING, PART I #3
Bas clicks his tongue. I’m not sure if it’s because he hates it when I use ‘pretty boy’ as a nickname for him or because he disagrees with my vehement answer.
Probably both, though I’m leaning more toward the latter when he sighs and says, “Haven and Loni were best friends. Don’t you think she’d want to know that Loni’s back? ”
“Haven is finally sleeping through most nights. She finally eats without me bargaining for her to take every bite. She finally moves around this house without looking like she’s plotting another escape.
So no, Bas. I’m not walking upstairs and telling my wife that the girl she grieved for a decade is back in Harmony Heights and getting married to Desmond fucking St. James. ”
Bas doesn’t flinch.
See? And that’s why he’s allowed in my house. Because he can hear the madness in my voice and still look me in the eye without letting me know he thinks I’ve lost it. I’m sure he does think that, but he’s good enough not to show it.
Finally, he exhales roughly. “She’ll find out.”
I’m sure she will. “Maybe, but it won’t be today.”
“If Adrian pulls this off, he’ll probably want her and Loni to reconnect eventually.”
And? “Adrian wants a lot of things.”
“So do you, Con.”
I smile.
Bas sighs. “Don’t do that, bro.”
“Do what?”
“Smile like you’re one inconvenience away from committing another murder. Jack’s bad enough. Dallas and me are running out of places to bury the bodies for his old man. Don’t you start, too.”
I shrug and, whoops, suddenly my pocketknife is in my hand. I toss it from one palm to the next. “I’ll try, Bas, but maybe it’s better if you stop bringing me inconveniences.”
He thinks about that for a second. “Just thought you should know.”
“I appreciate it.”
Bas raises his eyebrows at me. “You sound like you don’t.”
“I appreciate you telling me. Gotta say, pal, I don’t really appreciate the information.”
“Trust me. I’m not too keen on it, either.”
Ain’t that the truth? “Look. I want this to work out for Adrian. If he needs any help—”
“He knows where to find you.”
Exactly.
I think I surprised Bas. Sure, I’ve been keeping my nose out of Order biz lately, but that’s because my focus and attention is on Haven. I’m married, though, not dead. And in order to abandon one of my boys when they need me… I’d have to be dead first.
Once he’s finished his coffee, then decides he’ll choke down some toast before he gets back on his bike, I walk Bas out. I lock the door behind him, check the security feed out of habit, then stand in the hall for longer than necessary, all while thinking.
I should go upstairs. I should tell Haven something. Maybe not everything, but something. Loni is back. Loni is alive. Loni is within reach for the first time in years… and she’s about to be tied to Desmond St. James or Adrian Heller, neither of which will make Haven happy to hear.
No. I can’t do that. Especially when I don’t know how Loni’s story is going to end… I can’t do that to my wife.
So I go upstairs, knock once on our bedroom door, and when Haven opens it with suspicion in her grey eyes, I smile like the selfish bastard I am.
“Bas says ‘hi’,” I say, and that’s all I say.
Her gaze narrows because she knows there’s way more to it than that. At the very least, I was down there with him for a while. I’m totally hiding something.
Luckily for me, I know just what to do. I kiss her before she can ask anything else, knowing that it’ll distract her from asking me any questions—and it does.
Now I just have to figure out how to keep her from wondering what’s going on…
That fateful Tuesday, Bas calls me after dark.
I’m in the basement with Haven when my phone rings.
Not because she has to stay down there anymore.
She doesn’t. The door at the top of the stairs hasn’t been locked in months, except the few times she locked it herself just to prove she could.
We’re down here because she asked to watch a movie on the leather couch for old times’ sake, then spent half of it tucked against my side, pretending she wasn’t sleepy.
When Bas’s name flashes across the screen, I feel Haven shift beside me. She reaches for the remote, pausing the movie, and I only hope to hell that she doesn’t overhear anything I don’t want her to.
I answer. “What’s up? I’m watching a movie with my wife. She’s right here. Say ‘hi’, sweetheart.”
Haven gives my phone a finger wave.
“She says ‘hi’,” I tell Bas. “What about you? Is everything okay?”
Bas hesitates. I’m sure he’s trying to figure out what he can say now that he knows Haven is right next to me. After a moment, he has it.
“Everything’s good,” he says. “Adrian handled it with his Tomcat before it got too far at the church. He’s got her with him now.”
Good.
If anyone in this fucked-up town understands what it means to lose the woman you’ve built your whole life around, it’s Adrian. The difference is that, when my chance came, I took Haven to my home, then kept her there until she had no choice but to stay.
If I’m understanding Bas right, Adrian had to shoot a man at the altar to get his girl—but he got her.
“So… uh, about what we were talking about the other day? You gonna do it now?”
I peek over at my wife. Haven is watching me curiously.
Shit.
“No,” I tell Bas.
Bas exhales over the line. “Connor.”
“No.”
“She’s going to find out.”
“I know.”
“And?”
I take Haven’s hand, kissing her knuckles.
Damn it. She deserves the truth. I know that. And I want to tell her. But… I can’t. Not now.
“Fine. I will,” I say.
Bas is quiet for a beat. “You sure?”
“Yes.”
Eventually.
Just… maybe we can finish the movie first.