Ty stood leaning against the Snake which was parked on the lookout off the mountain road that was a winding seven miles up from Tate Jackson’s house.
His eyes were on Carnal sitting below in the valley, lit up in the dark night, the flickering lights sending a hazy glow into the velvet of the midnight sky and the dark, near-black blue of the mountains.
He’d never, not once, spent time reflecting on his place of birth. It was what it was, as good a base as any.
With five years of very little to do but think; it was not lost on him that he’d spent a great deal of his life aimless, breathing, moving, earning and winning money to acquire things and partaking in all the * that caught his liking that was thrown his way. He fucked who he fucked when he felt like it, treated them well enough but when he was done, he always walked away and didn’t think about them. He was where he was when he was there doing whatever he was doing at the time.
He had no plan. He had no passion.
Tuku would be pissed.
And he had always been alone. It had never bothered him, he’d never thought of that either. Like everything else in his life, it was what it was.
But after today, experiencing the euphoria of a town released from subjugation and the righting of the wrong done to one of their own, he realized that when he felt he was at his most alone, he was not. He belonged to Carnal, they’d never turned their back on him, they’d just been powerless, less than Ty but powerless all the same. He’d simply been so absorbed in his shit storm, he didn’t recognize it.
And that day, Carnal had stopped becoming the place he’d been born and where he stayed just because he stayed. It became home and he realized it always was.
But amongst those who made their home there along with Ty, there were some who not only didn’t turn their back but did more.
And he heard the Harley pipes of one of them as the bike approached.
Tate rolled the bike to a halt six feet away, shut it down, threw his leg over and walked to Ty, stopping three feet away. Ty could see his eyes on him but he could also feel them.
“Brother, it’s nearly eleven; why the fuck do you want to meet me up here alone? Where’s Lexie?”
“My wife is passed out and she ain’t gonna move for about ten hours,” Ty replied low and quiet. “Maybe twelve. She doesn’t even know I’m gone.”
Ty watched Tate grin slowly as he accurately deduced the meaning of Ty’s words.
Ty didn’t grin. He looked around his friend to the town.
Reading the mood, Tate fell silent for some time, shifting his body, turning his eyes to the town then he spoke softly, “Asked Laurie to marry me, right here.”
“Good spot for that,” Ty said to the view.
“Her last birthday, I brought her up here last thing just like that night,” Tate went on then, “Asked her to marry me on her birthday, decided last year this was where she’d end every one of them from now on.”
Ty didn’t respond. Tate being a romantic was surprising but not that surprising. He was married to a good-looking, kind-hearted woman. You didn’t win that kind of woman and keep her as happy as Laurie obviously was without treating her right.
Tate fell silent for another length of time and when he was done with silence, he turned back to face Ty and started, “Ty –”
Ty cut him off by slicing his eyes to him.
“Years ago, you weren’t ready to give up. I was buried under shit, couldn’t see my way clear of it. So deep under, couldn’t even hear you. Even if I could, I wouldn’t listen. My power was stripped; I was pissed, in pain and both made me stupid.” He held Tate’s eyes and whispered, “Shoulda listened.”
Tate shook his head. “Don’t go there, brother, you’re free, look forward and rejoice, do not look back and despair.”
“That isn’t what this is about, Tate. I feel no pain. Not anymore. That doesn’t mean the journey wasn’t torture but it led me to Lexie so I can live with that. What I need you to get is that you were right, I was wrong and you deserve to know that.”
“You don’t have to tell me this, Ty,” Tate said softly.
“Yes, I do, Tate,” Ty replied softly.
“Okay, then, you do,” Tate returned. “But, you will remember, I was in that pit of snakes and I shoulda done something about that years ago. I didn’t and you went down.”
“You hold no responsibility for what happened to me.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“Brother, you had a son you needed to look after and pain in the ass * who was making your life a misery,” Ty reminded him. “You had things you needed to see to and they were priorities. When you got out, they’d never done anything as bad as they did to me. You couldn’t foresee how bad it would get. But you tried to deal with it then and I pulled you back. That is what this is about.”
Tate fell silent.