“That woman never has liked you.”
She shook herself a little, remembering. “None of this matters. It’s blood money. I don’t want it. I’m not going to fight her. She can have it all.”
Tyler sidled up behind her. She felt the cold, hard steel of the weapon in the small of her back. She didn’t flinch. Tyler responded poorly to shows of weakness.
“Have we all been wrong, Aubrey?” he whispered in her ear. “Did you kill him?” The gun traced small circles on her spine. “You can tell me. It’s official now, he’s dead and gone in the eyes of the courts, and you were acquitted. The cops won’t be knocking on your door.”
Aubrey turned around slowly, felt the muzzle trace around her ribs until it was pointing straight into her abdomen.
“You of all people know I didn’t kill him, Tyler. And he has to be dead because Josh would never, ever put me through this hell.”
Tyler used the gun to tease the bottom of her shirt up, revealing the hard flesh of her stomach. She met his eyes. Dared him.
“I loved him more than my own life. Part of me died with him. Killing him would have been like killing myself. Now put that stupid gun away before you accidentally blow off your cock.”
He coughed out a laugh, gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans, grabbed the cup of tea and sat down at the table. He picked up the saltshaker, unscrewed the top, and poured the contents on the wood. Pictures emerged from the tip of his finger, outlines: an engorged penis, a heart, a big question mark.
Aubrey brought her tea to the table and sat opposite her foster brother.
“I have a little bit of cash. It’s not much. But if it will help get you on your feet, it’s yours. I’m sorry I didn’t know you got out. I would have been there.”
The words were insincere but had the placating effect she was going for.
“I’m clean, though I’m sure you don’t believe me. They had a program, in jail.”
“You’ve been through programs before.”
“It’s different this time.” He went quiet. “Maybe a hundred or so. Just until I can find some work. I’ll pay you back.”
She knew work to Tyler meant something illegal. What was she going to do, tell him to get a straight job? Tyler had lived in the recesses of society his whole life. She didn’t blame him for being who he was: an addict, struggling along like the rest of the world.
She blamed his mother, a whore with a crack habit; his father, a businessman who’d slipped down to Donelson Pike one afternoon and made a deposit, then disappeared forever; and the dealer-slash-pimp who kept his mother’s legs spread and mouth occupied to line his coffers. Tyler had spent the first three years of his life in malnourished squalor until a local cop found him next to his mother’s lifeless body.
His freedom was traded for a series of well-meaning foster parents.
Just like hers.
She rose from the table and went for her purse. Enabler she would be if it meant getting him the hell out of the house. She got it out of her wallet and handed it to him silently. He took the money without meeting her eye, used the edges to turn the salt into pretend lines of coke. She noticed Tyler’s hands shaking and knew without a doubt he was too newly clean. The money would go straight into his arm. Sadness overwhelmed her.
Tyler never had a chance. At least Josh had pulled her from the ashes before she went down the same road.
Why wasn’t he leaving?
“It’s all I’ve got, Tyler.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He didn’t move, so she stood, arms crossed, and waited. God, she just wanted to lie down. Her head had started pounding again; her stomach was roiling.
“You’ve always been good to me, Aubrey.”
“Good grief, Tyler. Did you find God in prison or something? Get. Scat. Leave. I have stuff to do.”
He smiled at her, a flash of childhood, their adventures, their fears, their moments of innocence. His gold necklace caught the light from the kitchen window. He’d had it as long as she’d known him. It would be easy to pawn, to get some money to put in his arm, but he held on to it like a lifeline.
“I didn’t find God, Aubrey. But I am straight.” He squared his shoulders. “I’ve always been honest with you. I told you from the beginning Hamilton was no good.”
Here we go.
“Tyler, he’s gone. Doing the ‘I told you so’ dance won’t change things.”
“I’m not kidding around, Aubrey. I heard some shit while I was in.”
Aubrey burst out laughing. “About Josh? My Josh? He was training to be a doctor, Tyler, not a criminal. We left that element up to your side of the family.”
Tyler pushed back from the table so hard the chair tipped over onto the floor and Winston jumped.
“It never ends with you, does it?”