“So that’s it in a nutshell, Al. Trent’s dead, and I’m going to need you to be a pallbearer,” Wil explained over the phone as I put on my robe, stepped out of my bedroom, and shut the door behind me.
If he’d called two minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have answered the phone, because Cassie and I had finally reconciled after our latest fight. After two days of ass-kissing and pleading for her not to go back to work, I’d just been taken off of pussy punishment, and I was making the best of it by leaving my wife naked, thirsty, and thoroughly satisfied. I headed downstairs to get a bottle of wine.
“Whatever you need, you know I’m there for you.” I tried my best to comfort him. Wil had always been one of those guys who guarded his feelings, and since he and Trent didn’t really get along, I couldn’t tell how he felt about his brother’s death. I just knew it couldn’t be good to find out your little brother had died. He was going to need support from all of his friends.
“You speak to Kyle?” I asked.
“No, not yet. Me and him still aren’t seeing eye to eye on Jay’s escape. I think he’s a little pissed off.” Wil sounded more emotional about his disagreement with Kyle than he did his brother’s death.
“You should call him. You know he’d want to be there for you. Don’t let this thing with Jay tear us apart any more than it has, Wil.”
“Yeah, I know. You’re right. I’ll give him a call.” Wil sighed. “Speaking of Jay, you heard anything about his whereabouts?”
“Nah, just what I read online. They did up the reward on him from thirty grand to fifty, and they think he’s headed to Texas to confront that g—” I stopped in my tracks as I entered the kitchen. “What the fuck!”
“You all right, Al?” Wil asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I almost dropped a bottle of wine. Let me call you back.” I hung up the phone without waiting for his response. I didn’t want to lie to Wil, but I also didn’t feel I had a choice when our other best friend, the fugitive, was sitting at my kitchen table, shushing me with a finger over his lips.
“Hey, Al, long time no see.” He looked different with a bald head and twenty pounds of muscle, but there was no mistaking that the voice belonged to Jay Crawford. “Hope you don’t mind, I made myself something to eat.” Jay lifted a sandwich he’d half devoured.
I was speechless for a minute. All I could do was stare at him with my mouth hanging open.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed. “You’ve got half the cops in New York and the U.S. Marshals looking for you.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.” He placed the sandwich back on the plate, wiping his hands on his pants leg as he stood up and took a step toward me. When he was close enough, we did what came natural: We hugged, tight and firm.
“I missed you so much, Al,” he said, his voice cracking and his eyes filling up with tears. I have to admit I felt my eyes getting misty too.
We broke the hug, standing two feet apart and staring at one another, until he wiped away his tears and said, “I need your help. I really need your help.”
“Sure, sure,” I replied. At that moment, I was so emotional he could have asked me to rob a bank and I would have done it.
“Thanks.” He sounded relieved, and I saw some of the tension in his face relax.
Then, as if our emotional moment had never happened, he walked back over to the kitchen table and sat down in front of his meal again, taking an enormous bite. “This corned beef is the bomb. Where’d you get it from? Katz’s Deli?”
“Yeah, my wife picks it up every Saturday when she teaches yoga in the city,” I said, strangely reassured to be making small talk instead of dealing with the elephant in the room.
He reached over and picked up the Corona next to his plate. Two long swigs later, he belched, announcing, “Damn, that was good. You don’t mind making a beer run before we go to bed, do you?” Yep, he was starting to sound like the old Jay.
“What do you mean we? You planning on spending the night?”
“Yeah, didn’t you hear me before? I need your help, Al. Help, like in a place to stay tonight.”
I’d heard him now, loud and clearer than I really wanted to. He was asking me to jeopardize my own freedom to protect his. I thought he just needed a hot meal and some cash, but evidently he was expecting to stay. The look on my face must have said it all.
“Look, I’m not trying to jam you up, dawg. I just need a place to crash for a couple of days until I can make some arrangements.”
“I don’t know, Jay. You’re putting me in a really bad position. I got a wife to think about. I help you and we could go to jail.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I had another choice, Al,” he pleaded.
“He’s right, Allen.” Cassie’s voice startled both of us. She appeared in the doorway with her sexy-ass silhouette. The small amount of light was hitting her waist and all her curves. I was thankful she was wearing a teddy, because she had a habit of walking around naked most of the time. Given the way Jay was ogling her, he probably would have lost his mind if she’d been wearing less. After all, he’d been locked up with only dudes for the last ten years.
I was about to say something about the way his eyes were locked on her breasts, but Cassie stepped in and defused the situation.
“Hi. I’m Cassie. Allen’s wife.” She walked toward me with a seductive stride and pressed her body up against mine. “And why are you two standing here in the dark?” She turned on the light switch, and Jay almost fell backward over his chair. It was one thing to see Cassie half-naked in the shadows, but to truly appreciate her, you had to see her in the light.
“She’s your wife?” Jay exclaimed. The look of disbelief on his face was overwhelming. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, I know, Jay. That’s one of the reasons I married her,” I said with annoyance, interrupting God only knows what filthy fantasy was occupying Jay’s mind. Dude was my friend and everything, but he had a damn tent in his sweatpants at the moment, and part of me wanted to kick the shit out of him for thinking about my wife that way.
“So I take it you’re Jay Crawford? I’ve heard so much about you.” Cassie stepped from behind me and offered Jay her hand.
“All good I hope,” he said, staring into her eyes.
Cassie smiled and just stood there, allowing her hand to rest in Jay’s. “Good enough that he considers you family. And where I come from, we take care of family, no matter what.” She turned back to me and said, “Babe, if he’s got nowhere to go, I think he should stay with us.”