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“That ‘being there’ thing works both ways, handsome”

“I feel like shit because I feel like shit” His breath was high octane, but he wasn’t slurring,the bottle Maybe it had been an all-day event and he wasn’t really as inebriated as he seemed

“What are you talking about?” I pulled the bottle out of his hand and ran old silk

“He wanted to kill Dovie He was in Novak’s pocket He cheated on ht He washeartless He deserved to die, I was going to let Bax kill him if it came to thatbut now” His head fell forward on his neck and I saw his shoulder hitch up and then drop “I feel terrible”

I rubbed the back of his neck and tried to get some of the tension out “He was your dad Of course you feel terrible It doesn’t matter hoful he was, he was still your father You’re allowed to be sad about it, but what you aren’t allowed to do is try and take responsibility for it”

His head shot up and he looked aton his lap He put his hands on my waist and lifted both of his eyebrows up at me

“What do you mean?”

“It isn’t your fault your dad turned on Novak’s guys to make a deal to save his own skin and it so isn’t your fault that Novak has one Your dad ended up where he did because of his choices, not because of anything you did”

He grunted and cli he didn’t stuer at all, I really doubted he was as drunk as I first thought

“I know that, I just needed ait out loud for it to sink in” He headed to the foldout bed and tossed me in the center of it with far less finesse than he had been showingto coet ht This is the kind of stuff that has no place there”

Since he was standing at the edge of the bed loo-sleeved T-shirt and started to work it up over his always i his abs flex and contract when I trailed es