Page 63 of Kiss Kiss Bang
“Nothing. Let’s go.” He reached for her arm but she pulled it back.
“Tell me. What was that?”
“Don’t get loud, Liv. You don’t want to cause a scene.”
“Are you doing drugs? Like real drugs? Not just weed? Is it casual or all the time? Are—”
“She gonna be a problem?” Diego and Helm appeared by her side, trying to seem menacing but it didn’t matter because she felt brave and mad . . . and drunk and high. Not a good combination.
“This isn’t about you,” she said, pointing a finger at the two guys.
“Olivia,” Connor scolded her.
“Control your chick, Connor.”
“What the hell?” Olivia snapped. “I’m not anyone’s chick!”
“She’s fucked up. Ignore her. She’s not going to be a problem.” He took her by the elbow to pull her away, but she quickly reached into his back pocket and pulled out the little clear bag.
“Give me that!”
“I can’t fucking believe you’re doing drugs!” she said, holding the bag in her hand.
The three guys were staring at her as if she’d lost her damn mind and the way anger was rolling off of them caused her to take a step back. Everything went still for a moment, and then suddenly there was a commotion behind them.
By the time she’d turned her head around to look out the window, everyone was running out and someone was yelling “Cops!”
PRESENT
“I was arrested together with ten other people. Everyone else ran.”
“Was Connor arrested too?” Joey asked.
“Yeah, except that I was the one holding the bag of meth in my hand. He was charged with disorderly conduct and underage drinking. Diego, Colin, and Helm were charged with everything from possession and selling to corruption of minors.”
“Damn,” Joey said, listening intently. “But I checked your records. You don’t have anything. Not even a juvenile record.”
“You are one scary guy, Josef Clad,” she said, shaking her head. “They charged me with possession too, but Connor confessed it was him and I got a slap on the wrist for being drunk.”
“Glad to hear he wasn’t a complete douchebag.”
“We had a complicated relationship, Joey. I won’t say it wasn’t fucked up. Toxic even. But I loved him, and in his weird fucked up way, he loved me too. We were all we had. He wouldn’t hurt me. I know it’s not him. His brother, Colin . . . he would sell out his mother for a hit of drugs. But not Connor. It was supposed to be me and him against the world.”
“If he loved you, he wouldn’t have done any of that shit to you. And it’s been eighteen years, a lot has changed. He’s not the same person you once knew.”
“You don’t understand. You had a good life, a mother, sister, brothers who loved you. I didn’t have any of that. I had forgotten birthdays and Christmases where Connor saved for a week to get me a stupid headband when we were ten and that was the only thing I got that year.”
Joey didn’t seem to care—or if he did, he didn’t agree—so she continued. “Anyway, he did a month in juvie and that was basically the beginning of the end. When he got out, I thought he’d see the error of his ways. See what kind of life he was headed for. But it did the opposite. He started using more and more. He’d stop speaking to me when I’d question him. And every time he had a moment of sobriety he’d come to me and tell me, “You and me against the world, Liv girl.” And then I’d feel hopeful for a while again. One evening, while I was in bed studying, I heard the sound of sirens and when I looked out the window there were four police cars pulling him out of his house in handcuffs. Before ducking into the car, he looked at my window. It was the night of his eighteenth birthday. We always spent our birthdays together, and I had been so worried because I hadn’t seen him for the last week.”
Joey turned on his phone and swiped something, then turned his screen around. Apparently Jax had done a search on Connor, and Joey had his priors on his phone. “That was what? Eighteen years ago?” Joey said, mostly to himself. “Grand theft auto.”
“Yep. He was supposed to serve seven months. I tried to visit him but he was so strung out. Didn’t give a shit about me or himself. Told me to leave him alone, said he didn’t want to see me again.”
“Is that why you left New York?”
“Yep. I was so heartbroken. I went home to no one. The only person I cared about didn’t want me around. I was in no position to help him, so I packed my things, bought a bus ticket, and came to Miami. I had every intention of sending him money or going back to help him, but when I looked him up, he’d been moved to another prison for another crime and that was how it went for years. So I moved on. Neil made me move on. He told me to stop following that ghost and he was right. I couldn’t let that drag me down, so I stopped checking in on him and I just . . . moved on. Last I heard he was serving thirty years for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.”
“But instead he’s out of prison and living in Ocala,” Joey said matter-of-factly.
