Growing Up and Other Tall Tales

Chapter 47

"Capo." Sandy's voice barely peek a head over the sound of my knuckles colliding in quick, rapid successions against the sandbag. I don't look up because I don't hear. But then, I definitely hear the gunshots.

"Missy, what the fuck." I swivel around to inspect the wall

"You weren't paying attention to me." she says as Sandy carefully removes the pistol from her hand

"That's his job." I jerk my chin at Sandy

"What are you doing?" she asks ignoring me and looking pointedly between at the sandbag and my bruised knuckles

"Trying to find a healthy outlet for my issues." I shrug before landing another blow into the middle of the sandbag for good measure. My fist pierces a hole in it and sand starts raining from the opposite end. I stare at it. "I've not found one yet."

"I thought that only happened in movies." Sandy gapes at me

Missy blinks. "Might I suggest day drinking and staring at the wall?"

"Because that's less self-destructive." Sandy mutters

I tug on a hoodie and sit at the edge of the couch as Missy slides a folder across the table.

"Again?" I ask flipping the file open

A young Korean man smiles playfully at me through the mug shots. He couldn't be more than twenty five and he couldn't be more of a fucking headache in a headache of a day. The last thing I want is another raid.

"Come on. It's routine." Missy shrugs. "Let's nip this at the bud."

"Healthy outlets." Sandy inputs helpfully

He's right, I think gloomily, after all; a man's head is more satisfying to punch a hole through than a bag full of sand.

------------------

If I hadn't looked up at that second I would've missed Aiden sneaking into the restaurant. He looks around and then ducks into the crowd.

"Could you give me a second?" I break into Liam's monologue and force upon a tight smile when he stops talking in mid-sentence with his mouth half open

"Right. Bathroom break?" he laughs

"Sure," I crush the tissue I was holding and drop it close to my plate.

I head towards the washrooms my eyes searching for Aiden's figure and his height usually doesn't do him any favors in blending in with the crowd but somehow my quick sweep of the disturbingly large amount of people milling about the sinks and the washrooms do not pick upon his face.

That is until—

"Oof," and a hand is clamped over my mouth and another is wrapped around my waist tugging me to a side. I elbow and struggle when the voice that is incessantly hissing in my ear register,

"Will you stop—fucking ow, Donovan,"

Punching him one more time in the gut, I whirl around angrily,

"Then maybe there are better ways of saying hi to people,"

He winces a little massaging his torso and through squinted eyes he stare at me for a few seconds before sighing,

"Sorry,"

"Who are you hiding from?"

"Sorry?"

I place my hands on my hips and raise my eyebrows at him. He raises his in turn and I'm almost immediately inclined to believe him when my eyes catch the quick movement of his thumb brushing past his knuckles and I just know. He's lying to me.

But before I open my mouth—