VEGASPETE🔞+KILL FOR YOU

Chepter 7

PETE POV

After picking up some beer and food from our local store, I head back home desperate for warmth. I’ve nearly lost all feeling in my fingers. When I walk in, Jake and Tommy are in the kitchen talking, so I ignore them as I start to put stuff away in the cabinets.

“You’ve been gone over an hour,” Jake says.

Typical statement from Jake. I’m always out too long, on the phone too long, basically everything I do is wrong and he’s always suspicious. It’s fucking suffocating.

“Well, it was busy. I got back as soon as I could.” I move to put the beers and milk in the fridge.

“Shay is back. He’s resting so don't bother him. We need him better as soon as possible. You listening?” Jake says.

“Yeah, that's great he’s home.”

Tommy scoffs. “No thanks to you.”

He walks out of the apartment, and I silently pray he gets hit by a car. I think the mere fact that I exist annoys Tommy. How we’ve all lived together this long and haven’t killed each other yet is beyond my comprehension.

Moving around the kitchen, there is an uneasy shift in the air. Jake’s watching me. The familiar sensation of acid rises up my throat. I have to get away. Being on my own with him is torture.

I swiftly finish up and hurry down the corridor to my room. My room is next door to Shay’s, so I quickly look over my shoulder–no sign of Jake–and softly knock on Shay’s door before pushing down the handle.

Shay looks up from where he’s lying in bed. The bruises on his face are starting to turn yellow and green, and his eyes are slightly swollen. He winces as he tries to move himself up the bed, so I rest my hands on his arms to stop him.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” I whisper.

“Sore, but I'll be okay.”

A beat of awkward silence stretches between us. I don't know what to say.

“Why did you follow me, Pete? It wasn’t safe. We could have been killed.”

“Because I was curious about what you were doing, and we never go on deals without backup. I thought you may need it. Which you did. Why were you there Shay? Did you know you were on Santini turf?”

He turns his head, purposefully not looking me in the eye, which gives me the answer that he did know. I sigh.

“What's Jake doing, Shay? Why were you there? I’m part of this group too, and deserve to know what’s happening.”

“Look, just keep your nose out of it Pete. It's safer that way. I don’t have a choice but you do. Be smart for once and just fucking run.”

Shay looks so tired. I always thought he was good looking with his dark hair, hazel eyes, and typical Irish fair skin along with the temper to match. But he looks older than his thirty years, too young to have witnessed and experienced so much that his body is weathered by the toll it's taken.

He’s at the end of his tolerance. Shay is an okay guy, which has me wondering what Jake holds over him to keep him here, and to make him do his risky bidding. It doesn't sit right with me.