As You Were

8. Hell Couldn't Taste Any Sweeter

She survived. It had been a few days since I had fought off the murderer and the news was happily reporting that the woman who was to be his next victim had survived. That surprised me, I thought surely I had watched her slip away in my arms, but to hear that she was going to be okay gave me joy. That was something I was in desperate need of. But it got even better than that. Because she had lived she was able to provide the police with a sketch of the man. It was dark, and because of that I knew she couldn't be sure of what she saw, but looking at him as the drawing popped up on the screen I thought it was accurate of what I had seen too.

"I guess that makes you a hero." Dahlia flipped off the TV from behind me.

"What does any of that have to do with me?" I hadn't told anybody about what happened, figuring Dahlia would have my hide for getting involved in something that serious. Now I was starting to think that she had been baiting me all along when she came over and said she had something to show me.

"I don't think you got that in a bar fight, babe." She pointed to the spot on my arm wrapped in bandages. "You saved a life, there is nothing wrong with that." Her words were comforting but I still did not acknowledge them.

"Maybe they'll finally catch him." Getting up from the couch I turned around to face her.

"Maybe, but it's a big city and there are a lot of places for criminals to hide out." She smiled, clearly trying to be funny. I didn't find this particular subject laughable.

"Anyways thanks for showing me that, I'm happy to know she's alright." The way I said it was a clear dismissal. I wanted her to leave so that I could go back to bed until it was time to work. That was my life now. Sleep, work, sleep, work. I didn't do anything besides that because there was nothing else that I wanted to do. The hollowness that I felt inside had long since consumed me, and the only time I did anything other than those two things was when Evie wanted me. I still had to maintain that relationship.

"Good, but that's actually not the only reason I'm here." Dahlia grinned, taunting me, and moved by me so that she could sit down now.

"Then why are you here?" I sat back down too, begrudging her for staying and not letting me return to my depressed slumber.

"We need to talk about Conley."

"Do we have to?" I rolled my eyes.

"This is serious. He's still been sniffing around like always but I wasn't going to bother you with it. Then he came into my bar last night and started asking questions." She hesitated, trying to determine how best to proceed. "Questions about Jax."

"What kind of questions?" I bolted upright.

"I don't know if it's anything you need to really concern yourself with, but he's trying to find him."

"How does that not concern me, and what do you mean he's trying to find him?" Neither of the things she said made sense.

"He doesn't know who he is, all he knows is that he saw the two of you together. That interests him. He described him to me in perfect detail and asked if I knew who he was, I told him no, obviously. But I figure you haven't even seen him in," Dahlia made a face as she tried to determine, "a while, so he should be safe. Even if Conley does find him he won't get in any trouble because he doesn't know anything. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be safe, though."

"What the hell am I supposed to do about it?" My frustration came out even though I was trying to stop it. It had nothing to do with her, just that again everything seemed to go back to him. Even my crime.