Page 138 of Fish out of Water
I did it because I couldn’t handle letting my grief run free.
I didn’t box myself in.
It was the pain I packaged. Keeping it confined to a single space I could tolerate it.
“Hey.” Julia’s voice was soft as she came down the stairs, using a towel to blot the water out of her wet hair. “I figured this was where you went when you were upset.”
I kept my conversations with women to stocks and technology. I told myself it was so they wouldn’t find out I was secretly the kind of man who hid in my basement building Legos and playing games.
But that wasn’t why. Not really.
“I am upset.” I didn’t like to talk about how I felt because the pain of my father’s death was on a chain I knew could break at any time.
Julia reached the bottom of the steps and continued coming my way. She stopped right in front of me. “Were you really the one who shot that guy?”
I didn’t want to tell her the truth.
But she deserved it.
“Yes.” I held back the rest, but only for a second. “And I’d do it again.”
Her eyes stayed on my face. “What happens now?”
“That’s up to you.” It made me sick to my stomach.
I’d been hiding what and who I was for so long, and now that it was out there I felt both relieved and miserable.
Julia knew all of me. Every bit.
The nerd.
The man I became after my father died.
The man I had to be to help my mother when he was gone.
Now she had to decide if I was something she wanted in her life.
“How is that up to me?” Julia lowered to the sofa. “I don’t have anything to do with what they do with your uncle.” She huffed out a breath as she slumped back against the couch. “I know he was just trying to save his own ass after screwing those guys over, but I haven’t been able to figure out what he was doing with them in the first place.”
“You’d laugh if it wasn’t so fucking stupid.” I might have laughed if I wasn’t caught up in the middle of it. “He was trying to scam the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.”
Julia frowned at me. “What?”
“It’s what the fish tails were for.” I eased down onto the couch beside her. Julia immediately scooted closer, leaning into my side. “The Conservation Commission pays a bounty for each lionfish tail. Their plan was to claim the same tails over and over again.”
Julia stared at me a minute. “Doesn’t the Commission keep the tails when they pay the bounty?”
I leaned back, relaxing a little as she wiggled closer. “That’s exactly what they do.”
“So Vito couldn’t claim them more than once and he freaked out?” Her head dipped, tipping to rest on my shoulder.
“Vito couldn’t claim them, but he wanted to keep the money he’d talked the other men into ponying up to get the scam started.” I dropped my head against hers. “He figured I’d pay it out like I always did.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” The weight of her head increased.
“If I had, you wouldn’t have spent the night taped to a chair in a warehouse.” The anger simmering under my skin sparked back to life.
“But I also wouldn’t be here right now.” Her head tipped back and her eyes met mine. “With you.”
