Coming Home(90)

He heard her shift slightly, and he turned his head to look at her.

“Just tell me,” she said softly.

Danny nodded as he sat up slowly, turning toward her. “You asked me once why I kept pulling away from you. Why I said it was a problem that I had feelings for you.” He took a steadying breath. “It’s because there’s a good chance I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Where are you going?”

Fuck. Just say it.

He swallowed around the knot in his throat as his eyes met hers. “Prison.”

She sat completely still for a few seconds before she closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips into her temples. She looked more confused than upset, although Danny knew that was about to change.

“What did you do?” she said weakly.

Danny knotted his fingers together as he said, “I didn’t plan on it, Leah, and I didn’t mean to do it.”

She dropped her hands as she opened her eyes. “What did you do?” she repeated more firmly.

He took a deep breath before he said, “Bryan isn’t dead.”

Her eyes flew to his; there was fury behind them, and he held up his hand quickly. “I didn’t lie, Leah. He’s alive because machines do everything for him. Pump his heart, make him breathe, give him food. His body is alive, but he’s gone. He’s been gone for a year. There’s no brain activity. There’s nothing left. It’s just that Gram can’t let him go, because she’s still hoping. But he’s gone.”

Leah stared at him, her eyes softening slightly before she shook her head. “What does that have to do with you going to prison?”

Danny leaned forward, rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes. It physically hurt to say these words. He had known it would be hard, but he hadn’t expected physical pain. It felt like his chest was caving in.

“The night it happened, I was with him. We were hanging out at this bar in Manhattan, and Bryan kept ordering round after round of Alabama Slammers.” He smiled sadly before he said, “That was his shot. He’d always start the night off with one, but that night he just kept going. And I went right along with him.

“At some point during the night, these three guys came up to us. We had no clue who they were, but apparently they knew this girl that Bryan used to mess around with. So the one guy started with Bryan, talking about how he was gonna make Bryan sorry for f*cking his girl. The bartender was quick, though. The whole thing got broken up before it could come to blows, and the guys were asked to leave because they were the ones who instigated the whole thing.”

Danny rubbed his hand over his forehead before he said, “So they left, and we went about our business. We didn’t even think twice about it. Typical drunk *s at a bar. We’d seen it a million times. Hell, we’d been them a few times. Nothing out of the ordinary, you know?”

She nodded gently, and he said, “By the time the bar was closing, we were both pretty f*cked up, and I went to the bathroom—” He stopped suddenly, his jaw flexing in rapid succession as he rode out the sharp pain in his chest.

Danny cleared his throat. “I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, it was just chaos. And I knew. I just f*cking knew. Some people were moving toward it, and some were trying to move away, but after a few steps, I could see them over the tops of people’s heads—the same guys from earlier. I don’t know how they got back in. They must’ve known a bouncer or something, because it didn’t make any sense why no one was trying to break it up this time.” Danny shook his head. “And if I hadn’t gone to the bathroom, or if we hadn’t been so f*cking drunk…” His jaw tightened again as he felt rage and regret start to trickle through his veins, and it was a moment before he could speak again.