A Memory Away by Taylor Lewis Page A

he had left Kyle, shaken and trembling on his front doorstep three nights before, flash red hot once more. He shoved unsteadily to his feet, fists bunching in reflex and barely spared Dex a glance when he got to his own feet with a muffled noise of alarm around his mouthful of toast. “You fucking knew and you didn’t tell me?”
Looking infuriatingly unmoved by the threatening behaviour, Lopez met him glare for glare and spat, “I found out the same night you did, you asshole. Like I’d ever fuck you over like that.” She shot a derisive glance at his still clenched fists. “And if this is how you reacted to the Twofer then no wonder his fag hag is calling me all the goddamned time demanding to know where you live so she can come cut off your balls and make you eat them.  Your baby-momma is too freaked out to leave the house since you saw him.”
As quick as the rush of furious adrenaline had erupted it faded and Jonah collapsed back onto his chair, looking even greyer than before. Dex hesitated before reaching for the pitcher of iced water in the middle of the table. He refilled Jonah’s glass and shoved it towards him. “Here. This is better for you than coffee.”
Jonah stared blankly at the glass and then grabbed it. He chugged the water back in a few harsh gulps and instantly regretted it when his stomach clenched and he nearly brought it up again in a compulsive heave.
Dex shoved his chair back out of range and Lopez pointed a warning finger. “Do not even think about it.” She watched Jonah gulp compulsively for control, completely without sympathy, and then refilled his glass to push it towards him again with an almost gentle, “Sip it. Slowly.
Jonah gulped some more and then reached out and picked up the glass again, taking hesitant sips and eyeing the water suspiciously as though braced for a sneak attack. After he’d finished half the glass he gingerly put it down and turned his dull eyes to Lopez, saying in a low rasp, “I didn’t hit him if that’s what the lying little fucker said. I shoved him around some, but that was it.”
Lopez looked annoyed and then resigned. “Of course you did.”
Looking pained, Dex rubbed a hand over his eyes and said reproachfully, “Jonah, impulse control. ”
“Well excuse me for not being Mr fucking Perfect,” snarled Jonah. “The guy’s only been lying to me from the moment we met and hiding my kid from me. We can’t all be Dex ‘Golden Balls’ Randall and bucking for sainthood, can we?”
“No, but we don’t all think primarily with what’s in our shorts either, Goldman.” Lopez’s voice cut like a whip across the steadily rising volume of his voice. “From pretty much the minute you met the guy you’ve been sleazing all over him and acting like a total skank. You didn’t remember who he was – “She held up a hand when Jonah opened his mouth in outraged protest, snapping, “Yeah, you got a good reason, but he didn’t know that, did he?” Jonah’s mouth closed with an almost painful clacking of his teeth. “And on top of all that when you do put two and two together you go postal on him and all but seriously assault the guy not fifty feet from where your kid is sleeping.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “He made a bad call, but you’re no genius here either, okay?”
Another uncomfortable silence fell – Dex’s eyes darting anxiously between Lopez and Jonah because he just hadn’t got the necessary mean gene to get into it with Jonah like Lopez did. He hated it when there was a situation with confrontation needed. Jonah looked away and down at the floor. “So you figured it all out, huh? You know when it happened?”
“Yeah,” Lopez let her body relax a little when it seemed all the anger had left Jonah for the moment and said, “I put two and two together when we saw the kid at the shop and had Lee check the kid’s birth date for me.” She held up a hand when Jonah looked up with a scowl and said, “He doesn’t know why and