The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [132]
“V, man, why me? Why you boys letting me hang in here?”
V leaned forward and took a hand-rolled off the little stack he’d made next to his couch. His gold lighter made a hiss before it spit flame.
The Brother stared straight ahead as he exhaled, his profile getting obscured by the smoke.
Which was the same color as the TV, Butch thought randomly. Blue-gray.
“You want to leave us, cop?”
Well, wasn’t that a good goddamned question. The call from his sister had reminded him this couldn’t last; this odd interlude with the Brotherhood couldn’t be his whole life.
But where did that leave him? And them? He knew all about the Brothers. Where they lived, what the rhythms of their nights and days were. Who their women were, if they had one.
The very fact they existed.
“Didn’t answer my question, V. Why’m I here?”
“You’re supposed to be with us.”
“According to who?”
V shrugged and took another drag. “According to me.”
“That’s what Rhage said. You going to tell me the why of it?”
“You’re in my dreams, cop. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”
Okay, that was hardly reassuring. He’d heard the moaning sound track to whatever V conjured up when he was asleep. Not exactly the kind of thing that made a guy optimistic about his future.
Butch took another deep one from his glass. “And if I want to leave? What happens then? I mean, my memories are long-term by now, so you can’t scrub me. Right?”
The flicker of the TV played over the hard lines of Vishous’s face.
“You want to look at me, V?” When that profile didn’t turn, Butch cupped his glass and sat up. “Tell me something, if I leave, which one of you is supposed to kill me?”
V put his fingers on the bridge of his nose. Closed his eyes. “Damn it, Butch.”
“You, right? You’ll do it.” Butch drained his glass. Stared into the bottom of it. Refocused on his roommate. “You know, it would help if you’d look at me.”
V’s ice white eyes flashed across the way. And they glowed with regret.
“It would really kill you, wouldn’t it?” Butch murmured. “Putting me in the ground.”
“It would absolutely kill me.” Vishous cleared his throat. “You’re my friend.”
“So what’s it going to cost me?”
V frowned. “Cost you?”
“To go to my sister’s kid’s baptism.” Butch cracked a smile. “A foot? No, an arm. An arm and a leg?”
Vishous shook his head. “Shit, cop. That isn’t funny.”
“Ah, come on. It’s a little funny.”
V laughed in a burst. “You’re sick, you know that?”
“Yeah, I do.” Butch put his glass back down on the floor. “Look, V, I’m not going anywhere. Not in a disappearing way. Not right now. I’ve got nothing out there waiting for me, and I never fit in all that well anyhow. I am going to go up to Boston at the crack of dawn Sunday morning, however. I’ll be back Sunday night. You got a problem with that, well, tough.”
V blew out some more smoke. “I would miss you.”
“Don’t be a sap. I’ll be away twelve hours.” When V looked down, Butch grew serious. “Unless . . . we have a problem?”
After a long while V walked over to where all his computer shit was. Picked something off the desk.
Butch caught what was thrown at him.
Keys. To the Escalade.
“Drive safe, cop.” V smiled a little. “Don’t say hi to the family for me.”
Butch laughed. “That’s not going to be a problem.”
Now it was V’s turn to get good and grim. “If you’re not back by Sunday night, I’m coming after you. And not to bring you back, true?”
Butch realized in the silence that followed that this was a fish or cut bait moment. He was in the Brotherhood’s world for good. Or he was fertilizer.
He nodded once. “I’ll be back. Don’t you worry about that.”
This was taken out of Lover Enshrined. Originally it was where Phury and Cormia see each other when he comes back from his rescue efforts during the sack of Havers’s clinic. What it grew into, however,