“I would’ve come with him if I’d known.” Remorse scored Jaden’s forehead with slashes. “It should’ve been me telling you, not—”
“Why are you really here?” Daniel cut in.
“I haven’t seen you in two years. I’ve been trying to track you down, which hasn’t been easy—”
“There’s no one I want to talk to and especially not someone from ManTech, which is exactly why I moved here,” Daniel said. Cuba was underdeveloped and poor. Food was scarce. It was hot as hell and there was no A/C in the shoebox of an apartment that Daniel had rented. He deserved Cuba.
“Like I said, I need your help.” Jaden didn’t have a clue any more.
“You said you needed a good man. You came to the wrong place, hombre.”
Jaden folded his arms over his chest and looked like he was waiting for a better response.
Daniel searched his friend’s expression for judgment but found none. That pissed him off even more.
He popped to his feet. “I don’t want any part of whatever it is you think you need me for.”
“I heard you.”
“Then what are you still doing here?” Daniel’s temper was escalating.
“Checking on my friend,” Jaden said.
“That bastard died along with his wife and child two years ago or have you forgotten what I said to you at the funeral?” Daniel retorted, pushing Jaden back a step.
Jaden tensed, and for a split-second Daniel thought his friend was about to fight back. He felt like a prick when he realized Jaden was tensing up to be able to take a punch.
But Daniel’s anger was relentless. “You came. You saw. Now leave.”
Silence sat between them like heavy pre-storm air.
“What have you been up to?” Jaden scanned the one-room apartment, no doubt looking for empty whisky bottles or beer cans. He wouldn’t find any. Numbing himself from the pain would be taking the easy way out. Daniel deserved to suffer.
“Quilting.”
“In a place this hot?” Jaden shot a questioning look.
“Plan to sell them online,” Daniel quipped.
Jaden walked around the one-room space. The place was a hole but what did Daniel care.
His friend walked over to the mini-fridge and then opened the door. All he would find was yogurt and a carton of milk. Daniel didn’t cook. When he was hungry he walked to the corner where Senora Bassave-Espellosa cooked from her small kitchen. Two knocks on the backdoor before opening the screen was all it took to get the finest Ropa Vieja in all of Havana. The best part was that no one ever asked questions.
“Why come here to live?” Jaden closed the fridge door.
“What’s wrong with this place?” Daniel feigned insult.
Jaden lifted an empty container and then dropped it on the floor. A roach scurried across the floor. “Nothing. Doesn’t answer my question.”
“Marlin fishing.” Daniel hadn’t been on the seas since he’d arrived six months ago.
“You’re a regular Hemingway.” Jaden slowly walked around the place. He picked up a pair of ripped jeans and tossed them toward Daniel. “This isn’t healthy. You gotta rejoin life, man.”
“What? Me? I’m living the dream here.” Daniel stretched out his arms. He was being a prick but his anger—anger at himself—was relentless. He didn’t deserve to be let off the hook for Ruthie’s and Naomi’s deaths. He should’ve been there to stop Nunez and those bastards.
Jaden’s brows creased and worry lines bracketed his mouth. “I’m being serious. What do you think about coming back to the states, taking the job?”
“I’d like to help you out but WiFi’s too unpredictable,” Daniel shot back.
“Who said this involved a computer?” It wasn’t hard to see that Daniel didn’t own one. Well, he did. But it was in storage in Dallas, gathering dust along with the rest of his possessions.
“I’m not leaving the island, so I figured you’d—”
“Might not hurt to get out of this apartment and make a little money on the side,” Jaden continued. “In case you wanted to buy a laptop or something.”
“What would I use it for?”
“Check your stock portfolio,” Jaden said.
“You don’t have the kind of work I want to do.” Daniel didn’t miss a beat.
“And what is that?”
“Barista at a coffee house.”
Jaden laughed despite his obvious somber mood.
“I like coffee,” Daniel defended.
“Really? Because you seem like a Coke drinker to me.” When Daniel didn’t shoot a comeback, Jaden continued. “A few weeks is all it would take. Maybe less. Might not hurt to dust off your boots and get some exercise.”
“I don’t do the jungle anymore. No more ants the size of my hand,” Daniel snapped. Thinking about work reminded him of things that woke him in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Hell, not thinking about work had the same effect.
“Good. I hate the jungle. I’m based in America now,” Jaden said.
“Well, that’s too bad. I gave up my citizenship when my country betrayed my family.” He didn’t bother to hide the venom in those words.
Jaden took a couple of slow laps around the cramped space.
“You trying to make me dizzy?” Daniel asked.
“Something like that,” Jaden’s voice was a study in calm.
“Why don’t you sit down?”
“On what?” Jaden gave a hard look at the sofa that was covered in clothes and boxes.
“That armchair not good enough for you?” Daniel cleared a box and made a production of wiping the material on the seat. Yeah, he was being a prick.
Jaden perched on the edge, clasped his hands together and rested his elbows on his knees. It was then that Daniel saw that his friend was holding something in his hand. A photo?
“Don’t people keep those on their phones now?” he quipped. A pang of guilt nailed him at being a jerk to his old buddy, especially since it was clear the guy’s heart was in the right place. Daniel just had so much anger at the ready and no one to take it out on.
But then, orphaned by age four and then passed around foster homes, Daniel was used to being alone. Naomi and
