Free Stories Beneath Our Skin by Veronica Sloane

whose fault is that?" It was deceptively mild, but Liam read the bitterness beneath it.
    " I don't--" He started then stopped dead. Ace watched him with a raised eyebrow. "It's old scars. I don't like picking at them."
    " Yet, you have to go see them."
    " Gene is the good part." Liam let out a long breath, unaware he'd been holding it. "And he's dying. So forgive me if I don't want to spill my life story to you. I just want to go see him and enjoy the stupidly small amount of time he has left."
    " Shit." Ace got to his feet. "Sorry to hear that, really I am."
    " Not as sorry as I am."
    " Why don't you tell me about him then? On the way there." Ace stroked a hand over George's head then scooped up his keys. "If he's the good part."
    " I don't know if I can tell the good without the bad."
    " Don't know if you've noticed, Professor, but my life isn't always roses and beer in the sunshine." Ace shrugged. "I think I can take it."
    Of course Ace could take it. To him it would just be words. A story without any of the feeling that went along with it. It was Liam who thought the telling of it might twist salted knives into old wounds. Cuts he liked to think were long healed but still opened up bleeding at odd moments.
    It was stupid really. It would be just as fast to drop Ace off at his car and then swing by St. Francis. Liam could tell him nothing or just an anecdote or something and that would probably satisfy him. Maybe Ace was asking out of some weird obligation or strained concern about an employee. Ace rescued lost kittens and released spiders back into the wild, after all. He liked to save things. Liam had no interest in being saved. He'd done that on his own, years ago.
    Yet as they got back in the car, Ace adjusted his seat so he could put his feet up on the dash like he 'd ridden beside Liam a dozen times. There was something about the casual line of his body and the silent attention he offered up that twisted Liam's throat open. Despite his misgivings, he started to talk.
    " Gene is sort of my uncle. He was married to my aunt anyway. They watched me a lot when I was little. My parents were away all the time, running the family business. Which was supposedly textiles."
    " Supposedly?" Ace prodded when Liam went quiet again.
    " That's what it said on their tax forms." He slotted the key into the ignition. "They had offices with nameplates on their doors. I used to think that was the coolest thing when I was little."
    " My mom bought me a nameplate when I opened the shop." Ace titled his head against the window. "Looked weird though. Out of place. Think it's hidden in the backroom somewhere. So what were they like, your parents?"
    " When they were around," Liam started the car, half-hoping the engine would drown him out, "they didn't get along. Not with me, or each other. There were fights that woke the neighbors, you know? Gene, he would pick me up in the middle of the night sometimes. One of the neighbors used to call him, I think, when it got loud. He'd take me back to my aunt's place, and we'd watch old movies until I could fall asleep."
    " And your aunt?"
    " She'd let us do our thing. Never seemed interested one way or another. She wasn't home either, most of the time. Part of the family business."
    " That sounds more and more ominous every time you say it." Ace frowned. "What was it really?"
    " Long-term cons. Took them years sometimes to get the money, but they were good. Patient."
    " What, like Ocean's 11 ?" Ace asked.
    " No," Liam snorted, "nothing like that. It's not... romantic or cool or James Bond at all. They took people's pensions, their nest eggs and savings accounts, promised them things or played on their weaknesses. Once the first charges were laid, people kept coming out of the woodwork. Twenty-two counts of fraud. They all got thirty years. Mom might get out early for good behavior, but Dad keeps getting in fights. My aunt died a few years back. Cancer."
    " Jesus!" Ace's eyes widened. "And you were how