A Place to Belong

Jace didn’t want to join the crowd of fools.

“So how about a few beers between a couple of former old sinners?” Donny asked, shooting Jace a crooked grin. “Jesus drank wine, you know.”

“Jesus could handle it. I can’t.”

“Aw, come on now, pal. You weren’t an alkie.”

“Don’t want to be either. Look, Donny, let’s get real here. I haven’t seen you in nearly fifteen years. What are you not telling me?”

Donny prowled around the living room, glanced out windows, ran his hands over the backs of chairs, his eyes shifting from side to side as if looking for a place to land. His fidgety behavior elevated Jace’s suspicions.

“All right, Jacey boy, here’s the straight of it. Looks like you’ve made a good life in this burg. I figured I’d come down and see what you had working.”

Jace snorted. “Me. That’s what I have working. Dawn to dark, six days a week in the busy season. I restore historic buildings.”

Donny stopped prowling. His shifty gaze focused on Jace. “For real? You’re a builder? No side businesses?”

“None.”

The admission must have caught him off guard. Donny grew quiet for a few seconds before the toothy grin stretched wide.

“Okay, I get it now. Ha-ha. I’ve gone straight, too. Living for Jesus, doing right.” With a light laugh, he tapped his chest. “What could be more perfect? You’re a builder and I’m in real estate investments. No one knows what we’ve been through but us. We can help each other, Jacey old pal.”

Jace was listening, wanting to believe Donny had changed, but wary. Donny said all the right things, but the tone wasn’t quite sincere. He couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that Donny was trying to con him. He felt a little ashamed about that, considering they shared a similar past.

“Are you clean?”

Donny fell back, mouth lax, expression hurt. He shoved at his sleeves. “Want to check? Want to see my arms?”

The needle had never been Donny’s drug of choice but Jace didn’t say so. Instead, he shook his head, the sense of shame deepening. Why couldn’t he trust that Donny had changed his destructive ways? Jace had. Why was he so reluctant to believe that someone else could do the same? “Forget it.”

“Hey, no problemo. I was a bad apple. Like you. Two peas in a pod, so to speak. But we’ve changed, buddy boy. We’ve changed.”

Lord, he hoped so for both their sakes. On the rough streets where he’d grown up boys as young as ten were already using. If not for a good mother who’d begged him to be careful, he’d probably have been a junkie. He’d been bad enough as it was. And Donny knew it.

“I have a sweet deal going in a retirement community in Florida,” Donny was saying. “I stand to make money—big money, Jacey boy—and I’m willing to cut you in.” He gazed around for effect. “From the looks of this empty place, you could use the extra dough.”

Jace’s mouth twisted. Donny was still all about working a deal. “Who couldn’t?”

“You’re interested then? Good.”

He didn’t say that, but he figured to let Donny talk. Maybe he’d find out what was really going down.

Donny started to prowl again, as restless as a flea. He sniffed, swiped at his nose. “Here’s the deal. I sunk everything I had into a couple of investment properties. Then I sold one of them faster than I expected and all my money is still tied up in the other properties. Escrow accounts and all that Housing and Urban Development red tape.”

Jace tensed. Now they were getting down to the real reasons for Donny’s sudden reappearance in his life. “You came to me for money.”

“Buddy, pal, compadre. Listen. You are not hearing me.” Donny’s voice took on a placating tone as if he was talking to a whiny child. “I came to you because I figured who better to share the wealth? You know me. I know you. We can trust each other.”

Like a mouse trusts a tomcat.

“I’m just a little short on cash flow at the present, but the assets are there. I swear to you. On my brand-new Bible.” He held up his right hand as though to impress Jace with his sincerity. Jace was not impressed. “As soon as the property closes, I’ll be able to pay you back with interest. It’s a win-win situation, done all the time in my business.”

“Why didn’t you go to one of your business associates or to your banker?” Jace crossed his arms again and shook his head. “If you want help ask for it, but give me the facts, not a con.”

Donny turned his back and paced some more. Jace could practically see the wheels turning inside his head.

“You should get a couch. One of those long recliner things with the built in tables and cup holders. And a big screen.” He stopped, spun. “How do you live in this place without a big screen?” When Jace simply stared at him, he said,” This is no con. I swear on my mother.”

First the Bible and now his mother. Too much swearing to be true. “I’d like to believe you, but I don’t.”

Donny stopped his prowling and shoved both hands in his pockets. His shoulders slumped. “All right, look. Here’s the real skinny. The economy is killing the real estate business. I’ve been straight as an arrow for the last ten years, working day and night like you said. Honest. Clean as a new shirt. I swear it. Then the market goes south and I’m struggling. I don’t want to go back to that life, Jacey boy. You got to help me out.”

Jace suffered a tug of sympathy. He knew the fear of going back, because he lived with it daily. “I’m not rich.”

Most of his assets were tied up in this house and the twenty surrounding acres.

“Seeing you on television was like a sign. I’m thinking, go see Jace. He owes you one.” Donny stretched out his hands. “I was hoping you would invest in this deal. Just a little to get me going again. After everything that happened, it’s the least you can do. I saved your hide, Jacey boy. You’d have died right there if not for me. Torres had you down with no help in sight. No help but me. He was carving you up like a Christmas turkey.”

Jace shuddered at the vision of himself on the cold, wet concrete, someone standing on his bleeding hands and Torres with the homemade knife. The scars on his body throbbed.

“One more minute and he’d have cut your liver out and left you to bleed to death. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

Jace dragged a hand over his face. It did count for something. “Tell me again where you’ve been, what you’ve been doing.”

He listened attentively while Donny related his business dealings and his lifestyle among prosperous, law-abiding citizens. Jace wanted to believe he was telling the truth and yet Donny’s story seemed inflated to impress.

“You got a second chance at the good life, Jace. Don’t I deserve one, too?”

What could he say to that? Donny was right. God had blessed him with a second chance and the Lord was no respecter of persons.

“Come on, have a heart. Spot me a few lousy bucks until business picks up.”

Jace gnawed the inside of his cheek. He wasn’t about to hand any sizable cash to a man he hadn’t seen in years.

His conscience pricked. That stranger had saved his life.

“I can loan you a little. Maybe a couple of hundred.”

Donny’s mouth twisted. “Get real. A couple hundred won’t get me to Tulsa.”

Jace shifted against the rough lacquered brick, felt the hard pressure against his scarred back and remembered what Donny Babcock had done for him. “What do you want, Donny?”

“Well, let’s see now.” Donny roamed the living room again, looked out the undraped bay window. “I could use a place to stay. A few bucks. Just until this deal goes through. Then I’ll be out of your hair. I swear it.”

Realization slowly seeped through. Donny was down on his luck and searching for a soft place to land. There was probably no land deal, no money in escrow.

“You’re broke.”