“You’re not meeting a quality woman in a bar while you’re getting shitfaced drunk. Hasn’t your father taught you that?” he asked.
He stopped him.
“He’s not my father. He’s my sperm donor. We both know that.”
That was neither here nor there.
Right now, Timothy had ninety-nine problems, and for once, Wyler wasn’t one of them.
FINALLY.
“She was a nice lady. She’s a teacher.”
He didn’t care.
Really.
“That’s great. Ethan’s coming home.”
Callen paused, the cup of coffee halfway to his mouth, and he stared at the old Native man.
“Pardon?”
Timothy was to the point.
“I was feeling off this morning, so I went into the smoke. I saw it. Ethan’s about to come home, and he’s not going back. We have to stop that.”
Callen stared.
“Uh, I’m good with him coming back. I’d like a chance to work on my relationship with my brother.”
Timothy yanked him by the hair.
“HEY!”
He pointed.
“If you want to meet the woman you’ll marry, you’re going to help me get him to leave here again. This is all a house of cards, built on the Ace of Spades. He’s the ace, and if he doesn’t leave here, and continue on the path he’s supposed to be on, that jacks up your future, too. Both of your happiness is tied to one moment in time, where Ethan meets the Raven.”
Uh-oh.
Callen didn’t like that.
“So my happiness is contingent on getting my brother to leave the reservation again?”
Timothy nodded.
“This place is toxic to him. Unless he heals all of those traumas, and finds himself again, being here will eat away at him until he takes his life.”
That made Callen sick.
“What?”
“He cannot stay here, Callen James. I love him so much, but in this case, we have to do what is best for him. When he comes back, you have to be the one who talks him into leaving again. If I do it, he’ll tell me to fuck off and mind my business.”
Oh, Jesus.
This all sounded bad. Ethan didn’t like to be told to do anything, and Callen wasn’t on his list of favorite people. They had a rough relationship as it was.
