The kid’s eyes eventually lifted back up to mine, and any fool could have seen the innocence that they held as a layer of tears coated them. He rubbed his lips in worry before eventually clearing his throat to speak.
“I’m a fifteen-year-old boy that is being brought up by his sister, sir. She struggles. She needed money. I got drunk and walked the streets to try and find a way to get some to her quick. When I saw all the bikes gone, I…” he paused and, bold asshit, pushed himself off the wall to take a step closer to me. “I made a mistake, Mr. Tucker. I know you don’t do second chances as a rule, but I won’t let this happen again… if you just let me go…”
And that’s when it hit me. Here I was, a man who was staring at the world for the first time in so many years, looking for it to give him a second chance himself, and this wannabe was telling me I couldn’t even hand that shit out myself.
I stared at him for some time before my mouth opened and yelled out without any thought of the consequences what-so-fucking-ever.
“Harry, grab the keys to the van. We’re going for a drive.”
Jedd was staring at me now, waiting for an explanation as I held his gaze. Eventually folding my arms, just like his, I let one hand rise up to the end of my chin and rubbed my scruff as though in thought. “I took him home.”
“No consequences?” someone shouted from behind me. I couldn’t be bothered to look around and take them in.
“Not tonight.”
“You’ve got that look on your face, Drew.” Jedd’s chin lowered even farther and his eyes narrowed. “What do you mean not tonight?”
“I mean that things are going to be run a little differently around here from now on and it’s about time all the questions stopped.” I paused, holding his glare as if to challenge him before I spoke again. “In the morning, I’m going to need all the information you can find on a Tate Michael Hanagan. I want to know about his family, his parents and most importantly, his sister.”
“His sister?” Jedd asked quietly. “She got a name?”
“Yeah, she did.” I closed my eyes briefly before opening them and letting my mouth curl up on one side. “Ayda Hanagan.”
Chapter Seven
Ayda
“You have to talk to me sometime, Ayda.”
No, I didn’t. I made that clear by slamming the cereal in front of Tate with a pointed look. I was late for work, but by some grace, I’d managed to pick up a double to cover the hours I’d lost at the Roller Freeze.
I’m not sure you could call what I’d done sleeping. I’d been in my bed, it had been dark, and I’d forced my eyes to close, but the majority of that time had been spent thinking about how we were going to get ourselves out from under the magnifying glass my idiot brother had put us under.
DrewfuckingTucker.
I might as well have signed a death warrant talking to him the way I had. The longer I thought about it, the more I felt numb and the more I blamed myself. I don’t know what I was thinking, telling Tate what happened with my job. I should have known he’d want to help in some way. It was just unfortunate that thesome waycame in the form of breaking and entering along with attempted theft.
“Just tell me something, Tate. Why? How on God’s green Earth could you have thought that stealing from those thugs would have helped a goddamn thing? You could have gotyourself killed. You could have got both of us killed.” I folded my arms, leaning back against the counter as I watched him push the quickly softening flakes around his bowl.
“I was desperate.”
“Enough to get yourself killed?”
“Ayda…”
“No. Answer the question.”
“But—”
“I honestly thought that you were a smart guy, T. I thought, damn, I’m lucky. He’s smart, he’s sweet and kind. At least I was blessed with that. Then you go and pull this shit. Do you realize how disappointed I am in you right now?”
For the first time in my life, I heard my brother growl in contention. Dropping his spoon, he slapped his palms on the surface of the breakfast table and looked over at me. Pain radiated from his eyes. I knew I wasn’t going to like what I heard next.
“I don’t give a fuck, Ayda. You’re what matters to me and you’re fucking miserable. You work between sixteen and twenty hours a day, every day, for peanuts and we’re barely scraping by. You don’t have friends anymore. You don’t ever do anything for yourself. You can’t even come to the games on Friday nights, and when was the last time you got laid?”
I recoiled as though I’d been slapped, and in reality, I had been. He hadn’t raised a hand, but his words had done more than a right hook ever could have. I didn’t have an answer for what he’d just said to me, and I knew that if I tried to find one, I’d just end up regretting what I said. So I did the only thing I could. I raised my hands in exasperation and left the room, not giving him a chance to add to the insult.
Grabbing my things, I left the house and slammed thefront door closed behind me. Looking out over the sprawling lawn to the house across the street, I planted my hands on my hips and let my head fall back on my shoulders. The fluffy white clouds were sprinkled with the myriad of colors the rising sun offered. Just a few short years ago, I would have seen a sight like this and been in awe of this world that was so much bigger than me, but now… Now, all I saw was another shitty day of my shittier life starting and I hated it. Tate was right. I wasn’t living, but if he thought for even a second that I was going to let him suffer for things out of our control, he had another thing coming.
