Jackson drops a fry down on my face before carrying his food back to his seat.
“Patel, does your father treat you like this?” I ask her.
“I assure you, I would never be so intimate with my father,” she says.
SEVENTEEN
LELAND
We walk through the front door and into the house after picking Waylon up while I try my hardest to pretend that I don’t notice Waylon staring at me like I might have become the host for some alien.
“I’m… I’m concerned,” Waylon says.
My eyes snap over to him. “Did something happen? Do you think someone is watching you?”
His eyebrows scrunch up. “No. It’s just… we walked by The Fence, and you didn’t even look at it. Have you ever walked by that chunk of wood and not stared at it?”
“Ah. It’s because The Fence is so beautiful, it hurts my eyes to gaze at it for too long. I already hit my quota of what my eyes can withstand today.”
“Ha, funny.”
“What’s wrong?” Jackson asks me.
“I honestly don’t know what to do,” I say as I gaze at Waylon. “Are we putting him in more danger? Is he safe enough with us?”
Waylon freezes and I regret saying it.
Jackson tries to wave Waylon’s worry away. “Waylon, don’t… Leland is just saying that we’re afraid we’re dragging you intodanger. Like what if something happens to you because of us, like what happened with Cam?”
That seems to do nothing to calm Waylon down. “What about Sophia? Even when she tried to have a normal life, her past came back to haunt her,” he says. “If I went and lived with… normal people and someone came after me… what do you think would happen? You know I can’t fight well, and any family you put me with isn’t going to be like you two. I don’t want to leave.”
“Neither of us are saying that.” Jackson looks over at me for help, but I don’t know how to help any part of this situation, so I decide standing frozen in time is the best choice. I know I brought it up, but I also have no interest in dealing with it.
“I’m not leaving,” Waylon insists, sounding really upset, and now I’m over here feeling bad that I made him feel that way. “I’d rather get abducted like Cam than leave! I’ll do all of Leland’s training. I promise. I’ll try really hard at it. I don’t want to go somewhere else.”
“Waylon, we never said we were getting rid of you or even that wewantto find you a new home. We’re just worried about you because we care about you,” Jackson says.
I lean against the wall as I stare at him. “In the past, I never really knew how to care about people. And now, I realize that loving someone is the scariest fucking thing out there because it comes with this horrible fear of losing them. I can’t lose you… but I also can’t let someone else take you. However, if you stay with us, you have to realize this life is fucking risky. We told you in the car about us getting attacked again. And Sophia getting attacked… things are risky right now.”
“I don’t care,” he says stubbornly.
“Okay. Jackson and I are flying to deal with this Barlow guy. While we’re gone, you’re going to be staying in one of my safe houses and watching the dogs.”
Waylon looks on edge, even though I thought he’d be relieved about this. “Why can’t I go with you?”
“Why can’t you fly across the country and come help us deal with a man who is notorious for having his own army of contract killers? That one?” I ask, as if I’ve heard wrong.
He seems determined and not at all dissuaded by my sarcasm. “Yes.”
“You’re supposed to be the smart one in the family,” I say. “How disappointing.”
His eyes narrow. “I can be of use. I… can make that drug again. If you take it and just like… throw it into their home, you wouldn’t even have to fight them or be put in danger.”
“No,” Jackson states. “We’re not taking somethingyouhave created and killing people with it.”
Waylon looks put off by this. “It’s not like I’m the one killing them! It’d keep you safe!”
“We have to fly, so we couldn’t take it even if we wanted to,” I say, putting an end to that.
