On second thought, she’d gone through the trouble of putting on makeup, her hair long and loose instead of in a ponytail. Well, she hadn’t gotten out much. Making friends would do her good.
Charlotte kissed Lucky, Ty, and Bo on the cheeks. “I shouldn’t be too late.” She dashed out the door like hell hounds nipped at her ankles—or a mean-assed Chihuahua.
“I’ll take Moose for a walk.” Bo kissed Lucky’s other cheek and called, “C’mon, Moose.”
Ty rose from the table and tried to creep from the room. Oh, no. Not so fast. “Ty, stay and help me.” Wow, Lucky hadn’t meant for his suggestion to crack like a whip.
Deer caught in the headlights didn’t look as scared as Ty. “Why?”
Why, indeed. “One day you’ll need to know this stuff.”
Ty scrunched his nose, lips twisted. “No, I won’t. I’ll get married and my wife will do the cooking and cleaning.”
Bo shouted from the living room, “Good luck with that.” The door clicked shut behind him.
Lucky threw down the dishcloth he’d been holding and turned on Ty. “Is there anything you want to tell me?” He’d just gotten to the point where Ty spoke to him without growling. But like hell would he let his nephew go down the same road he’d been when he’d fucked his life up so badly he’d only recently gotten on an even keel again.
“No.” Ty busied himself stacking dishes on the table. At least he intended to do his share of the work.
Lucky pulled the pills out of his pocket. “What are these?”
Ty glanced back over his shoulder and froze, then narrowed his eyes. “Where did you get those?” He didn’t try to lie and say,“I have no idea.”Good thing, or a bad thing?
“From the bottle that fell out of your backpack.”
Ty said nothing.
Oh fuck. Why didn’t Ty simply deny everything? His silence came far too close to an admission. Lucky could deal with drugs being in the world and the people who abused them, made a career out of dealing with them. But not in his own home. He clenched his jaw to keep his voice even. “I’m waiting.”
Ty glared hot enough to melt lead. “They’re nothing, okay? Just something to help me study. All the kids at school take them.”
Chills ran down Lucky’s body. “Where did you get them?”
Ty stared at the floor. “From somebody at school.”
“Do you know what they are?” Lucky didn’t really need an answer. First thing tomorrow he’d have the pills tested.
“ADHD drugs. They help you focus.” So cocky, so bold.
Like Lucky at sixteen. “Why do you take them?” Ty never showed the slightest symptoms of any attention deficit disorder.
Ty snorted. “Have you seen my grades? Classes here are different from back ho… in Spokane. If I didn’t take them, I’d be kicked off the team.”
Wow! How the hell was Lucky supposed to handle a full confession? Well, the unlikely worked so far. He’d try reason. “Whatever they are, there’s no markings.” He held out the pill. “Manufacturers always stamp something on the tablets. When you get a prescription, the label says what’s on the pill.” Maybe a demonstration would be in order. Fumbling around in the kitchen cabinet, Lucky found a blister packet of cold medicine. He popped the tablet from the pack and handed it over with one of the pills he’d gotten from Ty. “See the difference?”
Ty stared at Lucky’s hand for a long moment, then picked up the two pills and held them close to his nose. He said nothing when he returned them.
“Whatever these are”—Lucky lifted the unstamped pill— “they probably aren’t what you think they are.”
In a move so like Bo in stubborn mode, Ty lifted his chin, defiance in his eyes. “What are you gonna do?”
What, indeed? Lucky faced kids like this on a regular basis, who took something they thought harmless and wound up in over their heads. How many meth addicts started out with something they believed innocuous? “First, I’m going to have these pills analyzed. Then, I’m going to talk to whoever you got them from.”
The color drained from Ty’s face. “You can’t do that! You want the guys on the team to hate me?” He slapped a hand over his mouth.
Too late. Guys on the team? “Tyler, there’s no telling what’s in these pills. They could have no active ingredient, or too much. They could kill you.” Case after case came over Lucky’s desk in the past few years, athletes taking performance enhancing drugs and winding up dying.
The young always thought the horrors shown on the news every single night of the week couldn’t happen to them.
