“Twenty grand.” Jackson sounded angry now, his voice hard.
Travis let out a low whistle. “That’s what Iris said. Sue didn’t hit you up already, did she?”
“Nah. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of her. Trust me, shit would already be solved if I had.”
“Weird. She usually comes right to one of us.”
My chest constricted so much that I struggled to breathe as I tried to put the pieces together. I didn’t like the picture they made.
“I know,” Jackson said. “That plus the huge amount is freaking me out. Iris told you she was asking after the house, too?”
“Yeah. She must be in deep to someone.”
“That’s what I figure, which means she needs to take her mess as far away from here as possible. I’m trying to find her as fast as I can while keeping Iris safe.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from yelling at them that I could take care of myself.
“Safe? Is that what they’re calling it?” Travis asked, a smirk in his voice.
“It’s not like that.”
Travis laughed. “Isn’t it? ’Cause you’re eating her terrible cooking, and she’s been all starry-eyed over you since she was a teenager.”
I cringed, wondering if it was possible for this conversation to get any worse.
“Nothing you need to know about is happening between me and your sister.” Jackson said each word stiffly.
And there it was. Humiliation and betrayal swirled together inside me, creating a potent, angry mix that had me leaping to my feet and reaching for the door handle.
Travis scoffed. “Whatever, man. I gotta go anyway. They only gave me ten minutes for a phone call.”
I stormed inside. “What the fuck, Jackson?”
He leapt off the bed. “How much of that did you overhear?”
“All of it.”
“I can explain—”
“Which part? That you and Travis have some kind of agreement to pay Mom off every time she shows up?” I crossed my arms and glared at him. “I got that part. How many times have you done it?”
“Please just—”
“How. Many. Times.”
“Including after your dad’s funeral?” He winced. “Four.”
“That was you two?” My vision blacked out around the edges. I didn’t know it was possible to be this angry. This whole time, I’d thought she disappeared because that was the kind of person she was and maybe she’d never change, but apparently she’d had outside “help.”
“Yeah, Iris, that was us.” He sighed, looking defeated. “Travis overheard your mom talking about how she was going to clean the place out before she skipped town, so we got ahead of her.”
“You could have sent her to rehab!” I snapped. She’d been grieving; she’d needed help.
“We offered to. I wasn’t there every time, but when I was, she always had two options: rehab or leave. Give mesomecredit.”
My shoulders relaxed the smallest fraction. “And what about all that business about the house? Do you know what she was talking about? Does she have a claim on my house, and you and Travis have been keeping that from me, too?”
“No! I mean, yes, I know what happened back then, but no, she doesn’t have a claim. I don’t know why she’s bringing it up out of nowhere.”
