Page 27

“Jalen, show the kid out.” Brennan turns back to me, already dismissing the poor kid.

“Brennan, listen. My stepfather’s been saying⁠—”

Jalen grabs the… I don’t know; teenager. The kid holds his hands up like he’s trying to surrender, but then he spins and runs out the door with Jalen hot on his heels.

Liam turns to Brennan with one eyebrow hiked up. “Something I need to know about?”

“Teenage drama.” Brennan waves a hand. “And not the kind you have.”

“He’s twenty now,” Liam says. “Ravi is.”

“Close enough.”

Liam’s looks at the closed door with a whole lotta suspicion, and then back at Brennan. “You sure it’s not the same kind of drama?”

Brennan drops his feet to the floor and sits up straight in his chair. “Okay, Dean. We good here for now?”

“Wait, that’s it? All you want me to do is go ask the parents at school pickup if they’ve heard anything about the pills? What if nobody wants to tell me anything? There’s got to be more we can do.”

I’m thinking if someone came up to me at Ella’s school and started asking questions about drugs, I’d report them immediately just for not knowing what the fuck they’re up to.

“Anything you can find out would be helpful,” Liam says. “If you get nothing, then you get nothing. Schools are tricky. We can also try tapping into our law enforcement contacts. The school resource officer probably has some information. This isn’t all on you.”

“It damn well is on me. It’s my daughter who got hold of those pills.”

Liam’s got kind eyes, I notice. Sort of a strange thing to think given that he’s packing like Brennan is. Stranger still since he’s sleeping with one of my friends, and that friend has let it slip that Liam has, uh, done things. To people. Professionally.

“I understand how you’re feeling. We’ll do whatever we can to help.”

Liam cuts his gaze to Brennan, who hesitates a minute before adding, “Of course we will. I already said that.”

Did he? I don’t remember now.

Sitting still is a lost cause. I’ve got ants under my skin. “I just… I need to do something. More.”

“You are. We all are. See if you can find anything out at the school. We’ll go from there,” Liam says.

Brennan clears his throat. “You remember the day we met at the hospital?”

“You mean the day you offered me a thousand dollars for a blow job? Yeah, Brennan, it rings a faint bell.” For the rest of my life, I have to live with knowing what I did. And knowing I would probably do it again.

There’s movement to my right where Liam is standing. Since I’d rather not see his reaction to what I said, I don’t look.

The only way I can do what I do is if I don’t let myself dwell too much. I did what I did to provide for Ella, and that’s what I’ll always do. Doesn’t get rid of that icy ache under my ribs. That ugly feeling never goes away.

Except sometimes late at night. When Mike distracts me in his own particular way.

“You said you’d do anything,” Brennan reminds me. “You were ready to fucking shoot a guy on my say-so. That still the case?”

“You know I would.”

“Right. So.” As I wait for the rest of what he’s about to say, Brennan rolls his chair forward. Elbows down. Hands in prayer position in front of him. It’s all I can do not to yell at him to get on with it.

“Sometimes the answer isn’t a bullet, Dean. Sometimes the answer is taking your hot, athletic body down to the school, and flirting with the unsatisfied moms to see what they have to tell you. Maybe even the teachers. Or the principal. Liam and I will work things on our end. When we know, you’ll know. And if you still want to fucking shoot someone, I might let you.”

It’s a horrifying thought. My father owned a gun. I know how to shoot, but I’ve only ever used old tree stumps and empty oil containers for target practice. The idea of pointing a weapon at someone, pulling the trigger, seeing the blood go everywhere, makes me sick.

Until I remember getting that phone call from Ella’s school. The way I’ve felt afraid to send her back there every day since. All the things that could’ve gone wrong.