Page 26 of Broken Halo
“My sister is the priority right now. Get CPS off her back and call my fiancé to figure out what to do about Robert’s parents. They’d better not so much as take a step in my nephew’s direction. I swore to Ellie I’d stay out of it, but if you get her shit straightened out, then maybe I’ll help you see what you should’ve seen long ago.”
She turns for the door.
“Jen, wait,” I call.
“I kid you not, Trig, you might be a bull, but I’ll turn you into a steer faster than you can blink if you don’t make this a priority.” She doesn’t look back when she yells, “Fix my sister’s shit and do it fast.”
* * *
Nine years and eight months ago
“I’ve answered your questions. I told you I don’t know anything.”
I’ve had it. I haven’t seen Ellie in two days. Her dad kicked me out of the hospital right after he fired me. I thought life had already flipped upside down, but then it blew up—literally.
The Sheriff strutted his ass in here today, dragging his potbelly with him, reeking of cigarette smoke and greasy burgers. He leans back in his chair, adjusting his belt that’s on its last hole and in jeopardy of shooting across the room, taking someone’s eye out. It had better not be mine.
“You see.” He shifts in his chair and sneers at me. “We’ve been talking to your little girlfriend.”
It’s all I can do not to come across the table at him. “Stay away from Ellie.”
He has the nerve to laugh. “Why? The way I figure, she can shed light on the incident. She was there, after all.”
“It’s only the second time she’d ever been there. Hell, I’ve lived there all my life and I don’t know anything,” I growl. The thought of this shithead being anywhere near Ellie, especially after what she’s been through, makes me want to throw a chair through the one-way mirrored glass right after I put my fist in his face.
He shakes his head and clucks his tongue. “That’s not what she had to say. I’ve got your daddy behind bars and enough evidence on him to put him away for a good long while. Everything points to you being his supplier and I want to know your role in it.”
“I don’t have one thing to do with my father.”
He shrugs and acts like he has a leg up, which he does. It puts a sour taste in my mouth, about as bad as he smells. “Other people have a different opinion of that. Like I said, spent a good amount of time up at the hospital today with Kipp and his baby daughter.”
I drag a hand down my face. There’s no way she’d try to throw me under the bus.
His yellow teeth appear as his face creases in a million lines, grinning from ear-to-ear. “I got you, buddy. Your girlfriend got cold feet and talked. It was either sell you out or be in hot water with her daddy. And guess what? She did not pick you.”
This is fucked up. There’s no way she’d do that. I had no idea my father was cooking meth in one of the back buildings on our property until I heard about the explosion.
“That’s right,” he sneers. “She told me everything.”
Fuck. My insides twist and my lungs constrict. I can’t breathe. There was nothing to tell aside from her calling me crying and telling me she had to get away from her parents and she was going to my house to wait on me. I didn’t want her there, but she was a frantic mess and I couldn’t reason with her.
It’s a feat, but he leans in, rests an elbow on the table, and lowers his voice. “Did you really think she’d choose you? You’re just the son of a maid and a meth cook. When I left the hospital today, her mama was on the phone trying to get her admission reinstated to that fancy school in New York City, the one she was going to go to before you came into the picture and shit all over her life.”
“Fuck you.” The words slip from my lips before I can stop them. The need to protect my mother is strong and the desire to wipe my father from the face of the earth is even stronger. “Throw my dad away for life—he deserves it after this week but leave my mom out of this. She’s done nothing but put up with his shit, raise me, and work her fingers to the bone.”
He leans back in his chair and wipes a bead of sweat from his receding hairline. “You tell me what you know about your daddy, I might leave your mama alone and I’ll see what kind of deal I can make for you.”
I might only have an Associate’s from a junior college, but I know enough that I’m not saying jack-shit to this asshole. There’s nothing to say anyway. “Kiss my ass. If you had anything on me, I’d be in a jail cell next to my father’s, but you don’t. I know my rights. If you want me to answer any questions, I want an attorney. Until then, I’m outta here.”
I move to leave and he pushes himself up, the chair complaining, but all I can think about is her. I’ve been trying to convince her for months to go to New York, so I should be happy about this. But that was before. Before we decided on a future, or rather, that future was decided for us because lust made us stupid.
Fuck, Ellie just makes me stupid.
Three days ago, we had a plan and each other. It wasn’t much but we didn’t need more and were over the fucking moon about it.
Then she started to sing a new tune before the seasons had a chance to change.
I let a teenager—who’s barely more than a girl—convince me that lust is love. How many dumbass mistakes can I make in a matter of months?
