AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Even still, that hadn’t stopped me from trying, and with Wolf tied up, us guys had attempted to do our own thing. We kept our searches local to the city for the most part, but also left its boundaries to knock on doors and ask questions in neighboring towns. The last evening’s search ended me up with Ronald. I’d come home and run into Dad.
He’d been coming to check on me.
He hadn’t said as much, but it’d been obvious. He’d left without saying a word, and the confrontation had just added to the epic shit, me continuing to disappoint my parents, my dad.
“Wanna know the way you can help, Dorian? Help your mother, me, and everyone else?”
My head shot up, my father’s eyes on me.
They narrowed. “You can help by going to your therapy sessions. You can help by taking care of you and letting us all do what we need to do to find Ramses’s and Brielle’s daughter.” Dad’s legs crossed at the knee, his arms rested on them. “It’s bad enough we’re already having to deal with my dad being in the mix of all this, and it’d be great if you were a factor none of the adults have to worry about on top of it.”
“Are you working with Grandpa?” I asked, pretty much ignoring the last part of what he’d said. My dad wasn’t working with Grandpa.
If he was, the world would know.
A lot had changed in simply a week, and one of them had been my grandfather essentially coming out. He’d held a press conference the day he reached out to my dad. He’d detailed who he was, his connection to Sloane and Bru, and his place in all this. He’d told the truth.
And no one had been surprised more than me.
I didn’t trust my grandfather, not for shit did I trust him, but I couldn’t deny that he’d put himself in front of the firing squad. This town hated him as much as the Legacy families. He and Wolf’s grandfather, Ibrahim, were essentially blacklisted after they’d helped Wolf’s great-uncle Leo.
Even still, he’d come out, and, in that announcement, he’d offered to help the families in any way he could. He’d said he would, but only if they wanted that too. He’d keep his distance if they didn’t.
Needless to say, I hadn’t heard another word about him.
The families, my parents, were clearly doing their own thing.
“The lines of communication are open,” Dad said now, his hands together. “His people give us everything they gather. Though, it’s not any more than we have.”
I didn’t know what they had, but I did know Sloane wasn’t back. That told the truth more than anything. They didn’t know where she was.
My mouth dried. “Would it help if Grandpa were maybe brought in?” The two could join forces. I really didn’t trust my grandfather, but we should be doing everything we could do. “I just think that—”
“You think, huh?” Dad got up, my eyes at his level. We were pretty much equal in size, my father and me, but even if I were larger, that wouldn’t matter. My father commanded and intimated the fuck out of anyone I’d seen come into his presence. He and my god dads were a force, a team of influence and affluence.
It only helped that they were great people.
They were, each and every one of them, but when tested, they didn’t play around.
I stayed silent, but I meant what I said. We should be working with my grandpa. We should be doing everything we can, and I wasn’t sure how much of a threat they actually found my grandfather these days. Sure, they made sure I didn’t leave the house without Ronald or a cop, but I was ninety percent sure that had to do with me. They wanted me to stay out of things, and lately, I was looking more guilty in their eyes than anything Grandpa had done.
This was a hard truth and one I hated to admit. It was true, though, as shit as that may be. Grandpa had been helpful, and I was the one going behind their backs.
I was the fuck-up.
“Like I said, the lines of communication are open, son.” Dad took his jacket off the bar. “We haven’t cut my father off from his hand, and in regard to that relationship and my decision on how to handle it, that has nothing to do with you.”
Understood, I nodded.
“In any case, your mom asked to speak with you,” he said, bending down and kissing her cheek. “I’ll be in my office.”
“Okay.” Mom’s gaze followed my dad’s exit, and it seemed they had more to talk about. I bet they did. Though none of it did ever have anything to do with me. My parents had made a stance here, and they weren’t breaking it. I wouldn’t be helping, and that was that. She took my hand. “Ramses asked to see you, and it’d be nice if you could stay over there tonight.”
My mother didn’t have to ask, of course, and Ramses didn’t have to ask me to come by. Thatcher, Wells, and I had pretty much lived over at the Mallicks’ this week.
I noticed Mom said Ramses had requested to see me specifically, though, and that didn’t surprise me either. Every time I was over there, he wanted to talk, talk about Sloane…
Knowing the specific reason for the request, I told my mom I would.
