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“You used them as bait,” Thomas hissed through his teeth. “You put all of them in danger! What if Andy had more of the drugs on him to use on them?”
“It was a risk. A risk I was willing to make for the bigger picture. One I would make again. One I have made before. Three boys who weren’t where they should have been are small fish compared to what Jerry and his employers are doing. Particularly since they were brazen enough to cross the Ring. You know that.”
Thomas looked away, swallowing down his rage as his hand tightened on his phone. He did know. Crossing the Ring was when a made man went into a Ring that wasn’t his own and somehow conducted business. It was against the rules the leaders of the Rings put in place. Doing that was grounds for an Open Season, even if the business was small. Human trafficking wasn’t small and there was no other explanation for what Jerry was going to do with Thomas if he had gotten him out of that club. He sucked in air as the weight of it hit him— of how close he had been to simply disappearing in the eyes of normal every day society yet again— for the second time in less than three months.
“You know, you would make an excellent Clover.”
Thomas’s head jerked up to look at him in surprise.
Seong was closing the dishwasher, fiddling with the buttons. “You have a knack for this life,” he said, without looking at him. “You catch on fast, you notice things others don’t. With how fast you have caught on to the programming and coding, you could be something like me one day.”
“Sh-shouldn’t you be telling me not to be a Clover,” he asked, wondering if he had somehow entered a parallel universe. “Or to join the Family or something?”
“Suggesting you join the Family would be poaching by the letter,” Seong told him, looking up and smirking at him. “And I’m not telling you to do anything. I’m stating facts. You would do well at this.” He folded his arms on the edge of the sink, still staring into Thomas’s eyes. “But being good at it doesn’t mean you should do it. It is a path, like any other. The question that you need to answer is what path you want to follow.” He shook his head when Thomas started to draw breath. “You don’t give that answer to me, Thomas. It is an answer you only owe to yourself and you’ll know when its time to answer that question. For now, let’s get you to O’Hare’s to settle all of this.”
A Clean Slate
“Tommy!”
Thomas braced himself as his aunts both crossed the open lobby of O’Hare’s photography studio and into his chest. Did… I get taller again? he thought as Ceri’s head fit under his neck, still squeezing the life out of his ribs. Jessi’s afro barely brushed his temple as she hugged both of them together. He hadn’t thought they were this much shorter than he was but he still thought of them as taller than him.
Tension seemed to finally break as they held onto him and he hugged them back. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, letting his forehead rest against Ceri’s head and leaning his cheek against Jessi’s. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“We’re just glad you are okay, baby,” Jessi murmured back, her hand stroking his back. “That’s all that matters.”
Thomas swallowed and nodded tightening his grip on them before looking up to the rest of the room. Danny, Kevin and Mark were all sitting at a pair of couches, looking far worse than Thomas with their puffy, bloodshot eyes, but dressed in their normal clothes at least. Danny’s brother, Sean, was standing by an office door, another man on the other side of it. They both had the clover tattooed on their necks, and as Seong walked around Thomas and his aunts Sean knocked against the door before opening it.
“Snake is here with Thomas,” he said into the room.
The low murmuring of two men speaking had fallen silent as the door opened. Thomas could hear one of them sigh.
“Thanks, lad,” O’Hare said. “We’ve agreed that the boys will stay out there while the adults talk. If ya will ask Ceri and Jessi to join us?”
Sean and the other man glanced at each other then back towards Ceri and Jessi as they both openly glared back at them.
“Above my pay grade,” Sean said shaking his head and walking into the office.
“I don’t think I’m back on payroll again for that risk,” the second man said, turning to glare at Kevin and Mark. “If either of you move, you’re grounded until college, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Mark murmured, hunching his shoulders, as Kevin made a noise in his throat and nodded.
O’Hare sighed as Marcus entered the office without another word. “Ya see what I deal wit’, Cat?”
“With smart men by the sounds of it,” the Cat replied, amusement in his voice. A moment later, he was at the door as well. He looked to Seong and stepped out of the way to allow the masked man to enter. “Mrs. O’Malley,” he said, looking from one to the other, “and Mrs. O’Malley, if you wouldn’t mind joining us. I’d like to fill everyone with a high school diploma in on the situation and last night’s events before they decide how to handle the underage clubbers they are responsible for.”
“I do mind,” Ceri growled through her teeth. “In fact, my mind is to take my boy and go now.”
The Cat’s eyebrow rose but he didn’t seem upset or bothered by Ceri’s attitude. “That would be your right to do so,” he said simply. “But my associate had already gotten the chain of events from Thomas’s perspective and was with him for the remainder of the evening. I thought you may like to spare Thomas the need to relive everything more than he needs to, given the after-effects of what he went through.”
Ceri’s lips pursed as she kept glaring at the Cat for a moment, then exhaled slowly through her nose. “You have thirty minutes then we are going home.”
“Thank you for your patience,” he said, nodding and stepping back into the office again.
“We’ll be right back, baby,” Jessi said, touching Thomas’s cheek. “But if you need us, you knock on that door. I don’t care what you hear.”
“I will,” he promised, making himself smile even as he worried for the men’s safety in the office. He hadn’t seen Ceri go after O’Hare after the family session where his therapist helped him tell his aunts about what had been going on since he had met Jake, but she had bruised her knuckles on something. “I’ll be fine I promise.”
He watched them walk into the office and close the door before he blew out a slow sigh. So far, it was going like Seong had promised. Thomas hadn’t liked that O’Hare had contacted his aunts to tell them about the situation, but at least they wouldn’t have to worry very long. Seong had said that they, himself and the Cat, would be the ones to tell his and the other three’s guardians everything. He said that they would make sure that Thomas’s aunts would not have to worry about the men involved almost taking Thomas coming back around.
