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“You’ll need to talk to Shannon,” he finally said. “I can’t give you the answers you want.”
“Yes, you can,” I snapped. “Just open your mouth and speak.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t and I won’t. If she trusts you enough, she’ll tell you. If she doesn’t, she doesn’t. Either way, it’s not my call.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I demanded, furious. “Not your call?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Joey countered. “It means it’s not my call. But I can assure you that I have never put my hands on my sister,” he added, giving me a hard glare. “Or any other woman, for that matter.”
“I want to know what’s going on here, Lynch,” I snapped, striving for every piece of control I could muster. “If she’s being bullied or some shit like that, then I can help. I can fix this if you tell me.”
His brows rose. “You can fix this?”
“For her?” I nodded determinedly. “Absolutely.”
“You like her.” He arched another brow at me and tilted his head to one side. “Maybe even more than like her.”
I didn’t bother denying it. Not to him. This wasn’t Gibsie, or one of the lads at school trying to get a rise out of me. This was her brother.
I knew better than to spew bullshit in this moment.
“I want to know what’s happening,” was all I replied. “I need to.”
“Listen, I’d love to tell you,” Joey finally said with a heavy sigh. “I’d have no goddamn problem laying it all out there for you. I have nothing to hide. But she”—he pointed to the door behind me—“won’t want me to do that. She would die if she thought anyone knew her business. After all the shit that went down on her at BCS, she wants that clean slate at Tommen. I want that for her, too.”
“So she is being bullied?” My heart fucking sank. “Someone at Tommen?” If someone at my school did that to her face, then I was going to burn the fucking school down. “Or from her old school?”
I had a hard time believing those creeps from the bar would be stupid enough to pull another stunt with her. Call me full of myself, but I scared the shit out of them on Friday.
Joey stared hard at me for the longest moment before shaking his head.
“Listen, Kavanagh,” he finally said. “If you want to know what goes on inside of that head of hers, then be worth it.”
“Be worth it?” I frowned at his words. “Be worth what?”
“You’re a smart guy,” he shot back. “You’ll figure it out.”
I shook my head. “I don’t—”
My words were cut off by the sound of Joey’s phone as it rang loudly.
Calm as a breeze, he held a finger up and dragged his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, then muttered a string of curses before pressing it to his ear.
“What the fuck do you want?” he snapped.
Jerking off the stool, Joey walked over to the stove and turned his back to me while he spoke in a hushed tone. “No, you were told… There’s no back… I don’t give two shits how sorry you are… No… She’s where?”
I watched as Joey’s entire frame stiffened. I strained to hear the person on the other line, but it was impossible.
“When did that happen…? And the baby…? Okay… No… What the fuck do you want me to say…? Why would I be sad…? It’s a goddamn relief is what it is… Fine… Yeah, I’ll be there… I just said I’d be there, didn’t I?”
Joey glanced behind him and caught me staring.
I arched a brow, not particularly giving a shit that he knew I was eavesdropping. That’s what I was doing. I wasn’t about to deny it.
“I’ll be there,” Joey said in a low tone. “I’m on my way.” With that, he ended the call and shoved his phone in his pocket.
“I need to take off,” he said in that calm, cool, and collected tone of his.
