AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe if I had less, you would be more contrite about dragging me across the state in the middle of the night.”
He acted like he had to fly commercial instead of in his private jet. I glanced around. “Where’s Mom?”
“She had a function she couldn’t get out of. You’ll need to call her later.”
Ah, yes, wouldn’t look good if both of them disappeared for some family scandal. Gotta keep up them appearances, you know.
Nodding, I lifted a crystal glass half full of orange juice.
Dad sighed and pulled a dome off another platter on the table. “Eat,” he said, gruff.
The sight of the French toast had me grabbing a fork and digging in before I even had the plate in front of me. I was starving.
Dad watched me for a few moments. “Did they mistreat you?”
“No,” I said, shoveling in another huge bite.
“You assaulted an officer, Arsen,” he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
I paused midchew. “It couldn’t be helped.”
“Care to explain why?”
I said nothing and continued to plow through what was left of my breakfast.
“Did it have to do with the boy who was arrested with you?”
My fork clattered against the plate, and I looked up. “What?”
Finally managing to get some sort of reaction from me, he seemed almost serene. “Did you really think you could get arrested, call me in the middle of the night, drag me and Niles all the way here only to be told you were locked up until sunrise and me not demand an explanation?”
After wiping my mouth with a cloth napkin, I tossed it onto the table and folded my arms over my chest. I stared unblinking at my father, who even I couldn’t deny looked just like me. Or rather, I guess I looked like him. Both of us had blue-black hair, dark eyes, and square features. The difference was he was always clean-shaven, his hair combed into submission, and didn’t have a single piercing or tattoo. His eyebrows were shaped on the regular by the stylist he had on payroll, and his clothes, while obviously designer, were boring and formal.
Was one even a politician if he didn’t wear a suit and tie?
We both stood at nearly six feet, three with a broad build to support our height. He wore a size thirteen shoe, and I wore a thirteen and a half. I had no doubt that looking at him now was what looking in the mirror would be like in thirty-ish years.
‘Course, I probably wouldn’t have Botox. He says he doesn’t, but I know bullshit when I smell it.
Was one even a politician if he didn’t lie?
Yeah, I loved my parents, but I wasn’t an idiot.
“Were those drugs his?” Dad pressed when I stayed silent.
“No,” I said, a littler harsher than I intended.
“But he is the reason you punched a police officer.”
I shrugged.
Dad sighed. “I had to cancel three meetings to be here this morning, son. And I had to rearrange the rest of my day. They were going to let you go last night. Not enough evidence to charge you. But then you went and punched a cop. Something you only did after the boy brought in with you did.”
“So?”
“So they said he was wild. Erratic and unpredictable.”
“They also say they threatened him, made him trip and fall, and then shoved him so he almost fell again?”
