“Get your ass back here!” Fort shouted as Ty headed down the road.
“If she doesn’t pick up, I’ll go for a ride near the lake and then come back.” Tirone revved his engine and cruised away.
“I should fucking go after him,” Fort grumbled. “What if he goes back to the compound?”
“He won’t,” I said, too certain, enough to raise suspicions. I cleared my throat. “Even if he does, Furore will never have him harmed.”
“It’s not that fucking punk I’m worried about.” Fort glared at me. “Neither should you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you should worry about your ol’ man, not the fucker that raised a knife at him?”
“That’s your prez’s son you’re talking about, my student whom I’ve cared about for a very long time before I even met any of you, a troubled boy who’s desperate for a father figure to accept and love him as he should.”
“Rex ain’t your responsibility, Jo. You ain’t his teacher here. You’re his daddy’s ol’ lady, and even if Prez puts a ring on your finger, you’ll never be that boy’s mother because Rex worships Delilah and no one will ever take her place. You’ll still be his daddy’s ol’ lady so get your priorities straight and know your role.”
“After tonight, that glorious title is questionable.”
“What the fuck? Rex’s dickness is rubbing off you?”
“Furore was in love with my mother. He slept with her.”
“That was twenty-three fucking years ago.”
“He never bothered to tell me that truth.” That might make me sound like a hypocrite because I was in love with his son and kept it a secret, too. The difference between us was that I was going to tell him tonight and I never knew he was Tirone’s father when I fell for him. “He knew from day one I was her daughter.”
“So what?”
I scoffed. “Let’s say I’m that open minded to accept to be in a relationship with my dead mother’s ex. How can I trust the feelings he has for me are real?”
“C’mon, teach, don’t be such a chick. You know he’s fucking smitten. He’s never been that shitfaced in love since…” He cut off his sentence and swore.
“Since what? Since my mother?”
He just twisted his lips.
“And why do you think he does?” I cried, pain stabbing my heart. “Because I look like her.” He should have seen the way Furore looked at me when he saw what I really looked like.
“Jo, you’re a smart gal. Don’t jump to conclusions without talking to Prez first, all right? Take the night, blow some steam, but you have to listen to him before you make any stupid decisions. Don’t be a dick like Rex.”
I wiped my eyes, sniffling. “Whatever, Fort. Can you run to the drugstore, please? Let me fix your wound, and I know Ty will be back soon.”
“How do you know?”
“Because his girlfriend will pick up. She always does when he needs her the most. She’d calm him down, and he’d be back before you knew it.”
I marched to the reception and paid for the rooms. Fort’s bike roared in the dark. I headed for my room. Taking a deep breath, I entered, and opened the bathroom window, knowing, without having to take the call ringing inside my purse, whom I’d find waiting outside.
CHAPTER 24
Jo
A Few Months Ago
“Your neighbor is having a party. There are too many people coming and going tonight,” Ty said over the phone.
My shoulders slumped. “So you’re not coming over tonight?” I was so used to his sleeping next to me I didn’t think I could ever sleep again without him.
