With another uncomfortable twinge, I took a deep breath. “Are you still in touch with your old buddies?”
Hunter’s face dropped. “Man, I told you I’m done with those idiots.”
“I know, I know…fuck.” I pinched the bridge of my nose between two fingers. I wanted to believe him. I felt like believing him was the dumbest thing imaginable.
He was the only person I knew who might have the connections to figure out where Sue was holed up.
“What is it?”
“I’vegotto get Iris out of my house; she’s driving me nuts. Which means I need to find her mom.”
He smirked. “Thought you always wanted to get herinyour house.”
“It’s not…itcan’tbe like that.”
“Travis wouldn’t care.”
“You think this is aboutTravis’sfeelings? Fuck that, he’s a grown man.” I leaned against a wall and stared at Hunter. He was only two years younger than me. Before he fell in with the wrong crowd, he’d tagged along on more than one of mine and Travis’s adventures; he’d once been my friend as well as my brother.
It was one of the reasons looking at him hurt so badly.
But that was all back before our parents died in a car accident and I was suddenly in charge of two teenagers. Sure, we had extended family around to offer help here and there, but they’d all had their own lives and worries.
I’d been sucked into the responsibility. Hunter had gotten deeper into addiction. We’d both tried to shield Cole as much as possible.
But now Hunter was trying. Really, truly trying to straighten up, not just paying lip service. Maybe Iris and Cole were right, and I was being too hard on him. So I dipped a toe back into ourold, friendlier relationship. “Iris doesn’t know that Travis and I ran her mom off after her dad’s funeral.” This wasn’t the whole of it, but it was the beginning.
He shrugged. “So tell her. Y’all did that girl a favor. She might not mind, especially if her mom’s causing trouble now.”
Her words floated back to me.Her running off like that…that was the worst thing she ever did.“She’d mind.” She’d be furious if she knew everything.
I’d felt like shit for weeks afterward, when Iris’s eyes welled up with tears every time the topic of her mom came up. She’d look at me or Travis and say,Didn’t she love Daddy even a little bit?And I knew she was really asking,Didn’t she love me?
My stomach still tied itself in knots anytime I thought about it. But when Sue showed up again, a little over a year later, Travis was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, and I paid her to leave Oakdale Springs before Iris caught sight of her.
Because the way Iris got when her mom was in town? It was even worse than watching her be heartbroken after her mom left. Taking every little word as a sign that Sue had seen the light and changed her ways, talking herself into ignoring every red flag, even while her reasoning mind knew she should be more cautious. Jumping at every hint that Sue wanted to spend time with her.
Then, when she woke up and Sue had inevitably skipped town again, she’d spend weeks obsessively checking her phone, hoping for a message that never came.
So I’d done it again a year later.
The year after that, Travis had been the one to pay her off. He must have given her more than I did, because she stayed gone for a while.
But I paid her off again only eighteen months ago.
Iris seemed to be a little less at her mom’s beck and call now, but I wasn’t about to feed her to the wolves. Not when Sue was acting so out of character.
“So you’re just gonna run Sue off and keep your trap shut, is that it?” Hunter scoffed. “Typical.”
“You got a better idea? One that doesn’t involve Iris getting her heart broken—or worse? Sue went after her yesterday, you know. Iris had to physically remove her from the house.” Every time I thought about that, thought about the fact that some random guy had been a minute away and could have shown up to do god knew what, my blood ran cold.
Hunter’s eyes widened in shock.
“Yeah,” I said grimly. “Why do you think she agreed to stay with me? She’s spooked.” Sue needed to go, whether I told Iris the truth or not.
“Then what are you doing here?” Understanding, along with hurt, darkened Hunter’s eyes. “Oh.You were hoping I’d roll right out of prison and in with my old crowd, so I could hand you some information on a silver platter?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Not exactly. I don’t want you back in with those folks, but if you were…”
