Page 83 of Finding Noah

“Yeah. He was another sad son of a bitch, down on his luck and trying to make ends meet. Got mixed up with the wrong, wrong, wrong people. Just like us.”

“What people?”

Levi poked at his cheek with his tongue, eyeing me studiously, like he was weighing out the options laid out before him. Then, to my chagrin, he shook his head, leaning forward and folding his arms on the table.

“Nah. I'm not gonna do that, kid. You got a name. That's all you're getting out of me.”

My face fell. “What? No, come on, man. What do you need? You want … you want me to put money on your books? You want—”

“Noah,” he interjected, raising a palm. “You're not gonna bribe it outta me, all right? I've already given you more than I should've, and if I were outside these walls, that big fucker you call Dad would have my neck for it.”

I narrowed my eyes, my nerves jumping into high gear. “Dad? He knew Tommy?”

“Doubt it,” Levi said. “But he would've heard things when he was here. I guarantee that.”

“What things?” I asked, sitting at the edge of my seat, my chest puffing.

God, I was close to something. I could feel it. I just had to give him a push. I just had to figure out what could make him talk.

“Don't look at me like that,” he scolded, pointing the half-eaten candy bar in my direction. “Stop asking questions. Leave it the hell alone. Go home to your girlfriend, get married, live your fucking life. I won't tell Soldier about this conversation, but you gotta promise you're gonna drop this shit. You got lucky once, kid. Now, listen to me, and don't blow it.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

UNCULTURED

“Hey, how was Levi?” Meg asked the moment I walked through the door.

“Sleazy as fuck,” I answered absent-mindedly, dropping my messenger bag on the floor.

One day, I was going to get around to hanging some coat hooks.

But today wasn’t that day.

I had too much on my mind, too much to do. Too much taking up space in my head to care about silly, insignificant things like coat hooks.

Meg looked up from the couch, her feet up on the cardboard box we'd been using as a coffee table after our old one got broken in the move.

Couldn't care about that right now either.

“Did he have anything to say about Tommy? Or that kid?” she asked as I bent over to kiss the top of her head.

“A little bit,” I said, dropping beside her with my phone in hand. “Not much. He was, uh … kind of a closed book actually. But he gave me something.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded, already punching the name into an internet search. “A name. Tommy Nolan.”

“Tommy Nolan,” she repeated, scooting closer to peer over my shoulder. “You think it could really be the same guy?”

“I mean, he said they knew a few guys named Tommy, but this was the only one in Massachusetts.”

Meg gasped and looked up, staring at the side of my face. “Seth took you all the way to Massachusetts without your mother knowing?”

“Not sure if you’ve figured it out yet or not, but Seth didn't give much of a shit about my mom or getting her consent,” I said, despite what Levi had said. That Seth had liked my mom at one point.

Maybe there was some truth to it—I could get behind that, sure—but when Mom had been fifteen, he would've been, what? Nineteen, twenty? What twenty-year-old man couldn’t control himself around a fifteen-year-old girl? Not a good one—that was for fucking sure. Not the kind you wanted around your kid.

For a split second, a silly, ridiculous thought crossed my mind, and I smirked, glancing at Meg.