Page 83 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“You know what, no. He’s not going to get his ass killed by someone else. I’m going to be the one to do it,” Calisto said.

“You say that, but—”

“Shut up, Wolf!”

Great.

Now they were back to yelling at each other. Cross stood in the middle of his bedroom, arms full of clean clothes and a towel, and stared at his bedroom door. He listened to his step-father and mentor shout at one another for a good minute before he decided enough was enough.

At least for him.

“Fuck this shit,” Cross mumbled to himself, heading to his attached bathroom. It was way too early—even if it was nearing noon—for this nonsense. “Fuck all of this stupid shit.”

Cross made quick time showering and getting dressed. He wasn’t surprised at all to find his step-father and Wolf were still barking at one another when he walked out of his room. They had moved their argument to the downstairs.

His mother gave him a side-eye as he passed her by in the kitchen. She held out a plate of pancakes for him to take as he followed the shouting voices, but she didn’t say a thing to him. Her expression was more than enough to tell him he shouldn’t even attempt to speak to her, either.

Cross found the men in his father’s office.

He stood in the doorway while they yelled at one another, and shoveled pancakes into his mouth all the while. After a shower, and some food, he was finally awake.

The yelling was tolerable at that point.

Barely.

“I am too busy,” Calisto barked at Wolf, “and that’s why I depend on you to help me the hell out with him.”

“Again, I do, but not twenty-four hours a day, seven days a goddamn week. That’s impossible. Tomorrow is Monday, his suspension is up. He’ll be back to school, Cal, so we’ll figure something out from there to here. Simple.”

Wait … what?

“Who’s doing what now with me?” Cross asked from the doorway.

Calisto turned angry eyes on Cross in an instant. “When I tell you to do something, you do it.”

Cross took another bite of pancakes. His mother could cook like nobody’s business, which meant when he was eating her food, nothing else was more important at that time.

“What didn’t I do?” he asked.

“Earlier, when I told you—”

“You can’t just wake me up with all that nonsense and think I’ll be pleasant, Papa.”

Calisto’s molars crunched, he was grinding them so hard. “You are a real piece of work, Cross.”

He shrugged.

Because, yeah.

This wasn’t news.

“What’s the fucking problem?” Cross asked.

Calisto rubbed a hand over his face, and waved his other one at Wolf. “You … you say something because I am over this whole day.”

It was only a little after noon.

“A bit early to be calling it a day,” Cross noted.