AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I guess it happens, and he’s going to recover, which is the main thing.”
“It is. Now about my mother, Joe? If there’s trouble I want to hear about it, especially if I’m the root of it.”
Joe didn’t want to speak. Piper counted to five, then another five and told herself to stay out of it. Bailey got up and left to start playing the piano, and she told herself to follow. Pressing three fingers to her lips, she fought to keep the words inside, but it was no good, they had to come out.
“Your mother blamed him for you leaving, and for that shit that went down before you did.”
“That’ll do, Pip.”
Ignoring her cousin, she continued. “He’s a big boy, and he wants to know, so I’m telling him. Your mother’s spent the last sixteen years making Joe and the Trainer family pay.”
Dylan Howard’s eyes remained steady on Joe for a moment, then he turned them on her with a look that would drop a giant. Fortunately, Piper had lived with men equally capable of just such looks. She wasn’t easily intimidated, even if this one came from one of the most disturbing men she’d ever met.
Chapter 4
The brunette Dylan now knew as Piper was giving him a look that suggested he was personally responsible for his mother’s behavior, which he possibly was in a roundabout way.
“I’m sorry, Joe, I had no idea she was behaving that way.”
“How could you? You haven’t been back since then, and I’m sure she didn’t tell you. Don’t sweat it, man.”
But he was sweating it, because the thought that his mother had held this man accountable for something Dylan had done alone was not a comfortable thought.
“Just to clear the air, I did tell her it was my fault, two years after I left Ryker. She obviously didn’t believe me.” He needed them to know he’d done that, fessed up to his crimes.
“You think?”
Dylan looked at Piper as she spoke, and then back to his old friend because she was sexy as hell, and he didn’t want to feel that little buzz he’d gotten earlier when he’d first seen her. Not now, with this other stuff going on and her wanting to turn him into a eunuch.
Perhaps “friend” wasn’t the right term for Joe Trainer; maybe destruction buddy was a better one. They’d both been trying to outrun demons in their youth.
Tired of not living up to his mother’s high standards for the perfect son, he and Joe, who had wanted to do anything to avoid his father’s abusive behavior, had made an unlikely alliance. They’d been dangerous for each other because neither of them had cared about what they got into, and it had simply escalated with each thing they did wrong. The more dangerous the better, as far as they were concerned. And if it upset Dylan’s parents he was even happier.
“You told your mother that Joe wasn’t at fault years ago, and still she’s treated him like something stuck to the bottom of her shoe? Him, and us.”
As it was Piper talking, he had to look at her again. If she’d been mildly annoyed at him earlier today, now that she realized he was Mary Howard’s son that stick up her sweet ass had lodged itself deeper. Not that he cared. Dylan was a lone wolf, he didn’t care about anyone. It made things simple.
“Pip, that’s enough.”
Like him, Joe had filled out, plus there was now a wife, and if that look he’d just intercepted between Joe and Mrs. Trainer was any indication, they were knee deep in love. Good for him; the boy he’d been deserved some happiness.
“So let me get this straight,” Dylan said. “My mother has made it her life’s work to insult you and yours?”
Joe looked cornered. “She missed you. Let it go now, Dylan.”
Dylan was surprised to feel the slow burn of anger inside him. He’d been an emotional child. Yelled, laughed, and cried often, but when he left military school, that changed. He’d gained control, and that had only strengthened as the years went by. Strong emotions were a weakness he had no time for, which was possibly why he’d never had a serious woman in his life.
Already today he’d felt more than he had in weeks, possibly years. There’d been the feeling of being hit by a runaway train when he first saw Piper, which he was doing his best not to acknowledge, then meeting his family again. Now there was this anger over his mother’s behavior. He’d thought coming back to Ryker would be hard, but something he’d cope with because it had to be done. Now he wasn’t so sure, because suddenly here he was experiencing uncomfortable feelings... something he hated.
“I really am sorry, Joe.”
“I know you are, and as you’re not responsible, how about we leave it alone now.”
Dylan wasn’t really a leave it alone kind of guy, but he did... for now.
As the bar had started filling up, Joe was soon busy, and Dylan was left standing beside Piper. An uncomfortable feeling, it had to be noted.
She looked good tonight. The emerald-and-white-striped top sat off her shoulders, and all that hair was on top of her head. Her eyes looked bigger, which he put down to makeup, and her scent was something soft and floral that danced around his senses.
