AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I'll let his teachers know what you're planning."
When I hungup the phone, I was livid. Energy pulsed through me. I wanted to shake sense into my son. At the same time, I continued to sit in my chair at a loss for what to do. I didn't know how to reach him. Every kind gesture was treated with disdain and disrespect. When I tried to be stern, he rolled his eyes.
Betts told me that it would take time, but I felt like I was running out of time. He wasn't an adult, but he was old enough to feel like he didn't need anybody around telling him what to do. For all I knew, he'd run away.
That thought prompted me to pull out my phone and use my app to track where he was. At the time that I installed it and connected it to his phone without his knowing, it felt a little bit like a dick move. I wanted my son to trust me, and secretly spying on him wasn't the way to do that. But trust went both ways, right? He clearly wasn't trustworthy, and therefore, as his parent, it was my duty to keep track of him.
The location the app gave me wasn't an area I was very familiar with. But I grabbed my coat and headed down to my car, determined to make an impression on the boy. At this point, I was less concerned about whether he liked me than about keeping him safe. Las Vegas had a lot of seedy elements, and I didn't need him getting involved with any of that.
My fears grew as I drove into a sketchy part of town. The tracking on my phone indicated he was at a convenience store. I drove around the store, finding him with a group of three boys who were smoking and drinking.
Jesus. A part of me thought I should send him back to his mother because he was getting worse here with me. Then again, based on what I knew about Taylor, this behavior could be normal for him. I reminded myself that I needed to be proactive.
I pulled up alongside the boys and rolled down the passenger side window. The moment Dean saw me, he tensed and rolled his eyes.
"Get in the car, Dean."
"Hey, man, that's a nice car. You didn’t tell us your dad was loaded." One of the young men stepped up to the car, his gaze admiring it longingly. My first instinct was to tell the kid if he touched my car, I'd punch him in the throat.
But then I decided to go another route. "You want a ride somewhere?"
The young man stopped and looked at me, surprise in his eyes. One of the other boys made a comment about my being a pedophile. Seriously?
Dean shot the boy an angry glare. "He's not a pervert. He's just an asshole."
"Whether you want a ride or not, Dean, you're coming with me."
I gave him a look that I hoped he understood to mean that I would get out of this car and drag his ass into it if I had to. It must've worked because reluctantly, he came over and got into the front seat.
The young man who had been admiring my car came up to the passenger side window. "How did you get a ride like this?"
I looked him in the eyes. "I worked hard. I built something."
"Built something? Like a house?"
I shook my head. "I built an empire, Son. And I built it from nothing. You can do it too, but not by wasting your time smoking and drinking behind the convenience store."
There was a moment when I thought I saw a glimmer of possibility in the young man's eyes. Like he believed he could build something too. But in the next instant, it was gone.
He made a noise and stepped back from the car. "Whatever, man."
I shrugged. "I'm living proof." I put the car in gear and pulled away from the group. I didn't say anything until I was back on the main road again.
"What I saw back there breaks my fucking heart."
"Whatever." Dean kept his gaze out the passenger side window.
"You're a spoiled brat. Do you know that?"
His head jerked and he glared at me. I knew he had disdain for me, but that was the first time I saw loathing.
I flexed my hands and then re-gripped the steering wheel. "Those young men back there have a very difficult life. They see me in this car, and they can't imagine any scenario in which they could have what I have."
"Whatever."
"If I were you, I probably wouldn't go back and hang out with them."
He looked at me again with an expression that suggested that I was an old man who didn't know shit. There were a lot of things I didn't know about the younger generation, but I knew people.
