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I guess we would.
I was also starting to get a better feel for the social hierarchy here. I had a hunch more surprises were coming. The other thing I had a feeling about? Was that I didn’t have a feeling about Theresa.
That’d be a stay-tuned thing as well, but I luh-ved Alred.
28
SCOUT
I was leaving the gym when my phone rang, and since I was expecting Cohen to call about plans for after the football game, I answered. “Yo.”
“Sweetie!”
Shit. I stilled, just about to open my truck’s door. “Mom.”
“You don’t sound happy to hear from me.”
“Well, what do you think?”
She sighed. “Listen—”
I opened my door and tossed my bag to the passenger seat. “I don’t have time, Mom. What do you want? If you’re calling to recite the usual family bullshit, you know how the rest of that conversation will be.”
“I’m not. I’m not calling because of that.”
I waited, frowning, wanting to go back inside and pummel the bag again. “What do you want then?”
“I miss you.”
Goddamn it. This was the problem with her. She meant what she said. “You miss me, then why’d you send me out here?”
“You know why.”
“Yeah,” I snapped. “Because you have a dictator father. I have a dictator asshole grandfather, and instead of telling him how it’s going to go for your son, you shipped me off to hide.”
She sucked in some air. “It’s not like that.”
“Like fuck it isn’t.”
“You don’t have to yell at me.”
I drew in some more control and said through gritted teeth, “I’m here because you’re hiding me behind my uncle, the one person who’s stood up to Grandfather, and you miss me because I’m your son and you want to be around me, but again, that’s on you.”
“If you’d just—”
“Just what?” Rage was slowly seeping through me, burning every inch of its path until it was going to cover me completely. “If I’d what?”
She was scared of her father, and while I could say something and had, it wasn’t my place. It was hers.
My tone went cold. “You want to see me? You tell Grandfather that not only do I not have any interest in attending his private boarding school or his special Ivy League college but also that I won’t be joining the family business. And no,” I talked over her as she started to intervene, “I’m not going to play along, then do my fighting on the side.”
“Scout, you’re being unreasonable.”
I reached for the handle, and if I could’ve, I would’ve ripped the whole door off its handle. “I’m not being unreasonable. You want to see me? You know what to do.”
“Scout—”
“I’m not talking about his whole plan he’s laid out for me.”
She got quiet.
She knew what I was referring to.
“Scout.” Her voice was so low now.
Fuck. I could hear the pain from her.
I could feel it, and I was back there, hearing—“You don’t know what you heard that night.”
“Bullshit I didn’t.”
We’d never talked about it, but she and I both knew, and the next morning she had a plane ticket for me to Oregon. There was the reason she claimed for sending me away and then there was the real reason she’d done it, and I just brought it up for the first time.
“Scout Jamison—”
“Don’t full name me. Don’t do that. I know what he told you to do, what he demanded you to do, and—”
Her voice rose, “And I did. Me. I did it, and it’s nothing I’m proud of, but I did it. You have the wrong idea about what you think happened.”
A hard laugh ripped from me. “That’s the thing, Mom. I didn’t even say anything, and you know what I’m talking about. Lies have to be explained. Truth doesn’t.”
I wanted to hurt him.
“I was just calling because I miss you. We’re doing franchise visits, and I could line one up to come see you and your uncle. I was calling to see if you wanted me to do that.”
My blood was rushing through my body. My pulse pounding in my eardrums.
When I didn’t respond, couldn’t respond, she said, still so quietly, “I can tell you’re not ready for that, so I won’t come to our franchise site in Pine River. I love you, Scout. I’ll call you again later.”
There was silence. I had nothing to say to any of that.
I didn’t hang up, but she didn’t either.
“Don’t tell your uncle.”
Right. More lies.
She ended the call.
29
RAMSAY
I kept replaying what Kira said, and it wasn’t sitting right with me.
On our way to the game, I tried texting Scout, but he wasn’t responding. That, combined with whatever Kira was hinting at, I wasn’t happy. All of that was churning inside of me, when I heard Alred sigh as we were paying for our tickets. “He’s hot, but when he’s pissed, he’s hot.”
I whipped around. “Who?”
He was looking toward the end of the parking lot and nodded in that direction. “Scout Raiden.”
