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“Or else?” I asked. I could tell by his expression that there were going to be plenty of consequences if I didn’t. “You are the most controlling asshole in the world.” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “You have been this way my entire life. You’re a giant douche. You want me to stop acting like a child? Stop treating me like one. No one gives a damn about what I do. Only you. I don’t know how or why you’ve done this, but you bet your giant dick-shaped ego that you’re not going to get away with it.”
“Royce.” He tsked. I’d never been tsked.
“Go home and get your new phone. I’ll see you on Christmas Eve. Do not be late.”
I flipped him off when he turned to walk away, then slammed the door open and then firmly shut it again behind me, bolting the lock for effect.
“Are you okay?” Quinn asked.
“No. Hell no.” I crossed my arms over my chest because I was mad but also in an attempt to hold everything in. If I let go, my emotions would fall out all over the place. “I’m losing it. Can you get Drew on the phone? He needs to know what happened tonight.”
“Sure, pup.”
A few minutes later, we had Drew on the speakerphone. I told him everything that had happened, including the flashes when we left the meeting and everything my father said. Drew practically growled into the phone. “Sounds like he has eyes on you, watching you. You’re going to have to do better. Stop giving him ammunition.”
“Yeah, but what does that mean?” I asked, wishing I didn’t know the answer to that. I could pretend I didn’t, but that wasn’t happening. Maybe I needed to hear it from Drew, a professional, to believe it.
He waited a beat before he answered. “You might have to do what your dad wants for a little while. The appeal has been filed, and I have my own private investigator working on figuring out what your dad did as far as paying off the judge and your lawyer. After tonight, I’m sure he hasn’t been playing above board. But we don’t have proof. Yet. I can tell you this. From reading through the court documents, I find it hard to believe that this Bruno guy, your so-called lawyer, actually did anything for you at all other than stand in front of the judge. And that is another problem. The judge had to be in your father’s pocket. He stretched the rules of conservatorship so far, you’d think the law was made of silly putty.” Drew chuckled. “Do you even know what silly putty is?”
“Yes, I know what silly putty is.” I sighed.
“Right. Anyway, we need to gather enough proof to throw doubt on this so we can request a different judge. In the meantime, you have to play nice, Royce.”
“I don’t want to. This is insane. I can’t believe this is my life.” I fell against Quinn. I needed his strength.
Drew continued. “I know you don’t. Hell, I wouldn’t want to, either. He’s basically taken your independence and right to live your life as you want. And there’s no reason for it besides the fact that he doesn’t like your lifestyle choices, and I’m not talking about being gay. I’m talking about the pup-play. You know that, right?”
“At this point, that’s not a choice, either. It’s who I am, Drew.”
“Yep. That’s what Jax says, too, according to Ward, and I believe it. I’m not getting into my personal life, but let’s just leave it at I have things in my life that are not considered normal that are every bit a part of me as pup-play is with you. It’s not fair, I know. But right now, you need to keep your nose clean. The less we have to combat, the better.”
I would think about it. I didn’t know if I could do it.
The next day, when Quinn went to work, I headed over to Jax and Ward’s house. I didn’t want to be alone. So I sat with them at the kitchen bar, had breakfast and the best coffee I’d ever tasted, and told them what had happened the night before after we left the mosh.
Ward’s brows furrowed. “Who the hell is your dad?”
I snorted. “Crawford Mabry.”
“Shit, we’re related. I think. Let me elucidate.” He spread one arm wide as if taking the stage, ready for a monologue.
Jax growled at him. “Don’t start with the pretentious words. This is serious.” I remembered when they first met at a PRIDE parade. I hadn’t liked Ward right away. He came across as a pompous elitist, but I eventually realized what Jax saw from day one. Ward was socially awkward and had gotten away with a lot of strange behavior throughout his life because of his bank account and who his family was, but ultimately, he was a sweet, vulnerable man under his overly sophisticated exterior. And Jax loved him to death.
“Whatever. We do have some kind of relation.” Ward poured more of the fantastic coffee into his mug.
“I thought you were related to Emelia Chapin?” Jax asked. “I don’t think they’re related to the Mabry family.”
Ward smiled like he knew something we didn’t and was damn proud of it. “Yes, on one side, but there was a Mabry connection on my mom’s side. They’re from Tallahassee, and I’m pretty sure they were cousins of Ella Dale Bramlett, who married Milton Harvey Mabry in the eighteen hundreds before they moved to Tampa. He was a senator or something. Yeah, the Mabry’s have been in law forever. I’m surprised they didn’t push you into law, Royce.”
I wanted to laugh and probably would have if it wasn’t such a horrible memory. “Oh, they tried.”
“Hmm…” Ward continued as if I hadn’t answered him. “Distant cousins, most likely. Maybe I can do some investigation on the family through my own connections. This is scintillating stuff.”
Jax rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know if any of that will make a difference, but I’ll give the info to Drew for his P.I. to chase down. If he can dig up anything untoward, maybe we can get the judge removed. And that’s your best bet, Royce. Alone, he’ll never grant your appeal. You won’t even have a chance to present a case. Then we would have to appeal to a higher court. And trust me, we would do exactly that. But it will be easier and faster if we can get the judge removed now.”
“That doesn’t sound positive.” In fact, it made me feel worse. What if they couldn’t find anything? My father wasn’t going to leave breadcrumbs here and there. No, if he did buy the judge, he’d cover those tracks well. I rested my forehead against my arm. This was going to take months or years—a long damn time to live like this.
