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I nod, turn to go.
“Silas?”
I look back at her. She’s biting her lip. “You’re not going to tell my dad, are you?”
“I should.”
“Please don’t. I’ll be more careful.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“All right. Get inside and lock the door.”
“You get home and lock the door,” she teases. A moment passes, her smile vanishes. “Why do you stay?”
“What?”
“You and your mom. Why do you stay? I see how they are to you, both of you.”
I find myself studying her. It’s the quiet ones who see everything, isn’t it? It’s what Mom always says. Ophelia is smart enough to know I’m Sly Fox’s bastard son.
“It’s complicated, sweetheart,” I say.
A blush creeps into her cheeks. I think it’s my use of the word sweetheart. I smile.
“Hey, one more thing,” I say, and she raises her eyebrows. “You’re pretty with your glasses. You don’t have to change who you are for idiots like Ethan Fox. They’re usually not worth it.” Her mouth stretches into a wide smile, brighter than I’ve ever seen, but at the same time, her eyes grow misty. “Goodnight, Ophelia.”
“Goodnight, Silas.”
8
SILAS
Past
Consequences
I’m reclining in a pool chair drinking a beer when the Foxes return from their wining and dining night out with Mr. Hart and whoever’s money they’re trying to get. Mom’s asleep. I didn’t tell her what happened tonight, what I did to Ethan. I lost my cool with the kid, although he’s not a fucking kid. Eighteen is legally an adult, to use his logic.
But I’m still three years older and a hell of a lot bigger.
There will be consequences.
I hear the sliding glass door open and finish the last of my beer before standingto face Sly Fox.
Mira and Ethan wait in the doorway, Mira with her arm around her boy, her eyes shiny with what might be tears if she were human. Ethan is just wearing his usualI’m an assholesmirk.
“Mind telling me what the fuck you think you’re doing raising a hand to my boy in my own house?”
“I’m your boy too, remember?”
He stalks toward me, but I hold my ground. “Don’t fucking start with your goddamned smart mouth, Silas.”
I’m not scared of Sullivan Fox. Even as a kid, even as I took my punishments, I hated him more than feared him. Now, I can take him, I have no doubt. I’m bigger than him, stronger than him and younger than him.
But he has an unfair advantage. It’s not just me who will pay if I screw up. It’s Mom. And we both know it.
