“There she is,” Jess said as they drove along the outer ring of the mall. Scott didn’t slow and continued past, just another rusted out heap hauling shoppers to the mall. Jess looked at him but said nothing. This was his show and she would follow his lead without question.

 

Angela had called them an hour ago and said they had Scott’s bike and were leaving for Fairlane mall. They had waited until Angela called again and said the bike was delivered and that Kat was waiting, alone, for them.

 

“When we stop, you move over into the driver’s seat. Keep the motor running. If I don’t give you the all clear, or if the shit hits the fan, you run like hell, got it?”

 

“I will, but I still don’t like it.”

 

“I will have a better chance of getting away if I don’t have to worry about you, so you run, understand?”

 

“I said I would,” she snapped then pursed her lips in annoyance. Scott was radiating tension and it was starting to get to her. “Sorry.”

 

After circling the mall, they returned to where his bike was parked, Kat’s car the only one sitting nearby. This time, instead of driving past, Scott turned down the aisle toward Kat. “Get ready.”

 

Kat crushed her cigarette out under her toe as Ron’s battered Toyota pulled in beside the bike. She ground her teeth in annoyance as Scott stepped out of the car but kept the door open. She should have guessed Jess would turn to Ron for help.

 

“You’re Scott?” she asked. This was the first time she had seen him, and she had to admit that her daughter had good taste in men. Tall and well built, he looked like someone who should be stepping out of a private jet instead of the piece of shit Toyota.

 

“Hands on the car,” he said, his tone brooking no argument.

 

Kat felt herself go red. Who did this punk think he was? “Fuck you.”

 

“Suit yourself,” he said with a shrug as he made to get back into the car.

 

“Wait a minute,” she snapped, then swallowed her pride and placed her hands on the hood of the car and spread her legs.

 

Scott took another quick look around and then stepped around the front of the car as Jess jumped out and ran around the back and got behind the wheel. “I’m going to pat you down. You carrying? Tell me now because if I find out you are holding out on me, we’re done here.”

 

“Val’s right. You’re a cocky little shit. Right boot.”

 

“Just being careful,” Scott said as he crouched down and pulled the Beretta Storm out of her boot and pocketed it. “Nice weapon. You’ll get it back.” Kat started to stand up but he pushed her back down onto the car. “Not yet.”

 

He gave her a good pat down, taking his bike keys and her cellphone and car keys, not being shy about reaching between her legs or handling her tits. “Enjoying yourself?” she sneered as he felt her breasts. Despite Scott’s brusque manner, she approved of his quiet efficiency.

 

“You can stand up now,” he said as he stepped back, and jerked his head for Jess to step out of the car. “Here’s how this is going to work: Jess and I are leaving on the bike. You follow in the car. If I even suspect we’re being followed, we’re gone. You follow us to where we’re going then you and Jess can have a nice long talk.”

 

“Why can’t I take my car?”

 

“Because I don’t know what’s in your car.”

 

“And if I refuse?” Kat asked.

 

“Then we leave. Simple as that.”

 

“How do I know I can trust you?”

 

“You don’t. But then life’s a bitch, isn’t it? Look, you have five seconds to make up your mind.” Scott waited ten and then shrugged. “You coming with me or staying?” he asked Jess.

 

“With you,” she said, stepping past her mom.

 

Scott watched as Kat’s eyes tracked Jess. “Goddamnit, Jessica. Fine. Fuck. I thought you would at least trust me.”

 

“I thought I could trust Uncle Val, too, and look what happened.”

 

“I’m not Val.”

 

“No, you’re his sister. This is the way it has to be, Mom.”

 

“Fine, goddamnit. We’ll do it your way.”

 

Jess and Scott mounted his bike while Kat crawled behind the wheel of the Toyota. Once they were set, Scott pulled away with Kat tailing along behind.

 

They motored down Michigan Avenue for a ways, speeding up and slowing down, Scott watching for cars that always seemed to be there, but seeing nothing he picked one of the restaurants that littered the area because the name caught his fancy. They pulled into Potbelly Sandwich Shop and parked, Kat parking in a spot nearby.

 

“I see Ron’s taste in cars hasn’t improved,” Kat sneered.

 

For some reason, her sneering tone annoyed Jess. She was starting to see Ron in a different light and she didn’t like Kat running him down. “At least he doesn’t spend everything he makes on cheap-ass wine,” she snapped, both ashamed and pleased that Kat seemed stunned by the accusation and her tone.

 

“I’ll wait out here,” Scott said as he opened the door for the ladies. When Jess started to follow Kat through the door, he took her by the arm and stopped her. “Here,” he said, pressing a twenty into Jess’s hand. “Do what you know is right and don’t let her bully you.” He gave her a quick kiss and hustled her through the door as Kat turned to glare at him.

 

Potbelly was busy with the lunch crowd, but the line was moving quickly. “You want something?” Jess asked as she surveyed the menu stuck to the wall behind the registers.

 

“I want you to come home.”

 

“To eat. I’ll have A Wreck and a drink,” Jess said then looked at her mom.

 

“Make it two.”

 

“Two Wrecks and two drinks,” the man said punching in their order and handing her two cups. “$16.98.” They moved down the line, waiting for their sandwiches to be made and toasted. When their sandwiches hit the counter, Jess paid and took sandwiches while Kat carried the cups.

 

After filling their cups they settled at a table tucked into the corner as far from prying ears as possible. “I’m listening,” Jess said after a moment of silence.

 

“You need to come home, Jess,” Kat said, launching into her spiel. “You’ve proven your point and it’s time for you to come back to your family.”

 

“That would be the family that was shooting at me.”

 

“That was fucked up,” Kat admitted. “It’s probably just as well that Scott killed them or Val would have. They overstepped their bounds, Jess. Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”

 

Jess thought about it a moment. It was all bullshit, and she knew it. Kat was just trying to manipulate her. “So, when Uncle Val brought out the goon squad at the restaurant, that was just a mistake, too?”

 

Kat sighed. “Yes. That was a mistake, and he knows it now.”

 

“How?”

 

“Because I told him. You need to have your own life and Val knows it, too. He just wants the best for you, honey. You know that.”

 

Jess bit into her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. “And if what is best for me is Scott?”

 

“You don’t know him, Jess. How can you say he’s best for you?”

 

“For now, he’s what’s best for me. He…quiets me. The dreams have stopped.”

 

“I know. You told me,” Kat said.

 

“I told him everything. Things I’ve told nobody else.”

 

Kat looked at her daughter, stunned by the admission. “Everything?”

 

“Everything…or at least, everything I can remember.”

 

Kat felt herself flash hot, jealous of a man she met less than a half hour before. “So he’s your new confidant, is he?” she said, struggling but failing to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “He just rides into town one day and you decide he’s the one and you spill your guts to him? And for what? A hard cock and a quick fuck? A good looking guy—”

 

Jess slapped her hands on the table. “We’re done here,” she said as she started to slide out. I should have listened to Scott!

 

“Jess! Wait!” Kat cried softly, taking Jess by the hand. “Don’t go. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I just don’t know what is going on. I don’t understand what has gotten into you.” Kat put her head in her hands as she rested her elbows on the table. “Jesus, I need a drink.”

 

“No, what you need is to get your life together. That’s what I’m trying to do,” Jess said, scooting back into the booth. “I don’t know what it is about Scott, but I like him. I like him a lot. He treats me with respect and he doesn’t order me around like I don’t matter. He makes me feel…I don’t know…important. He makes me feel like I’m alive in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. Maybe ever. I won’t give that up, Mom. Not for you, not for Uncle Val, not for anybody.”

 

“You can’t love him, Jess! You’ve just met him!”

 

“Did I say I love him?”

 

“No, but—”

 

“Then stop putting words in my mouth. I don’t love him, but I damn sure like him, and I would like to have the chance to fall in love with him. But you won’t give me that chance, will you? You or Val. You both you think you know better than I do what is best for me. I’m not a little kid anymore, Mom. I can make decisions for myself.”

 

“I know, baby. But you have been hurt so much. Val and I, we just don’t want to see you make another mistake.”

 

“Another mistake? Who was it that was pushing me toward Luke? Oh, wait, that was you and Val. As I recall, I wanted to break it off when he hit me the first time, but someone thought I should give him another chance, and another, and another. Who was that? Oh, that’s right, that was you, too!”

 

Kat pouted. Jess was right, but Luke had fooled them all. “We didn’t know what he was capable of. If we had, we would have never…”

 

Jess softened. “I know. But my point is, you and Val don’t exactly have a spotless record for knowing what is best. I told you Luke was dangerous, but you thought I was overreacting. Now I’m telling you Scott is right for me, and you are once again telling me I’m overreacting. Well, what if I’m not? What if Scott is yin to my yang?”

 

“What?”

 

Jess sighed. Her mother wasn’t the most widely read woman, but she thought everyone had heard of yin and yang. “That we complement each other, that we are meant to be together.”

 

“Jess! You just met him!”

 

“And if Val hadn’t tried to haul me away against my will, or kill me, by accident or not, we might have found out what was going to happen without it turning into this cluster fuck. But we’ll never know now, will we?”

 

Kat fumed. Jess didn’t know what she was doing. The longer she defied Val, the harder it would be for her to come back, but then she went cold. What if Jess isn’t planning on coming back? What if she is planning on cutting her ties and leaving forever?

 

“What are you saying, Jess?”

 

“I’m not saying anything. I tried to do the right thing. We met with Val to try to work something out. But he tried to screw us. Then he sent a hit squad after Scott and me, and my best friend got shot because of it. The next move is his. But what isn’t up for discussion is Scott. I’m staying with him until he or I one decide it is time for us to go our separate ways, and neither you nor Val is going to have one damn thing to say about it. If you both can’t accept that, then we have nothing else to discuss.”

 

“You will throw away everything for a boy?”

 

“Let me tell you something about Scott,” Jess said, leaning across the table. “He is more man than Val will ever be.”

 

Kat’s eyes opened wide at Jess’s statement. “You can’t know that.”

 

“I can, and do. He doesn’t send others to do his dirty work for him. He doesn’t feel the need to try to use intimidation and bluster. He doesn’t have to prove how big his dick is. How much of that can you say about Val?”

 

“Jess! He’s your uncle!”

 

“Yeah, I know. But until I met Scott, I didn’t know how real men behave. Val acts like a bully. You’ve seen how he acts. But Scott is the guy that doesn’t have anything to prove.” Jess began to tap her finger hard on the tabletop. “And you know who else is like that? Ron. I never realized it before, but Dad is like that, too, in some ways.”

 

“He’s not your dad, Jess. He’s just some guy that—”

 

“He’s not my father, but he’s the nearest thing I have to a dad. What is it with you? Ron tried to help you, tried to get you clean. And what did it get him? Nothing! Yet here you sit, running him down, just like you’re running down Scott. If nothing else, this has opened my eyes about things.”

 

Kat stared at her daughter a moment. She couldn’t get her mind around the change in Jess. It was as if the woman sitting across from her was a completely different person. “So you’re too good for us now, is that it?”

 

“No! Have you heard nothing I’ve said? You and Val started this, not me! I just want to live my life, but Val seems intent on running it for me. You, too. Rather than wishing me the best, rather than standing behind me, all you can do is tell me why I’m wrong, how Scott isn’t right for me, how I’m making a mistake. Well guess what? From now own, I’m doing what I think is best for me, and if you and Val don’t like it, you can just go fuck yourselves.”

 

“You can’t talk to me like that!” Kat hissed through clinched teeth.

 

“No? I think I just did. I’m sorry, Mom, I really am, but this is something I have to do, and if you won’t help me sort it out, then we’re done here and Scott and I will go our own way.”

 

“And if it doesn’t work out?”

 

“Then it doesn’t work out. But at least it is up to us and not up to you or Val.”

 

Kat stared at her empty sandwich basket a moment. “I can’t believe you would leave after everything we have done for you.”

 

“Like locking me in the kitchen for the rest of my life? Like picking who I can and can’t be with? Like shooting my best friend? Yeah, you’ve done a lot for me, all right.”

 

Kat’s face sagged. “That’s not fair, Jess.”

 

Jess shrugged. “Life isn’t fair.”

 

“What will I do if you leave?”

 

“You’ll either get your life together or you won’t. That’s up to you. Ron tried to help you. I should have tried more than I did. But in the end, it’s up to you, Mom. What do you want to do with your life?”

 

“So your mind is made up?”

 

“Yes. I don’t want to go, but I can’t stay. Not under these conditions.”

 

“And if I can get Val to back off?”

 

“Then I will think about staying. But it has to be soon. Today. And I need to hear it from him. And if he double-crosses us again then I’m gone, forever. Think about it,” Jess said as she began to slide out of the booth again. Scott had been waiting long enough. “But don’t take too long.”