Chapter Nineteen
They sat in his truck, silence blanketing them for long minutes. They both fidgeted in their seats, neither one sure of what to say or how to put into words the feelings that coursed through their hearts. If either one of them were honest, they were probably in shock about the bombshells they’d both dropped. Roni finally spoke.
“I know the two of us have a lot to talk about. I know I handed you a blow in there, there’s not been time for either of us to process the emotions we’re both feeling, but right now, we have a bigger issue that needs our attention.”
He glanced at her, nodding his head. “Drew.”
“That’s right.” She blew out a deep breath and glanced out the window. “We’ve got to see what we can do to help get him out of this situation. Right now, he’s not over the edge. He’s on the brink, and we’ve got to make sure we pull him back before he does some incredibly stupid shit. I don’t want him to ruin his life before he even gets it started.”
Rooster agreed with her. “So we need to go talk to Liam?”
It was the last thing she wanted to do after opening up such an emotional wound. What she really wanted to do was go home and cry for a week, maybe eat some ice cream and take stock of her life, but it had to be done. If she had been able to be a mom to the child she had carried, she would want to know these things about her child, and it wouldn’t matter about the time table. Even if it was 3 a.m. and someone was calling her, she would want to know. She couldn’t keep this from Liam and Denise. They had a right to know, and while Rooster had been too scared to say anything to her brother—she wasn’t. Honesty was the best policy, and they needed to start practicing that shit. Keeping it to themselves and keeping it in the dark wasn’t helping anyone. They needed to get to Drew before he developed a serious problem. “We do. You take us over there, and I’ll go ahead and give him a call, let him know we’re on our way. I’ll text Tyler too; I think we’ll need him. I don’t think Drew is going to go quietly with this.”
He had a feeling that she was right and they were putting themselves right in the middle of it. That seemed to be what both of them did. They were fixers, always had been, it kept them from their own shit.
Before she could make the call, Rooster’s cell phone rang and he answered, beating his hand on the steering wheel as he listened to what the person on the other end of the phone had to say.
Roni watched as he hung up, throwing the phone down in the cup holder. When he faced her, his was a mask of irritation and frustration.
“I’m dropping you off at the shop.” He pulled the truck into a driveway and turned them around, going the opposite direction so that they could head towards the shop. “I gotta go help Liam with something. Drew got into a fight at football practice. It seems like he couldn’t wait a few hours for us to have a talk with his parents. He had to go ahead and make this ten times harder.”
Her stomach dropped, and the sense of foreboding was palpable between the two of them. Quickly, this was getting worse and worse. They pulled up to the shop, and she noticed that Tyler watched the road, a worried expression on his face. “Please come and get me when you have something figured out. If nothing else, I can take one of the shop cars out to the house or have Tyler bring me when he goes.”
“Will do, but I just want to let you know, I’m worried.” He gripped the steering wheel tightly, and she could see the stiffening of his jaw. He’d seen this many times in his previous life—seen the signs that said it was getting worse. “If he’s fighting, then he’s escalating.”
She reached over and kissed him on the cheek, that small sign of affection was something they both needed. Worry set in as she got out of the truck and watched him turn in the direction that would take him to the school.
Roni kept a close eye on the drive as she sat in the office waiting for Liam or Rooster to come back. Her phone beeped beside her and her heart sped up when she saw that it was Liam.
I need you and Tyler out at the house.
That wasn’t good, couldn’t be good. She immediately saved the file she was working on and went out into the garage to get Tyler. She wouldn’t make her brother wait, not like the way she’d been made to wait when he and Rooster were picked up for the death of the man that she’d killed. This felt all too similar to her, and maybe that was her imagination, but she didn’t have a great feeling about this. She was pulling onto Porter Pike when her phone rang. Seeing Rooster’s name on the ID was all she needed to see to press the accept button on the steering wheel of the shop car.
“How is he?” she asked quickly, not even bothering with niceties.
“It’s not him I’m worried about. He fucked the other kid up,” Rooster told her in a low tone, sighing.
Roni could hear that he was pacing, and she worried that he was taking this too hard. She wondered if he was near Drew and the family. “Are you in the house?”
“No, I’m outside, I just…” He exhaled a deep breath. “I didn’t know Drew had it in him. I don’t know what was said. Drew’s sitting facing down Liam like a stone cold killer. It’s unnerving. This is the shit I saw when I’d bring kids into juvie. I don’t like this,” Rooster told her, his voice still quiet. The words sounded like they had been ripped from his throat. This was hard on him. He’d come to love these people as his own family in such a short amount of time.
Those words sank into her stomach like a stone. “I’m on my way,” she told him, disconnecting the call.
This shit was bringing back all kinds of memories she had hoped were long buried. Buried so far deep that she would never have to unearth them. As she pulled into the drive, she looked behind her and realized for the first time that Tyler was right there. He must have followed her from the shop when she’d gotten him, but it hadn’t even registered in her brain. Driving past the clubhouse, she saw a bunch of cars there and knew they were waiting to hear what was going on with the member of their family. Pulling up to her brother’s house, she saw Rooster sitting on the porch, his head in his hands.
Tyler was gone by the time she got out of the car, and she was happy for that; maybe by the time she got into the house they would know where Drew’s head was at or what happened. Rooster’s head shot up as he heard her car door slam. His eyes followed her as she slowly made her way up the drive and towards the steps.
“What’s going on with him?” She nodded her head towards the house.
“No idea.” Rooster ran his hand over his stubble-covered chin. “When we got there, he wasn’t talking, and none of the other players said they knew what happened. Apparently Drew and this other kid were coming onto the field, walking with each other. They were two of the last ones, and some of them heard some commotion, looked over, and Drew had him on the ground, whaling on him.”
“Is the kid hurt bad?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
He nodded. “They had to call an ambulance.”
“Shit,” she breathed. It was then that she heard raised voices inside the house. She and Rooster hurried inside, and when she got there, it broke her heart.
“You’re not a man, Drew,” Liam was telling the teenager. “You can’t make fucking adult decisions like putting other teenagers in the hospital. This shit follows you around for the rest of your life. Be honest with us and tell us what the fuck is going on!” He roared.
Roni took in the scene before her. Mandy stood in the corner with Denise, tears streaming down both their faces; she wasn’t sure where Tatum was. Tyler stood in the other corner; she couldn’t tell what he was feeling. His face was expressionless with the mask he used to keep his emotions tucked away. But it was Liam that killed her. She saw the memories etched in the pain on his face. Stepping forward, she wanted to be the person who kept some sense and perhaps provided calm to the situation.
“Please.” She kneeled down so that she was at eye level with him. When he wouldn’t meet her eyes, she grabbed his chin and forced him to. “Mandy tried to tell me the other day that something was up with you, but I ignored her. If Mandy knows, then you realize it’s only a matter of time before the rest of us find out. Be honest with us and let us help with whatever’s going on.” His eyes finally met hers, and she was surprised by the anger she saw there.
“Y’all think you’ve got it all figured out, right? There must be something wrong with me because I’m being a dick.”
“Stop it right now,” Denise told him from where she stood. She’d found her voice and it was hard and full of authority. “I didn’t raise you to be a punk and I didn’t raise you to talk back. Things have been different the past couple of years, and we should be thankful. Don’t you dare show your ass like this. You need to tell us what’s going on.”
He swallowed roughly, his face softening slightly. “Can I talk to Tyler and Rooster?”
Those two names couldn’t have surprised the rest of them if they’d tried.
“Whoever you need to talk to,” Roni was quick to assure him. If there was anything he needed, it was reassurance, and however he wanted to play this, she would make sure he got to play it. She wasn’t going to fail him the way she’d failed her brother and the man she’d loved for half of her life.