Chapter 19

Buying one when you really want two.

-Gun control

Jessie

I parked my bike in the driveway next to Ellen’s piece of shit car, and idly wondered if she’d notice if I traded it in for a new one.

Of course, I knew she would notice. What I wanted to know was if she’d give me a hard time about it or if she’d just let me do it. I was hoping she’d just let me do it. Eventually, I would wear her down, but if she went down without a fight it’d be safer for her.

A peal of laughter had me looking up at the house, and despite being chilled to the bone and soaked to the skin, I found a smile on my face as I heard my son’s laughter paired with Ellen’s giggles.

I was happy that the two of them got along so well. Of course, I expected it’d happen. Linc was a good kid, and he genuinely liked everyone. Ellen was the exact same way, and I never thought that they wouldn’t treat each other with kindness.

Once I had my bike situated, I jogged up to the front door and opened it, coming to a halt in the doorway when I saw my son with a beer in his hand.

My brows rose as I took in the scene.

Ellen was curled up on the couch, her head was half hanging off of it, and she had a beer in her hand that was hanging precariously.

The not-a-dog was biting her hair from where he was lying on the floor next to the couch, and Ellen wasn’t paying enough attention. Either that or she plain didn’t care.

He was staring up at the ceiling with a smile a mile wide stretched across his face. He was laughing deeply about something, and it was only when I heard Ellen say, “And she called me a selfish bitch when you were two. She hated that I was feeding you cake, when you so obviously were allergic to cake. Your father,” she wiped tears from her eyes with the bottom of the beer bottle. “He looked at her and told her she was ‘fuckin’ fucked in the head’ if she thought you were allergic to cake.”

My brows rose. I was surprised that Ellen remembered that. The very next day was the day that I’d left. I would’ve thought she’d have blocked that out purely to protect herself. That day was one of the best days of my life, and it was a precursor for what happened after it.

“Do you think Dad’ll be mad about my mom?” Linc sobered.

And that was when I realized that my woman hadn’t let my underage kid drink without reason.

I’d noticed that there’d been something off with the both of them today, but with the winning of the game, as well as the fucked up winter weather, I’d not gotten a chance to ask either one of them what was wrong.

Now, well now was a different story.

“Why do you think I’d be mad about your mom?” I asked my son.

Linc lifted his head and let out one of those exaggerated, teenaged boy groans. The kind that clearly said to anyone who heard it that life as that teenager had known it had just ended right before their eyes.

He dropped his head back to the carpet, and I barely resisted the urge to laugh.

“Son of a bitch.”

“Language, boy!” Ellen sat up and glared at me.

“Why are you lurking there like a weirdo in the doorway?” she snapped. “Go get changed so I can tell you about what new fucked up low your baby mama stooped to now.”

My brows rose.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ten minutes later, dressed and finally warm in a pair of sweatpants and nothing else, I walked out to see Ellen working on a new beer—her third if the bottles on the table next to her were any indication—and my son nowhere to be found.

“Where’d he go?” I asked.

“He took the dog out,” she answered as she got up. “Do you want a beer or some coffee?”

She eyed me warily, studying me from head to toe as if to ascertain that I was okay.

“I’ll have some coffee,” I said. “Then I’ll have a beer.”

She walked to the kitchen and got started on that without me even having to ask her, and she was placing the steaming mug in my hands thirty seconds later.

“Now sit, so I can tell you.”

I hesitated, rethinking my decision to not have a beer.

“Is this bad?”

She nodded without saying a word.

I detoured to my cabinet where I kept the liquor, and splashed some Bailey’s into my coffee.

She didn’t say a word as I returned to my seat on the couch and sank down into the comfortable cushions.

“Go ahead and lay it on me,” I ordered warily.

She sat down on the coffee table directly in front of me and placed her beer down next to her thigh before returning her gaze to me.

“I ran into Margot at the game in the bathroom.” She bit her lip. “She was rude, like always, but this time, she also made a comment that caught my attention.”

“What kind of comment?” I was almost scared to ask.

“She made it sound like she asked your son to throw the game today. And by asking him, I mean she actually did tell him to do it.”

Anger started to churn in my gut.

“So, I asked your son, and he told me that that wasn’t the first fucked up thing she’s done.”

“You mean other than overdosing on the way to going to the movies with him?” I snarled, standing up and starting to pace.

She caught the coffee that I’d forgotten was resting on the arm of the couch and placed it on the table next to her other thigh.

“She’s been blackmailing him,” she started. “Forcing him to see her even when he doesn’t want to.”

“How?” I ran my hands through my hair.

“By telling him things that a mother shouldn’t be telling her son,” she muttered under her breath. “She’s pretty much used you against him. Telling him things that she would do to you if he didn’t comply with her wishes.”

I snorted, unsurprised that she would sink to such low levels.

“She threatened to take you to court and have her rights given back to her,” Ellen continued. “Then, when that was no longer working, she forced him to go with her places, to act the devoted son, all so she could use him later on as a pawn in some new betting scheme she had going on with her dealer.”

“How did she do that?” I asked. “By forcing him? He’s not a small kid. He didn’t have to do any of this. He could’ve come to me at any time.”

“When he started to, she threatened to plant drugs and a gun in his car while he was at school, and then turn him in the authorities.”

The words were said, but I couldn’t fucking believe them.

“That fucking bitch.” I turned around and headed in the direction of my room. My destination was my closet so I could get dressed, and then go find this bitch and let her know what she’d done to fuck up.

But before I could even slip my pants off, Ellen was there, halting my progress.

“I think you need to call Big Papa, and then once you talk to him, call the school and let them know what’s going on,” she said. “What I don’t think you should do is go off half-cocked and make matters worse for either you or Linc.”

I gritted my teeth.

“She messed with my kid,” I growled through clenched teeth.

“She did,” I said. “And I think that you need to be very careful what you do right now.”

She was right. Of course, she was right, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around it all.

“Is there anything else?” I asked very calmly.

“No.” She hesitated. “Well, yes, but no.”

I turned around and looked at her.

She backed up until her knees hit the bed.

I kept coming, forcing her to sit down.

I went down with her, my hands going to either side of her chest as she fell backwards.

“What?” I asked, my face inches from hers.

“I saw them when I ran after my flier earlier.”

“When you chased that paper after the game?” I guessed.

She nodded.

“What happened?”

“Margot was there, talking with some man who was all decked out in Under Armour. He looked like a coach actually.”

“What did he look like exactly?”

“He was about your height. Skinnier, more of a runner’s build. He had dark hair, more brown than black. His skin was tanned, and he had really dark eyes and a scar on his nose.”

I knew instantly who she was talking about.

“That’s the special teams coach for Linc’s team,” I grunted and pushed myself up, standing by the bed and staring blankly at the wall.

“What did he say?” I needed to know everything.

This was bad.

“He was talking about throwing the game at first. He was pissed off that Linc didn’t do what he was supposed to do. I also think he’s the baby’s father. But when I mentioned some of this to Linc, he didn’t seem to know that the two of them had any connection at all.”

I rubbed my forehead thoughtfully with my hand.

“I’ve never heard about any problems on Linc’s end from him,” I finally settled on. “But this needs to be discussed tonight, and I need to hear it all from Linc before I make any more moves on my end.”

“I’m here.”

I looked over to find Linc standing in the doorway.

“I never knew Coach Rhodes knew Mom. He’s never once approached me about her or anything to do with throwing the game like Mom did to me yesterday,” he said.

He was staring at me like he used to do when he was in trouble and he knew it.

I gestured him forward.

He came, and I threw my arm around his neck and pulled him to me.

He may be nearly my height and just a few pounds short of me in weight, but the boy was still my baby. He always would be.

“We’ll figure this out, son,” I told him. “But you did the right thing. You knew what was right, and you didn’t fuck anything up too badly.”

“That pass to the other team. That was by accident, but nobody will believe me when they find out that Mom blackmailed me into throwing the game,” he whispered.

I looked into eyes so like my own.

“What did she hold against you to get you to follow her orders?” I asked carefully.

“She said either I throw the game or she’d kill the baby.”

I closed my eyes.

“She threatened to kill herself once a week when she was pregnant with you,” I told him bluntly. “But if she does that, then she fucks her leverage up,” I explained. “The one and only time I thought she was serious about what she said, I called the cops and told them what she threatened. They kept her in a psychiatric hold at the hospital for over a week.”

His eyes widened. “So yes, I’m sure she was betting on you not saying a word to me about any of this. That way, I couldn’t share what she used to do to me, and the ways I used to handle her.”

His head hung.

“You’re a kid, Linc. You shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of shit or with a mother who’s a dick head. Unfortunately, we don’t all get that lucky. But you, my son, were dealt a pretty shitty hand when it comes to mothers. You’ve got one of the worst, in my opinion. But from now on, I’ll deal with her. We’ll go up to the phone store in the morning and change your number.”

“But…”

I held up my hand. “She won’t be able to call you. You can give all your friends your new number, and it’ll be okay.”

He shrugged.

“And if see your mother coming around, I want you to go in the other direction. Also, don’t allow yourself to be alone with Coach Rhodes. I know you have practices, but walk away if he tries to talk to you by yourself.”

His eyes were hard as I said the last part, and he nodded.

“I never was near him much, anyway, since he was the kickers’ coach. I’ll also have to be around him in the spring though because the other coaches teach baseball and soccer, too,” Linc offered.

I nodded in understanding. “That’s good, because if you see him, I want you to go the other direction. I’m not sure how long it will take to have this handled, but it may not be automatic. He may be free to work in the meantime.”

“The holidays are here anyway, Dad. There won’t be any need for me to see him until the beginning of January.”

I grunted in reply. “Good. Now take that damn wolf and head to your room. I have some calls to make.”

***

I watched Ellen across my house, talking quietly with the woman Big Papa brought with him, and grinned.

“You better be careful. They’ll bring the girl into the fold and you’ll be forced to settle down,” I told Big Papa.

Big Papa grunted in reply. “Yeah, fuck no.”

I snorted.

“You’re never going to settle down?” I asked him.

The door banged open, and Ghost walked in, a scowl on his face that would’ve made him intimidating to just about anyone.

“I’ve done the wife thing before,” Big Papa said as he watched Ghost stalk toward us. “Got Sean out of it, but yeah, the act of allowing someone to have that power over me again is enough to give me hives. I’ve never found anyone like you have. Like my boy. Maybe that’ll change if I find that, but right now, Lila makes my dick happy.”

Before I could reply to that announcement, Ghost walked right up to me and halted my words in their tracks.

“Dealer’s dead.”

My head whipped around, and I stared at him in shock.

“You’re fucking kidding.” I really hoped he was joking, but the look on Ghost’s face was enough to cause me to start cursing.

“Motherfucker,” I growled. “How’d that happen?”

“Gunshot wound to the head,” he answered. “But he was also found in his fuckin’ car, which was stuffed with enough heroin and weed to supply the entire fucking state. So, right now, it’s looking like a vigilante crime.”

“Except it wasn’t.” I knew it wasn’t. “My kid’s in the middle of this shit, man. I need you to help me figure it out.”

I didn’t know anything about being a cop, and I certainly didn’t have the skills of one. I’d been a kid raised on the wrong side of the track. I had no special skills that would help me in this situation. I also didn’t know anyone who could help me beside these men.

“You don’t have to worry,” Big Papa said. “Ghost here’s a wizard at finding shit out. He’ll piece it together, and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

I was staggered by the relief I felt at the knowledge that these men were going to have my back.

My son was right. Joining The Dixie Wardens was totally the right thing to do for us. We weren’t alone anymore, and as I looked over at Ellen, hearing her laughter, I realized that I never would be again.