He shuffled on his bike and stood taller. “Yep. Dad’s place.”
“I didn’t realize your dad was the mayor.”
“Not something I brag about.”
“You guys don’t get on?” I asked.
Rubin turned my way, his eyes practically rolling and his face falling deadpan without any concern at all. “He’s an asshole. Let’s not pretend you and the club don’t hate him, either.”
Brave kid. Ballsy.
I turned down my smile and raised my brows. “Fair enough.”
“The whole of Babylon hates him. It’s why I try to keep busy, either with Tate or the other guys on the football team. I spend a lot of time at school, doing what I can when I can. I like to feel a part of… something,” he said, telling me way too much for a kid who barely knew me. “That’s why I like being at your place. It’s a family, you know.”
“I do.”
“You’re a lucky guy, Drew.”
And that was about all I could take of that.Lucky?If only he knew. Lucky wasn’t a word I’d ever associated with myself—at least not until Ayda had come along and turned my world upside down, but after last night, I’d even managed to fuck that up. Her sad eyes taunted me, begging me to return home, so I shook the thought of her away and swalloweddown another dose of confusion.
“Listen, Rubin, I gotta get out of here.”
“Sure thing.” He nodded.
“Do me a favor. Don’t tell anyone you saw me out here, okay?”
“You got it, Drew. Anything you need. Anything at all.”
I only took a second, but I studied his face, unable to connect Rubin’s kindness and spark to the DNA of the goddamn slimy mayor. It didn’t make sense. How could someone so decent come from someone so fucking rotten?
I tore away without another thought, pushing the plans to hurt the mayor’s family to the back of my mind because that family had somehow become my own, and instead, I went to find fresh blood. Blood I wouldn’t have to put a name to.
Chapter Seven
AYDA
Ipulled up outside The Hut and stared at the small porch from my truck. I’d left Autumn’s house feeling much better than I had when I’d left home that morning. Unfortunately, the call I’d received from Babylon High’s principal as I’d been driving back had completely pushed me back into the realm of emotional, and the cause of my dismay was currently sat on the railing waiting for me.
My kid brother.
My suddenly irrational and rule-breaking kid brother who had broken a pupil’s nose at school today.
Tate obviously thought I was pissed. His hands were entwined between his legs, and his eyes were downcast, studying them. He seemed to forget I was making a lot of allowances for the men in my life at the moment, but it wouldn't hurt him to sweat bullets for a while. I knew just how to deal with this kind of shit.
With a quiet sigh, I turned off my truck and hopped out, making sure to slam the door behind me, ultimately satisfied with the wince that Tate tried and failed, to hide. Pushing my keys into my pocket, I climbed to the porch and rested my forearms on the railing just next to where he was sitting.
Then, I waited.
I waited in silence because I knew he would crack first.
I waited in silence because this was the only way to see his mood and how he would react to how I decided to handle this situation.
I waited because he was a good kid going through a hard time.
“I fucked up, A.”
I stayed quiet, continuing my stoic stare out over the yard toward the pawnshop.