I laughed. “Neither am I.”
“I got a lot of shit to do still.”
“Me too.”
“Okay. I’m not saying I’m in.”
“Think about it.”
“Fine.” He grinned at me, shaking his head. “You’re one crazy motherfucker, aren’t you, Climber?”
“Crazier than you know, man.”
I stood up, slipping the bullets into my pocket and tucking the gun into my waistband. I pushed out his door and walked out toward my truck. I heard him follow me to the front door.
“What’s to stop me from telling them?” he called out.
I turned back. He was standing there, a cocky grin on his face, his arms crossed. I covered the distance between us quickly and, before he could even wipe that stupid look off his face, punched him once in the jaw. He stumbled backward, clutching his face.
“Don’t ever say that again,” I said.
“Fuck you, man. I was just saying.”
“They’d kill me and they’d kill you too for even listening to me. Don’t ever think about fucking ratting on me, Thom.”
He looked at me, rubbing his jaw. Rage flew through my veins and I wanted to take out every frustration on his stupid, idiotic face, make him bleed for me. But I knew that I needed his connections if I had any shot at getting out of my situation alive, and I needed him. I could push Thom, but I couldn’t push him too far. Punching him was probably not the best move, but I couldn’t abide that sort of bullshit from him. I had to make sure he was down.
“I was just saying,” he muttered.
“This is for real. This is life or death shit now. You don’t want in, fine, you don’t want in. But don’t get me killed because you’re a coward.”
“I’m not a coward.”
“Good. Keep your fucking mouth shut.”
I turned and left him standing there. I climbed into my truck and started the engine. He watched me as I pulled off his property, back down the dirt path. As soon as I was a few feet away, the night swallowed him again, and I was headed back home.
I didn’t want to see Becca. Not with the adrenaline flowing through my veins, the angry confusion still holding on to me. But I’d put my mom through enough shit for one weekend and had to show up at home, at least so she knew that I hadn’t been killed by a bear.
My problems weren’t solved, but I was starting to get to work. Becca might come around, or she might not.
But either way I was going to be ready for her when she figured out that she couldn’t live without my hard cock.
Chapter Fifteen: Rebecca
His words kept ringing in my ears. I’ve been smuggling drugs from Canada for the mob.
My stepbrother the drug smuggler.
I didn’t know what to do with that information. All night long I kept imagining him behind bars, locked up because he got caught bringing drugs into the country.
Worse, I kept imagining all the people who were hooked on the drugs he was responsible for.
And yet he had good reasons. I wasn’t around for all that time. I was too busy out at school to really help out. When it came down to it, Reid had stayed behind, had given up his promising climbing career, and had continued to sacrifice for his family.
But what a sacrifice. Was that really his only option?
Reid was a drug smuggler. He worked with gangsters. He helped pay for his mother’s cancer treatment with drug money. He was partly responsible for the drugs that were flooding into Ridgewood.
Despite the lies and the danger and everything else, all I could think about was his strong hands on my hips, his dick slipping deep between my legs as he fucked me in the deep forest. My heart practically fluttered every time I so much as thought his name.
I slipped out of the house early the next morning and went to work, my mind a distracted daze of conflicted emotions. The Blue was as good a place as any to try to forget as I bustled between tables during the busy day shift.
Part of me was worried that I’d run into Reid, but he didn’t show up. I didn’t know what I would do if he did. I was totally shocked when he first told me, but as time went by I found that I wasn’t totally angry with him.
Because I had no right to be angry. I was the one that left the family, even though Cora had made it clear that she wanted me to graduate.
Reid had stepped up. Reid had put himself in danger in order to help the people that he loved.
Still, it was a huge shock. And he had been lying to everyone for a long time.
The morning slipped by like sand through my fingers, one table turning into the next, and I floated through it all on autopilot. Really, the only thing I could concentrate on was what Reid said to me the night before.
And the look on his face. Almost empty, blank, like he didn’t care about what he was saying. Like he was resigned to being whatever it was the smuggling made him.