Weight of Silence(39)

“Stay right the fuck there,” Gavin snarled.

“What are you gonna hit with that, boy?” Kai said. His deep voice was slurred, which only happened when he was an inch from totaled.

“Come at me and you’ll find out real quick.”

“You gonna hit your old man?”

“Repeatedly and with pleasure.”

Kai’s eyes widened a fraction then narrowed. “Where’s my wife?”

“Outside calling the police.”

“What the hell for?”

Gavin snorted. Was he serious? “Breaking and entering, trespassing, probably theft, depending on what they find in your pockets.”

“Trespassing?” He laughed long and loud, a horrible, grating sound. “Lucìa’s still my wife, and what’s hers is mine.”

Gavin hated the fact that Kai wouldn’t give his mother a divorce, which still granted him some legal rights. Just not the ones Kai thought. “Yeah, well, that’s why my name is on the lot lease, asshole. So you’re trespassing. I could probably shoot you dead and no one would care.”

Kai bristled. He came forward, entering the doorframe. Gavin shifted to get a better swing with the bat. Kai slammed one palm flat against the wall, rattling a picture hanging near Gavin’s head. He jumped and was immediately angry at himself for the instinctive reaction.

“I need to talk to Lucìa now! She’s hidden something of mine, and I need it back.”

“Like what? Your balls? Your fucking pride? Too late to get any of that back, Dad.”

For two hundred pounds of slob, Kai was crazy fast. Gavin’s back slammed into the wall before he registered the fist in his shirt, or the arm across his throat. He tried to swing the bat, but Kai’s knee came up and ground his wrist into the wall hard enough that he had to let go. The bat clattered to the floor.

“I don’t have time to deal with you, kid,” Kai growled, his breath hot puffs of overripe air. He pulled Gavin down as his knee came up, and the blow to his stomach knocked all the air from Gavin’s lungs.

He collapsed onto the hallway carpet, eyes watering, lungs seizing. His chest and stomach ached, and he couldn’t breathe. Kai stalked down the hall toward the living room, screaming Mama’s name as he went. A trickle of air made it down Gavin’s windpipe and jumpstarted his lungs. Gasping for more oxygen, Gavin scrambled up and stumbled down the hall.

The front door was open. The Jeep horn blared. The plastic top and windows were up, but they wouldn’t stop Kai for long. Gavin charged outside and down the steps, his fury fueled by the sound of his mother screaming for help. Kai was yanking on the passenger door, yelling at her, demanding to know where something was.

Gavin didn’t think. He tackled.

He’d never been very good at football, so his tackle was terrible, but it got Kai on the ground and away from his mother. He counted it as a win, even though Kai flipped him off and onto his back like he was a stuffed animal. Gavin’s spine protested the gravel digging into it, and then his ribcage protested Kai’s weight settling onto it from above.

“Stupid fucking kid,” Kai said, his eyes wild in the light of approaching headlights. Headlights accented with swirling red and a siren. “Think you’re better than me. You’re exactly like me.”

“I’m nothing—” The fist that slammed into his face proved Gavin’s interrupted statement that he was nothing like Kai. His ears rang from the blow and his cheek blazed.

The sirens got louder. Mama was yelling. Kai said something, then his weight was gone.

Gavin blinked at the fuzzy stars above, unsure why he couldn’t focus. Someone rushed past him. Kai was shouting profanities. Then Mama was bending over him, her cheeks streaked with tears, saying his name over and over.

Sight and sound came rushing back, along with a cold wave of fear. He sat up and yanked her into a hug that made his throbbing face hurt even more. “Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine.” She clutched at his jacket, her plump body trembling.

Gavin tried to take in the scene around him—police car, uniformed officers, Kai on the ground being cuffed—but it didn’t make a lot of sense. He ignored it all and concentrated on comforting his mother.





They booked Kai for B&E, destruction of property, trespassing and assault. According to Detective Kramer, Kai lawyered up when Kramer tried to get him to tell what he’d been looking for. Mama insisted she didn’t know, said she’d swear to it on a stack of bibles. Gavin took it all in from behind a warming ice pack, which had turned his left cheek into an icicle. Every cop at the station seemed to take turns berating him for not staying inside the trailer and congratulating him for protecting his mother. He started nodding at everyone, no matter what they said.