DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(70)

“Not that.”

“Football was all I had. And now that’s gone, too.”

I sat beside him and tried to take his hand, but he pulled away.

“I’ll go talk to your coach.”

“Please don’t. You’ve already done enough.”

“But maybe if I—“

“Don’t you get it, Penny? You’ve already destroyed my life! Why would you want to make it worse than you already have?”

He jumped off the couch. “My parents didn’t want me. The parents that did want me, died. And now you…you’re destroying everything that matters to me. Do you really hate me that much?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Why don’t you just go back to New York and leave me alone? I’m better off without you, anyway.”

He turned and a second later I heard the front door shutter in its frame. I wanted to go after him, but what could I say to that? He wasn’t completely wrong. I had done this. If I had known calling Susan would lead to this, I never would have…at least, I liked to think I wouldn’t have. Would I have? Maybe I was just that frustrated with him. Maybe I had, in the back of my mind, known what would happen. Maybe I wanted it to happen. Maybe I was that desperate to get JT to be more like the boy he was when I left for New York, the happy ten year old who followed me around like a lost puppy instead of this angry, bitter teenager who went out of his way to make my life complicated.

Was I really fit to be a guardian? Was I doing anyone any favors trying to make this work? Had I already messed up too badly to fix things?

So many questions. And it seemed like I had absolutely no answers.

~~~

I waited three hours for JT to come home. Then I began calling all his friends. Someone had to know where he was, right? It was a small town. After five hours, I began to have all these thoughts—JT in a hospital somewhere, unable to speak with no idea to identify him, JT drinking and doing some dangerous drugs in someone’s dark basement, JT becoming road kill in a terrible accident on the highway—that sent panic shivering through my body like an epileptic seizure.

I needed help. I would normally call Nick, but he hadn’t spoken two words to me all day after catching me with Mr. James. And Susan was in the city with her family, celebrating her daughter’s fifth birthday. There were others I could call, but each one came with complications, such as the cop who arrested JT who had promised the next time he caught him doing something that reckless, he would book him for sure. I didn’t know what to do.

I got in the car and drove up and down the long, wide streets of our little town. It was dark, nearly curfew. Few people were out and those who were, were old enough to be on their way to the nightshift at the local grocery warehouse. I was about ready to start knocking on doors when I happened to remember Mr. James’ card. I’d stuck it in my phone case just because I happened to pick up my phone just after he gave it to me. I pulled to the side of the road and popped it out.

What did I have to lose?





Chapter 6



Harrison

Her voice on the other end of the line was the last thing I had expected. I was lying in bed, watching the end of The Tonight Show when the phone rang. I thought it would be Libby or my mother, forgetting once again about the time difference between Oregon and Texas. But when I mumbled a distracted hello, it was Penelope’s panicked voice that filled my ear.

“I’m sorry to call so late, but I didn’t know who else to call. So I thought I’d trust that you aren’t out to hurt JT and ask you for help.”

I sat up, alarms sounding all through my head as I listened to her stumble over her words.

“What’s going on?”

“JT and I had a fight and he took off. And now I can’t find him anywhere.”

“Where are you?”

“On the corner of Main and Third.”

“You’re about a block from my place. Stay there and I’ll come find you.”

I ended the call before she could say anything else, flinging the phone into the center of the bed as I jumped up and pulled on a pair of jeans discarded on the floor of my bedroom and a t-shirt that was sticking out of a drawer in my dresser. I dragged my fingers through my hair, slipped on my tennis shoes, grabbed my phone, and headed out. I found her car pretty easily. It was the only one idling on the side of the road at this hour of the night.

I tapped on the window and she immediately released the locks, leaning over to open the door.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said as I climbed in, folding my long legs into the tight confines of her little Ford. “He was so upset. I thought he’d come back after a while, but when he didn’t—“

“Slow down and start at the beginning,” I said, laying my hand over hers where it sat on the steering wheel. “Why was he upset?”

“The coach kicked him off the team because he was still wearing his jersey when he was arrested.”

I nodded even as something inside my stomach sank like a stone in the river. Football was everything to JT. Even just observing him in my English class I could see that. To lose his spot on the team must have been devastating.

“Have you tried his friends? Called their parents?”

She nodded. “I’ve tried everyone. And I’ve been driving around for hours, trying to spot him on the street. I even drove to the neighboring towns, thinking he might have walked to one of them, just to worry me. But I can’t find him.”