Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(20)

It was early afternoon by that time, and Nathan absentmindedly went about cleaning up the house while waiting on Kota to show up.

He needed backup in the house tonight, just in case Danielle and Marie were going to trick him. So he prepared his dad’s room with a laptop and double checked the cameras around his own house. He set up microphones in different spots as well.

His phone rang just as he was on a ladder checking out a camera angle in the living room. He put the camera back into position in the vent and changed the app over from the camera view to answer the call on the phone.

“Pretend you’re on the phone with me for a minute?” Silas whispered.

“How’s it going?” Nathan said, happy to play along with whatever situation Silas needed him for. He hugged the top of the ladder, ready to stay up if it this was going to be short.

Silas’s voice was distant for a moment. “Sure, yeah. It’s Sang. Sorry. Have to talk to her.” Shuffling footsteps. “Sorry,” he said more directly into the phone.

It was hard to imagine big, tall Silas trying to weasel out of anything, but apparently he needed to break free from someone. “Is this school or work?”

“Personal,” Silas said. “My father wants me to go with him on another job.”

“You don’t normally back out of those.”

“In Columbia.”

“Oh,” Nathan said. The capital of South Carolina was a good drive, a couple of hours away. “It’s not that far.”

“For two weeks.”

“Oh. ... Yeah, you probably want to back out.”

“I told him I had school, and that wasn’t good enough. He’s more serious than I thought about me taking over the family business. He said I should be going to trade school if anything.”

Nathan stepped down the ladder, landing on the carpet. He glanced around the room at the set up and testing he wasn’t quite done with, but he had a few hours, he guessed, before Danielle and Marie might show up. He leaned against the ladder as he spoke. “Okay, well, do you want to come over to get away?” He paused and then smirked. “And why am I Sang? Nathan isn’t good enough for him anymore?”

“If it isn’t her, he’s less...forgiving when I say I’m busy. Only she wasn’t answering her phone. She’s over with Kota, isn’t she?”

Nathan straightened in a jolt. “What?” He paused. “Wait...well, there was a thing this morning. She kind of ran out with Kota.” He didn’t want to explain it all now. “But she could have left without her phone.”

There was a loud, booming voice in the background on Silas’s end. Silas groaned. “Yeah. I’ve got to go over to her...Look, I can’t do it. There’s too much going on here.”

“Let me know if I need to come over,” Nathan said.

There was a bit of back and forth between Silas and his father. His father was upset. Silas started out strong, but after a couple of minutes, Nathan could sense he was relenting.

And then his father said, “Someone needs to take care of your brother when I’m gone.”

“He’s in therapy,” Silas said.

“And who pays for it?” Charlie asked. “And what about when he gets out?”

“We’re already doing that,” Nathan finally said. “You can go if you’d like, but I think we need you here.” He paused as he considered what else he could say to bolster Silas’s resolve in living the life he wanted. “Listen, Sang needs you, okay? Not me. The real Sang. We had some stuff this morning. If you want to come over, I’ll tell you about it.” He smirked to the ceiling as he said the next line. “Unless I need to go over there myself. Do I have to wear a skirt for him to take me seriously? Because I’ll do it.”

Silas snorted shortly into the phone but then spoke to his father. “I’m sorry. I have to go.” Pause. “Look, we’ll talk when you get back. But I think we need to look into finding someone else to go on jobs with you.” Another pause. “I don’t know who.”

“Don’t you have cousins?” Nathan asked. “If he wants someone that bad, let’s fly them in.”

“What about the cousins?” Silas said. Pause. “Sure, sure. Look, if you call one of them in, I’ll make sure he gets here. We’ll get him a visa and everything.”

There was a bit more of this. Nathan listened, but while he did, he started back up the ladder. He fiddled with the vent cover, putting it back on.

“Okay,” Silas said after a minute. “I think that’s good. Hey, good idea about the cousins.”

“I’m here to help,” Nathan said. “You coming over?”

“In a bit,” he said. “He wants to talk about which cousins. He’s not totally happy, but helping out family works.” He paused again. “This might take a while.”

“Take your time. Family first, right?”

Silas agreed, said goodbye, and hung up.

Nathan put his phone down on the top of the ladder and then waited, looking at it.

Charlie would still want Silas to take on the family business, but Silas was going to have to eventually put his foot down and tell him he wasn’t interested.

Some family situations were a bit more delicate to handle for them.