What's Mine and Yours(85)

Noelle latched her arms around his neck, and Gee let himself be held. When she pulled away, she turned to Jade and said, “I know who did it. I know who did this to Gee.”

She looked familiar, but Jade couldn’t place the girl. She wore a pair of battered, mammoth-sized boots, a black vest pierced by a half-dozen safety pins.

The girl explained it had been three boys from the church where Duke Redfield’s parents were deacons. They were friends with Duke, knuckleheads acting on his behalf. They’d taken it upon themselves to send a message, although what the message was she couldn’t be sure.

“I have an idea,” Jade said, but the children didn’t seem to be listening. Noelle was holding Gee’s hand in hers, and Jade quickly grasped what was going on between them. She staggered out to find León.

Jade lurched through the halls wearily. She felt dizzy, light boned. When they had called her from the school and mentioned the assault, she had braced herself and thought, My baby is dead. She flew out of the clinic and did eighty-five, ninety, as she maneuvered down the highway. Ray, she prayed as she drove. Come and help your son. After all these years, it was still the most natural thing to do, to call on Ray to help her, help them. There was no one else she needed close, to hold her up, so that she could face Gee, survive what those boys had done to him.

Jade found León at the nurse’s station surrounded by a cadre of women in scrubs. They were idly chatting, the women smiling, and Jade wanted to shake him for being so at ease, so calm, while her son was beaten, bloodied. Jade waited for him to finish with the nurses. When he turned to her, he spoke officially, medically about Gee. They’d be released within the hour.

“An officer hasn’t been by to collect his testimony. We can’t leave until that’s done.”

León spoke delicately, in a tone Jade recognized as the one he used for volatile patients. “I spoke to the attending. Gee told the officer he didn’t have anything to report. It was before you arrived. They can’t make him talk.”

“I bet I can.”

“Jade, I’m sure he has his reasons for keeping quiet. Maybe you should listen to him.”

“And let those boys get away with what they did? If it had been the other way around—if Gee had jumped one of them—he’d already be behind bars. Maybe he’d be dead.”

“Let’s just thank God he’s fine. And let him make his own decisions. That’s a part of his recovery, too.”

“This has nothing to do with you,” Jade scoffed. “You have zero say in this.”

León reached for her shoulders, although they had an agreement against touching in public. “Technically, I’m his doctor.”

“Technically, you’re no one to him.”

León dropped his hands, and she could see that she’d wounded him.

“Why do you have to push? Why are you trying to get in the middle of this? You’re not his father. He had a father. His name was Ray.”

“I’m not trying to replace anyone. I’m just trying to help.”

“So send an officer.”

León shook his head. “You can’t always protect him, Jade.”

“Are you kidding? That’s the main thing I’m supposed to do. And I’m failing.”

León reached for her again, drew her toward him.

“What are you doing? They can see us.”

“I don’t care.”

She pushed him away. “You’re not listening. If you won’t send an officer, then we’re done here. There’s nothing else that I need you for.”



Back in the room, Jade found Gee with a worried expression, his mouth twisted to the side, as if he were waiting for a pain to subside. She asked him if he was all right, but before he answered, she heard his friend on the other side of the curtain. She was talking to an older woman, the two of them standing just beyond the curtain. It rippled with their movements. Jade listened and realized quickly why her son was so upset.

“I thought you knew better than to get tied up with boys like that.”

“It was Duke and his friends. They’re the ones I should avoid.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want things at the school to change, but you didn’t listen. All you wanted to do was criticize me when I’ve been trying to help you.”

“Gee didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Gee! What kind of name is that? Noelle, I thought you were smarter than this, smarter than me.”

Jade pushed past the curtain and found Noelle beside a woman she could only assume was her mother. She had her hair tied up with a large clip, the ends splayed like the spokes of a wheel. She was lean with a mean, pretty face. She wore a yellow vest Jade recognized from the grocery store. She wore a pin that read TEAM LEADER.

“Would you mind moving your conversation somewhere that my son can’t hear? And, to be honest, I don’t want to hear it either.”

Noelle apologized quickly, and the woman sneered defiantly at Jade. “Who are you?”

“I’m Gee’s mother—you know, the young man with the funny name. Who the hell are you?”

“I remember you. From the town hall.” The woman narrowed her eyes at Jade. “Tell your son to keep away from my daughter.”