A Whole New Crowd(69)

His eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
I didn’t hold back with my answer. “Your sister has a drug problem.”
“How do you know?”
I hid a grin. He wasn’t fighting me. I heard what he hadn’t said. “My ex used to be a drug addict. I just know.”
He jerked his head in a nod. “She’s at some place getting help?”
“As long as she stays.”
“What do you mean?”
“She signed herself in. She can sign herself out.”
“She can do that?” He snorted and leaned back in his seat, plopping his head back against the headrest. “She’ll be out by tonight.”
“Maybe.” I hoped not. “If she does, they’ll call. You can still talk to her.”
He rolled his eyes. “It won’t matter. This shit’s been going on forever.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mom and Dad took her in last summer. It didn’t do anything. She came out and was popping pills on the drive home. It was a joke.”
I frowned. His words rocked me. They had known? “The bottles I saw were prescribed from your dad. Why would he continue to do that?”
“He doesn’t. He cut her off a long time ago. I bet she just uses them to store the pills in there.”
She got the pills somewhere else…that information seared through me. She had another drug dealer, and her family was forced to take me in. I didn’t think those two items were random. In my life, I learned there weren’t many coincidences. As I drove home, I knew that I would have to go see Jace. He didn’t want me there, but I didn’t care. I was going to find out some answers. When we headed inside, I told Austin to pack a bag.
“Why?”
“It doesn’t seem right to stay here, not after I took Mandy in without your parents’ permission.”
He frowned. “Oh. Wait a minute, if they don’t know, how are you paying for this?”
I had no idea, but I wasn’t going to admit that to a fourteen-year-old. I shrugged. “I’ll figure something out. Go pack a bag.”
“What about nosy neighbor?” He gestured to the house next door. “I think Mom was going to have her stay with us a couple nights, you know, to ‘check’ on us.” He laughed. “We could just leave a note. She doesn’t care anyway.”
“Oh.” He was right. “The neighbor is the least of our problems. Go get your bag.”
He started up the stairs, but paused again. “Where are we going?”
“We’re staying at Tray’s.”
“At Tray Evans’?” He smiled widely, blinding me. He added, “That’s awesome. We’re staying till Mom and Dad get home?”
“Or if Mandy leaves rehab.”
The smile fell right away. “Oh. Yeah.” He darted to his room, and I heard him shoving things into a bag.
As I waited for him to finish, I pulled out my phone and dialed Tray’s. When he answered, I asked, “Is it still okay if Austin and I stay at your place?”
“You already asked and yes.” He paused. I could hear his hesitation before he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I will be.” I was angry. I was more than angry, but my voice was tight and controlled as I gripped the phone. My hand clenched around it. “I have to run an errand tonight.”
He didn’t say anything at first. “Should I ask what the errand is?”
“No.”
“Taryn, I don’t like it.”
I didn’t care. “Tray, someone messed with my life. I have questions that I need answered, and I will get them.” At any cost.
“Just be safe.”
Hearing Austin’s door slam and him barreling down the stairs, I said into the phone, “I gave you a second chance to back out. Too late. We’re heading over right now.”
“Sounds good.”
“Okay.” I moved to end the call when I heard him say, “Taryn?” I pressed the phone back to my ear. “Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
My heart skipped a beat. Those two words were spoken with intensity and tenderness, but it was the raw emotion in them that had that alien feeling blossom again in my chest. It was another one of those moments when he spoke and his words went right into me. He could do that, more and more lately with just a look or a touch or a word.
That, in itself, was a whole other issue that I didn’t want to tackle at that moment. Instead of feeling vulnerable and stripped open, I was going to take on a fight that I could handle. Jace Lanser.
I drove Austin to Tray’s, dropped him off, and then left. Tray waved from the door, and Austin didn’t seem to care if I went inside with him or not. He was happy. I still didn’t know why, but I wasn’t going to question it. Then I drove towards Pedlam.