Page 31 of Tormented
“We’re not lettin’ him get away with what he’s done,” Hooch reassures me as he stares out over the backyard. “We’re just makin’ sure we don’t rush things.”
“I know.” I scrub a hand over the back of my head. “I’ve been waitin’ twenty-odd years, so what’s a few more months, right?”
“Pretty much it.” He slaps me on the shoulder and then drops onto the seat beside me. “You good now, though?”
I close my eyes and frown. “Apart from feelin’ like I’ve run a goddamn gladiator course or somethin’, yeah, I’m good.”
“Aching is part of the side effects.”
“You don’t say.” I lift my phone from my lap and show him the Google page detailing info on ketamine. “What the hell was King doin’ with that shit lying around, anyway?”
“Jo-Jo uses it.”
“Explains why he’s so messed up then,” I say dryly.
“Pot, kettle.”
I chuckle as my gaze drifts across to where Mack is laid out on his stomach on the grass, playing some game with plastic army men. “That rich boy gonna pull through?”
The Butcher Boy Ramona shacked up with went and got himself shot while on the way back to the clubhouse with King and Tap last night. Talk about a busy one all round. Something about a whore and a pimp, and some questionable behavior.
Maybe he isn’t so different to you . . . .
Probably not. She did always like mothering the broken ones.
“Yeah, I think he’ll heal up just fine,” Hooch answers. “How’s she doin’ though?”
I bumped into Ramona at the top of the stairs going off her rocker—after only just hearing what was unfolding myself—ranting shit about making Mack see what this life entails. Except she didn’t scare the kid with the truth of the matter downstairs—Ty bleeding over our goddamn pool table—she scared the hell out of Mack with her crazed ramblings.
So I did what any self-respecting father would do: I told her to fuck off and get her shit together, and then took Mack for the rest of the day so she’s got time to do just that.
“She’s shaken up. There’s been a lot goin’ down over the last couple of days, so you can’t really blame her.”
“You two squared your shit away, though?”
“Yeah. We talked early this morning, before all that ruckus with Ty.”
“No more Sawyer and Ramona then, huh?” He leans back, nodding at the thought.
“Had to happen sooner or later.”
I confided in him, after he hauled my ass to safety. Told the guy what it was his sister had done for me. What Dana opened my eyes to; the way I treated Ramona was one of those things.
I’ve never pretended to be a good man. Fuck, I ain’t even a half-decent guy. But the emotional abuse, the manipulation, and the games I played with her? Mack saw it all.
And I don’t want my son to be just like me.
I want him to be a real man.
Sure of who he is, and with a heart full of nothing but love.
“I’ve been thinkin’,” I say.
“Here we go.” He rolls his motherfucking eyes at me.
I let it slide. “Until this plan of King’s to steal the distribution from my father runs its course, my old man is just gonna keep on comin’, keep on fuckin’ with me.”
“No surprises there,” Hooch drawls.