Angel of Redemption (28 page)

Read Angel of Redemption Online

Authors: J. A. Little

BOOK: Angel of Redemption
12.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub


Not that I know of, sweetheart,

I laugh.


Damn.

She

s quiet except for heavy breathing. I think she might have
fallen asleep.


Kayla?

I ask. No answer.

Kayla?


Hmmmm?


Hang up the phone and go to sleep.


M

kay. Love you.


Good night, sweetheart.

I hang up and set my phone back on my nightstand.

Fuuuuuuuck,

I groan.

 

* * *

 

In the morning, I arrive at Wyatt House before 8:00 a.m.
Aiden

s
not surprised. We sit drinking coffee and talking for almost an hour before he
has to head out for Ashley

s swim meet.

Once
he

s gone, my mind drifts to Kayla just
like it does every time I don

t have any distractions. I think about
our conversation. She said she thinks I

m
sexy. She was essentially opening the door for something more physical

granted, she was drunk. I grit my teeth. As much as I

d love to go down that road, I can

t. Kayla

s a woman who deserves a relationship
with a stable guy without the kind of baggage I

m
carrying.

I
head down to the basement and strap on my gloves for a session with the heavy
bag. This should help with the pent-up frustration. I

m about half an hour into a good workout when I hear Logan.


Dean?

I look up, dripping with sweat. “Yeah? What’s up?”


Am I still on restriction?

he mumbles.

I
nod.

Until Monday morning.


Oh. Can I play ball outside with my
brother?


Don

t you think it

s a little cold?

I ask, looking at the tiny window across the room. The sun

s hitting at just the right angle to show off the frost
crystals.


I mean later.

He leans against the wall, looking dejected.

I
wipe my forehead with my forearm.

I
guess so. As long as you stay on the property and there are no guests, you can
play ball,

I answer.

And remember, you have to go with Em to the bank this
morning.


Yeah, I know.

He lingers, and I take this as a sign that he wants to
talk.


Strap on some gloves. Let

s spar.

I
throw a few more jabs at the bag while I wait for him to get ready. When he is,
we tap gloves and begin.


How

s your girl?

I ask, dodging a hook.

Logan
looks at me suspiciously.

What do you care?

I
shrug.

Thought I

d ask. Make conversation.

He
scowls, but after a couple of seconds and a few more punches, he gives in.

Her mom and pops are assholes, but whatever. I think it

s in the rules somewhere that you can

t be a parent unless you know how to
fuck your kid over.


Not all parents are like that, Logan,

I sigh heavily.


So I guess everyone I know just got
the shit end of the stick, then,

he says sarcastically. He lands a
particularly hard hit to my chin.

I
can

t
tell him he

s
wrong. Every kid in this house has a horror story of his own. Edgar was
abandoned at a bus stop when he was four. He was raised by his grandmother and
locked in the closet when she had to go to work so she didn

t have to pay a babysitter. I think it

s a rite of passage for the boys to
share the basics of their stories, if only to gauge who had it the worst.

I
shake the rattle out of my head in time to defend another jab.

My parents aren

t perfect, but I can

t say they ever screwed me over. Even when I thought they were
being unfair, everything they did was for a reason.


Are you trying to tell me my mom had a
good reason for making us dig through trash cans for food because she spent all
her fucking hook money on drugs? Or are you saying it

s okay that she tried to sell us into
a kiddie sex ring?

he snaps. I block another hit, but he
comes at me again and nails me in the stomach. The kid

s better at sparring than most.

I
take a minute to catch my breath and gather my thoughts. I know that Sheila
Davidson was a prostitute and an addict, and that she attempted to sell Matty,
but I don

t know the details. Kayla said Logan
never talks about his childhood. I want to push for more, but by the look on
his face, that

s
all I

m
going to get.


No. I

m not. Your mother had no right to do
that to you.


But?


No buts. That

s it.


So how come you ended up in jail?
Brayden told me you said you were innocent. If your parents always had a good
reason, how come they didn

t get you out?


First of all, I

ve never claimed that.

I tap his shoulder a little harder than I intend to.

I said I didn

t
do what I was accused of, but I certainly wasn

t
innocent. And my parents didn

t bail me out because I made a stupid
decision. I made a lot of stupid decisions. They did me a favor by making me
serve my time.


That doesn

t even make sense,

he sneers.

If you

re guilty, you go to jail. If you

re not guilty you don

t. You went to jail, you were guilty.


Life is not that black and white,
Logan. You should know that by now. I made mistakes. Big ones that led me to
get mixed up with bad people. And if you hang around bad people long enough,
you

re
going to get caught up in shit that will get you in trouble. And sometimes you

re left to take the fall for something
you didn

t
do.


Well, then that was your own
stupidity,

he scoffs.

I

d never go down for something I didn

t do.


Never?

I ask. He shakes his head confidently.

You love your brother, right?


Yeah, so what?


What if he did something that could
land him in jail? What if he vandalized a car or broke into someone

s house? Would you sit back and watch
him fall? Or would you do everything in your power to try and protect him?

Logan opens his mouth, but then closes it again. I raise my
eyebrows. He looks annoyed. I look over and see Matty standing in the doorway.
I have no idea how much of our conversation he heard.

You hungry?

He
grunts affirmatively. I smile at Matty and stand up to make breakfast.

Over
the next twenty minutes, the rest of the boys begin trickling into the kitchen.
It

s
loud and rowdy with their chatter and laughter. Curtis and Matty are the only
two not really participating. Matty I understand, but Curtis? I wonder what

s happened to make him look so on
edge. No one else seems to notice, so maybe I

m just reading into it too much.

Later,
as I sit in the library watching Logan and Matty playing basketball outside, I
consider calling Kayla. I wonder how she feels this morning. I wonder if she
remembers calling me. Will she be embarrassed? Laugh it off? I should call her
just to make sure she

s okay. Although, if she

s hungover I should wait. I should
definitely wait.

I
decide to join the boys outside instead. Soon, we have a three-on-three game
going. Jax is at work and Curtis is hiding in his room. Something

s definitely up. I

m going to give him a day to come to
me before I go to him. The rest of the guys are in a good mood. Even Logan

s lightened up a little since this
morning. He and Matty, who are now playing on opposite teams, are giving each
other shit. It

s
funny. They remind me so much of Aiden and me at that age. I was definitely
more outgoing than Matty, but their relationship is similar.

We
break for lunch when the boys start getting hungry. I watch as the kitchen
becomes a free for all. Tracey

s going to kill me. A loaf of bread sails across the room,
followed by a jar of peanut butter. It

s a good thing the jar is plastic because it hits the floor
with a
thud
. Edgar, who was meant to
be catch it, glances at me sheepishly. I shoot a warning look at him and then
at Brayden, the one doing the throwing. Brayden just grins. Cheeky fucker. I
honestly don

t
know how I

m
going to feel the day he leaves Wyatt House. He

s been around here longer than I have.
My dad has warned me multiple times about getting too close, because,
inevitably, they all have to leave
.
And in most cases, I won

t know what happens to them. The more attached I get, the
harder it is to let go.

Logan
pulls out ingredients to make nachos, including ground beef. I grab a can of
Coke and a box of Oreos and leave the boys to it.


Clean up your mess!

I shout back to them.

Back
in my office, I look at the clock. I

ve
given Kayla enough time to sober up. I pull up her number and hit
SEND
.


Hello?

she answers, her voice sounding groggy.


Ah, nice to know you

re still alive,

I tease.


Um

yeah.
Why wouldn

t
I be?

I
chuckle.

How much did you have to drink last
night, Kayla?


What?

she asks.


You don

t remember calling me?

I lean back in my chair and grin.


No,

she squeaks.

Oh,
God, Dean. What did I say?

Other books

Tap (Lovibond #1) by Georgia Cates
Wishes by Allyson Young
Mistake by Brigitta Moon
Darkness of the Soul by Kaine Andrews
The Rangers Are Coming by Phil Walker
The Recruit by Monica McCarty
Ms. Leakey Is Freaky! by Dan Gutman
The Inseparables by Stuart Nadler