Page 72
Story: The House of Wolves
Then I added, “Right here is fine. All the privacy we need.”
“And if I do mysteriously end up in the water like our father did, I’m pretty sure I can make it safely back to the dock,” he said.
He sat down on the dock, cross-legged, and leaned back against the side of the scull. I stood over him, a few feet away. Already feeling the powerful urge to knock the smug look off his face. It was a feeling I’d largely, if not entirely, managed to keep under control our whole lives.
“Just out of curiosity,” he said, “which story did you hate more?”
The story about Ryan and Donna Kilgore and me carried the headlineGOING TO THE MATTRESS, giving him and Dowd the chance to revisit the story about Ryan Morrissey’s coming to my house the night Danny had told him to resign.
“You know Donna Kilgore lied in that first statement,” I said. “You know it; Danny knows it; I know it. TheNew York Timeseventually blew it out of the water. So did ESPN.com. They treated it like the bullshit that it was.”
Jack grinned up at me. “At Wolf.com, we prefer to let the readers, many,manyof whom don’t read theTimes,decide.” He whistled now. “And, oh, man, Sis, have they ever decided. Have you checked out the comments section in the last hour? I thought it would take a while for people to start weighing in. But it’s a hotter platform than Reddit. Turns out they can’t get enough of you.”
“I’d check it out, but I haven’t had my shots.”
“I actually thought Thomas would be the one to show up,” Jack said. “But it’s just like it was when we were kids. He’s still letting you fight his battles. Thomas never knew our little secret, did he, Jen? How scared you’ve always been of me.”
“You wish.”
“Bullshit.”
“The bullshitter is you,” I said. “You know Thomas doesn’t go anywhere near drugs now.”
“Do I?” he said in a singsong voice.
“You’ve done a lot of really lousy things in your life, Jack. But putting him out there as some kind of pusher might be the lousiest.”
We had gone at each other like this, often to the delight of our father, for as long as I could remember. But Jack was right about something: there was a part of him thatdidscare me. Even as a kid, I knew he was the meanest one of all of us. I’d never considered Danny a true rival. I’d never thought of him as being smart enough or strong enough to beat me in any kind of fair fight. And even though Thomas and I had had our share of scraps, he’d always been, always would be, my baby brother.
Jack was different. In a way, I thought, Wolf.com was inevitable with him. He had always been a gutter fighter. He would always do anything to win, especially if he was competing with me. One time he’d stolen the start of my science project, and when I complained to my father, he said, “You should have done a better job hiding it.”
So nothing had changed, not really. He was still willing to do anything to try to take me down. And when he’d gotten me down, as he’d at least temporarily done today, he was still looking to give me one more good kick to the head.
All in all, Thomas was more right than he knew about wounded wolves.
“Where’d you get the money for this website?” I asked. “I know you’re opposed on religious grounds to laying out money of your own.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is that it’s here. I’d originally seen this as being a spin-off from theTribune.So now it’s a competitor instead.” He shrugged again, more theatrically than before. “And even though you think everything’s about you, you had to see that there’s a lot more going on on the site than just you and our baby brother.”
He glanced at one of those underwater watches that looked as if it could do everything for you except check your cholesterol.
“What’s your endgame here, Jack? It can’t just be getting the newspaper back.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head slowly back and forth.
“There’s no end to this game, at least not for you.”
“And no bottom for you.”
“And in case you haven’t noticed by now,” Jack said, “this really isn’t a game with me.”
I looked past him, out at the water. There were still so many boats out there at twilight, set off against the last of the setting sun, the whole scene beautiful and peaceful, reminding me of a painting.
Things were peaceful everywhere except here, with Jack and me. Neither one of us willing to back up or back down.
“By the way?” he said. “If either one of you really is thinking about suing me, you ought to keep in mind that for the ones whoaredoing the suing, discovery can be a bitch.”
He stood up now.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72 (Reading here)
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149