Page 8

Chapter Eight

W hen Yael made it back to Gavin's house, the Sterlings were already in Gavin’s office. They sat on the small couch next to each other. Kenneth Sterling was a robust man with a receding hairline. He was tall for a human. Melissa Sterling, his mate, was a dragon shifter and her appearance confirmed it. Complete with sharp, unusual green eyes that seemed to look right through him.

Maybe it was because Yael had already had some emotional upheaval that afternoon from meeting his mate, but he didn’t feel quite ready to tackle the discussion he needed to have with them.

He had a song stuck in his head. Wrecking Ball . The chorus played on repeat. He was still singing it in his mind when he sat in the chair opposite them. He smiled and tried to put all thoughts of Simon out of his mind.

He didn’t quite succeed.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice.” Yael smiled, but he knew it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You said your brother has an issue with our daughter.” Mr. Sterling got right to the point. Yael liked that.

“It’s my understanding she’s bullying Eryn in the form of spreading rumors. She’s using the internet to do most of the worst stuff.” Yael stood and went to his desk. He grabbed a stack of papers and handed them to Mr. Sterling.

They scanned what was essentially their kid’s lies spread all over the internet. “Those are your copies. You should give them to your lawyer, if you have one. Mine already has copies.”

Mrs. Sterling paled. “Lawyers are involved?”

“Not yet.” Yael sat down again. “But they will be if she doesn’t take it all down. And I want a formal apology, complete with her retracting everything she’s posted and an explanation why she posted such vicious lies. And I want it by tomorrow.” He didn’t actually have a lawyer. He couldn’t really afford one. But he’d file charges against their little bratty kid, if it came to that.

“Is all this necessary?” Instead of an apology, they made it seem as though posting lies on the internet wasn’t that big of a deal. They’d find out the hard way just how serious Yael took their daughters posts.

“My brother’s wellbeing is necessary, Mr. Sterling. I’ve been raising my brother by myself since he was two years old. I’ve raised him into a kind and well-rounded person, but he’s still a child by shifter standards. His growth and development are very important to me.”

“This is just a petty squabble between high schoolers, Mr. Joseph. I think you’re blowing it out of proportion.” Mr. Sterling was right, to some extent.

“Words hurt, Mr. Sterling. They can cut deep sometimes. And while Eryn has always been good at letting the bad behavior of others roll off him, he shouldn’t have to. Especially when what she’s saying is really none of her business. True or not, she should be a kind enough person not to gossip about someone else’s sexuality.”

Mr. Sterling started to say something. Yael had said something to make him angry, not that Yael cared what that was, but Mrs. Sterling put a hand on his knee and shook her head. “Gabby can be vindictive when she doesn’t get her way.”

Yael wanted to roll his eyes and give them parenting advice. It seemed like they needed all the advice they could get, but they hadn’t asked for it. “If she takes down the posts, I’ll let it go.”

Mrs. Sterling nodded, but her husband spluttered. His face turned red. “Maybe your brother did something to our daughter. And not the other way around.”

“The only thing Eryn did was say no to all of her advances.” Yael pointed to the papers Mr. Sterling clutched in his hand. “If you’ll read her posts, she openly says that. And then she says all sorts of nasty stuff about Eryn, including some very graphic sexual stuff she thinks he’d like to do.”

Those graphic things mostly involved other boys and her perception of what boys got up to with each other. Some of which was correct, but it was none of her business and could be construed as sexual harassment at the very least.

Gavin stood in the doorway. Yael wasn’t sure how long he’d been there, but it was clear he wouldn’t interrupt. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorjamb.

Yael stood. “Perhaps you should hold your child accountable for her actions instead of finding excuses for her. She isn’t the victim in this situation. And if she’s not held accountable now, she will be at some point in the future.”

Yael shifted his eyes and let his fangs drop. “And while you’re holding her accountable, be sure to let her know not to fuck with Eryn Joseph ever again.”

Gavin walked in then. His presence cooled some of Yael’s anger. It seemed to calm Mr. Sterling as well. But the fact remained, they didn’t like each other very much and probably never would. It seemed the accountability discussion struck a nerve. Perhaps that was their daughter’s entire issue. She’d never been held accountable for her behavior.

Gavin greeted the Sterlings with a nod. They bowed to him, exposing their necks as was the way for clan members with the alpha. “Anything I can help with, Yael?”

“No. Thank you, but I think we’re done here.” Yael went to his desk and sat behind it.

The Sterlings left with only minor pleasantries.

“Are you okay? Are they?” Gavin smirked.

“They fucked with the wrong person’s kid. If they don’t want me coming at them anymore, they’ll take care of the problem.” Yael turned on his computer and took a deep breath, letting the anger go and getting back into work mode.

Gavin searched the room, as if looking for someone. “Where are Skippy and Mitch? They were supposed to come here."

"I'm not sure where Mitchell got off to. I was preoccupied with Simon and didn't pay attention to him." He waved the comment away as if his world hadn't turned upside down by meeting Simon, and he wasn't still trying to come to terms with it.

Yael didn't avert his gaze away from the computer, although he wasn't paying attention to anything on the screen. He didn't even remember what he intended to do.

Gavin pulled a chair closer to the desk and sat. He crossed his arms over chest and waited Yael out.

So much for work mode.

It didn't take long to break under the weight of Gavin's gaze. "Simon is my mate."

"And Simon is…?" How did Gavin not know his friend's actual first name?

"Skippy." Yael shut the laptop lid and focused on the conversation. He had questions about this daddy/boy thing Simon had been talking about. Maybe Gavin knew a little about the lifestyle.

Gavin's eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"What does that mean?"

"He can be…" Gavin pursed his lips as if trying to think of the right word.

"A bit of a wrecking ball. Yes, I've already discovered that." Not that Yael disliked it. It was just that he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

Gavin chuckled. "I was thinking something along the lines of intense. But that doesn't quite fit either. He’s very…physical."

“Physical?”

“Yes.”

"We've agreed to get to know each other. I invited him to Eryn's game tomorrow."

Gavin shook his head. "Not a great idea."

"Why?" As soon as he asked, he sort of knew the answer. Yael sighed. "Because he's a wrecking ball."

"Easton and I can go if you think it would help."

Yael shook his head. "He'll know you're a buffer. One thing I've already figured out is he's very perceptive."

"We might come anyway. It's not often Wingspan makes the playoffs."

Yael smiled. "Eryn's excited about it."

"Skippy is a lot of things, but you won't find a more protective and loyal mate. Congratulations. I'm happy for you."

Yael bit his lip and winced. "I have to ask you something. It's…of a sensitive nature."

Gavin gave him a knowing smile. "Easton and I aren't really in the lifestyle, but most of the crew is. Not all. And I honestly don't know if Skippy is, but if you're asking about it, he must have said something to you."

"He sort of mentioned wanting what he called a daddy and boy relationship. We're talking about it later.”

"It's good he mentioned it upfront. But it doesn't surprise me. He probably wants to find out if you'll like the lifestyle, too."

Yael blushed. He could see himself liking anything Simon had in mind. Sex with Simon would blow his mind. Of that, he had no doubt.

Gavin cleared his throat and chuckled. "Subject change. How are you feeling about the vigilante thing?"

"What vigilante thing?”

“The thing where he rescues people from bad guys and kills very bad people."

Yael didn’t know all that. “He does what!?”

Gavin winced. "Skippy isn’t cruel to people who don’t deserve it. He’s a social justice warrior. Literally."

Yael was skeptical. "I met him while bailing him out of jail. And do you want to know what he did to get arrested? He beat up two men."

"They were kidnappers. And he did it to save the two cat shifters they kidnapped. Mercury is counting it as a citizen’s arrest, actually." Gavin smirked.

"Why did the sheriff arrest him if he thought Simon was right to beat up those people?" Yael crossed his arms over his chest.

"Skippy has been arrested for fighting at least once a week since the day he was born. Mercury is annoyed at this point, but he actually likes Skippy."

"He just doesn't want to like him. He said as much." Yael could understand that about Skippy. He was likeable. Kind in his own way, with a quick wit and an easy smile. But he was rough around the edges, which came through when he wasn't being charming.

Gavin stood. "Just remember one thing."

"What's that?"

"He's not like your family," Gavin repeated, which meant he wanted Yael to really understand his point. "Don't treat him like he is."

Yael sighed. "You’re right. Making comparisons isn’t fair."

It was what Yael needed to hear.

Everything his father had done had been self-serving. He hadn't cared who he hurt. Not even his own children. Andre, Yael’s older brother, had ended up just like their father and he was paying a bigger price than their father ever had.

The charges had been capital murder. During the trial, Yael learned a lot about his brother. He'd seen his face when the prosecution admitted the pictures of the victim's lifeless, bloody body into evidence. The image of that woman, with her nightgown eschew, laying on the floor of her bedroom face down with blood on her gown, as if she were nothing more than trash someone threw on the floor after they were finished with her.

The image was seared into his brain. He remembered every detail of that photograph. How the blood had darkened, turning almost black by the time the picture taker had gotten around to photographing the crime scene. During the trial it came out that the neighbor hadn't seen the woman sitting on her porch with her favorite mug like she had every morning during the spring, summer, and into the fall, until the weather turned bad, and she couldn't sit outside anymore. The neighbor had cried while on the witness stand, clutching tissue as if it was a lifeline for her grief.

Every detail was there, embedded in his memory. Including the way Andre smirked at the photo and sat blank faced as the neighbor answered questions about the day her friend was murdered and they found her body lying on her bedroom floor. And about the twelve hundred dollars missing from her jewelry box.

Yael had believed Andre when he said he didn't murder the woman until the money had been mentioned. He knew then that Andre had killed her. A robbery gone wrong was how the prosecution had framed it, but Yael knew everything that had happened that day Andre intended. Don't leave witnesses. That's what their father used to tell them. And Andre hadn’t.

Except DNA didn't lie, and Andre had cut his hand at some point while stabbing his victim. The blood was slippery. It coated the knife and dripped down the handle when she stumbled from her bed, trying to escape her attacker.

Yael's chest ached from the memory, but it had been over for enough years now. Eryn had been six years old then. He barely remembered Andre.

Gavin smiled. "I'll pay you back for the books I bought on your account earlier."

Yael scowled. "What books?"

Gavin wiggled his eyebrows. "Sexy books. I'm going to read them to Easton."

"Oh." Yael waved that away. "No worries. I'm glad you found something."

"Congratulations on your mating, Yael." It was the last thing he said before making his way out of the office.

When Yael was alone, he tackled his mail. Between the fliers, home improvement places, advertising windows, and credit cards offers, most of it was junk. And then he got to the letter with the prison address in the upper left corner.

Had thinking about him conjured something? A dark cloud formed around him. At least in his mind, and his hands shook as he opened it. He’d never forgotten Andre’s handwriting.

Send money. Now. You owe me. That was it. No signature. No frills. Nothing about the undercurrent of a threat that wasn’t said, but was there in between the words. Yael could feel it.

Yael went to Gavin's shredder and put the letter inside.

He told himself he didn't have to give Andre anything. Andre didn't have any leverage. He was in prison for murder. He was never getting out. Yael and Eryn were perfectly safe.

His scare tactics didn't have to work. So what if he terrified Yael? It didn't have to affect his whole life.