Page 13

Chapter 13

Juliette

While removing my phone from my purse, I waved goodbye to security on my way to the exit.

I checked my texts, and a weird tinge of disappointment filled my stomach when there was nothing from Constantine. But why would he text in the middle of the night while I was at work? Just because I’d thought about the man every hour and every moment between seeing patients didn’t mean he’d thought about me.

I decided to text my brother instead of messaging the man I’d have lost sleep over had I had the opportunity to get in a bed last night.

Me: Are you around later today? Something important to tell you.

Easton: I can make time. Call whenever you need to. Everything okay?

The automatic doors parted for me, and a gentle breeze hit my face, drawing my attention up and across the street to the man casually leaning against a gray car, his arms crossed over his chest.

Constantine? Shock carried me forward. I was at a loss for words. So much so that I nearly stepped into oncoming traffic.

Had Constantine not shouted my name, throwing his arm out, I would’ve been hit by a bus.

I jumped backward onto the sidewalk just in time, dropping my phone and purse on the sidewalk.

A few more cars drove by, and another bus blocked my sight momentarily. Somehow, while I seemed blocked from moving, Constantine navigated around the traffic to get to me.

“Are you okay?” He reached for my arm, and I lowered my gaze to where he held me.

I wasn’t sure why time felt suspended, but it was simply hanging there.

Everything went still and quiet. The sounds of traffic vanished, and only my name from his lips managed to cut through.

I supposed watching your life flash before your eyes could do that. I’d waited forever for my son to meet his father. Getting struck by a bus the same morning I planned for them to meet officially would have been flat-out evil.

“Mom?” My son’s voice startled me back to planet Earth and out of whatever strange time loop I’d been stuck in.

I blinked my way over to the set of legs alongside Constantine’s. Worked my way up and up.

They were together.

The two of them were both looking at me and together. That word slid around in my mind a few more times because it wasn’t quite sticking.

“You okay? You almost died!” Colin hooked his arm with my right one, and Constantine let go of my other and knelt to collect my phone and bag. “Earth to Mom.” He waved his free hand in front of my face.

I had to be in the Twilight Zone. “What are you . . . together?” I may have lost a word somewhere in there.

“He was at a rave.” Constantine returned my phone to my purse as my son gave him some major side-eye, as if that was need-to-know information. And for some reason, he felt I didn’t need to know.

Well, consider me fully present and alert now. Nearly being run over was yesterday’s news. “What are you talking about? You’re supposed to be in your room, grounded. What rave?” I turned toward Constantine. “How’d you know? Why are you together?”

Colin focused on Constantine. “Yeah, good question. How’d you know?”

Constantine’s mouth became a tight line of contempt, a feeling I knew well when dealing with my teenage son testing my patience. But the deeper question still remained—how did he know Colin had snuck out and went to a rave?

Instead of answering either of us, Constantine nudged my purse at me like it was supposed to be some kind of peace offering.

“So easy for you to throw me under the bus, but you don’t like it when the tables are turned.” Colin winced. “Shit, sorry, Mom. Poor choice of words since you were almost taken out by a bus.”

“Car. Now.” Constantine grunted the order to Colin, gesturing to the lit-up crosswalk sign.

The fact he obeyed his demand nearly sent me backward.

Constantine reached for my arm as if worried I’d wind up in the middle of traffic again, and we quietly followed Colin over to a parked Maserati.

He rounded the car and went for the front passenger seat to open the door for me as Colin slipped into the back.

Before I could get in, he picked up a laptop and held it at his side, patiently waiting for me to get in.

I locked eyes with him, searching for an answer in his gaze he didn’t seem prepared to give me.

He swallowed, then lifted his chin as a directive I found myself following.

He closed the door, shaking his head while circling the front of the car to get to the driver’s side.

“What happened?” I asked Colin as Constantine got behind the wheel, but Colin ignored me. Typical. “We’re not going anywhere until someone tells me what’s going on.”

Constantine slid behind the wheel and tossed his laptop in the back beside Colin. He stretched out his arm, resting his wrist on the steering wheel. “I happened to be at the rave as well. Your son got into a fight. Pissed off the wrong people. I intervened and forced him to leave the rave and have been keeping an eye on him ever since.”

“ What ?” That wasn’t nearly a big enough word to encompass my feelings. I twisted around to check on Colin, my anger shelved in favor of my concerns about him. “Are you okay? Hurt?”

Colin refused to grant me his eyes, offering a quiet, “I’m fine,” instead.

I turned my attention back on the man I’d been obsessively thinking about all night. At no point did I ever picture our day would start like this.

“Thank you?” I hadn’t meant that to sound like a question, but I was far too confused to think or act properly. “But, um, why were you at a rave?”

I didn’t know much about him, but I had the distinct feeling Constantine wasn’t a raver.

“Yeah, what were you doing at a rave?” Colin and his love for pushing buttons spoke a hell of a lot louder that time.

“Working,” Constantine said gruffly, sounding annoyed, but not with me, with our son in the backseat.

Our son. Ours. There it was again. And I was shocked at how easily the word “our” naturally invaded my mind, replacing all that time he’d only ever been “mine.”

“No, I don’t go to raves normally,” Constantine followed up when I remained silent, locked on to the reality of Colin’s dad being in the car with us and the fact my son was in a fight at a rave. “Not ever. That was my first and last time going to one.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “Your last time, too.”

“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?” Colin leaned forward.

Oh, Colin. My entire body shuddered as a response to his challenge. “He’s speaking for me,” I rushed out. “And that also better be the first rave you’ve attended.” I twisted around, staring at him. “But it sure as heck will be your last.”

Colin slumped back down, resting his head against the leather headrest. He was smart enough not to roll his eyes at me.

“I’m finding it hard to believe you both just so happened to be at the same rave,” I said when it was clear both men felt like stewing in silence. “But it’s not a stretch of the imagination that you were in a fight,” I added, focusing on my son.

His gaze was glued to the window, intentionally avoiding eye contact with me.

Yup, guilty as charged.

“Someone put their hands on my . . .” Colin finally rushed out, only to leave me hanging.

Constantine picked up his words for him. “His girlfriend. I assume you didn’t tell your mom about Lennon, either?”

Lennon. Your girlfriend. Who was she? Where did they meet? How long had they been together? I was the one now slumping in my seat. How could I not know my son had a girlfriend? Why would he keep that from me?

“The friends Colin was with the night he stole my wallet work for his girlfriend’s brother.” He kept his voice level, like he was trying to ease me into the truth and prevent a panic attack. “His girlfriend’s brother is part of a street gang. Jury is still out on whether or not Colin is as well.”

“Colin.” I tightened my hands into fists and set them on my thighs, working to curb my tongue so I didn’t yell at him in front of his father. This was all too much. So, so far off base from how today was supposed to go.

“Because of your son’s poor choices involving himself with a gang, you both may not be safe.” He grimaced as if hating to use the words “your son,” but he had no choice. “I’d rather be overcautious and be wrong than risk something happening to you. So, you’re moving in with me for the time being. I’m taking you to pack.” He turned on the engine, preparing to pull onto the road as if we were in case-closed territory.

Hardly. I had a hundred questions for both of them before I’d agree to anything. Constantine looked over at me, a plea in his eyes to not ask a single one of them.

“Please,” he rasped, emotion curling around that word with such intensity I couldn’t help but straighten in my seat, buckle up, and agree.

“Okay,” I whispered, placing my shock in the backseat alongside Colin. I needed to shed that emotion and focus on whatever road ahead that I was trusting this man to take us down. Because I knew in my heart, if he felt we needed protection, whatever was happening was serious. And who was I to risk our son’s life?

“Thank you.” Constantine reached for my leg, but he stopped himself and grabbed the wheel instead, quietly pulling onto the road.

“You’re going with the flow on this? Trusting this man?” Colin piped up a few minutes later. “You’re the polar opposite of go-with-the-flow, Mom.”

“Apparently, it doesn’t matter how strict I am when it comes to you, you’ll endanger yourself anyway.” I was hurting that he could keep so much from me, but now wasn’t the time to think about it. Colin would soon find out the man behind the wheel was his father. So, I willed away the tears and faced forward.

No one spoke another word after that, not until we were inside our home and Constantine ordered, “Go pack. Necessities only.”

Shockingly, Colin didn’t object, nor challenge my lack of pushback. That meant he truly had stepped into something dangerous and knew Constantine’s plan was best for us. I wasn’t sure how to wrap my head around that, and I was starting to wonder if the only way I could go with the flow was to not know anything for the time being.

Feeling like my purse weighed twice my bodyweight, I let it fall to the floor and wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water. Constantine followed me and, of course, sat in his seat. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs, cradling the back of his neck. Defeat cut through the hard lines of his body, and I hated seeing him like that.

Forcing myself to look away because I was battling too many conflicting emotions, I filled two glasses with water. He looked like he could use a drink of another kind, but knowing what lay ahead, water was all I was prepared to offer.

The second Colin appeared in the doorway, his jaw strained and his eyes on Constantine sitting in that seat, I quickly set the waters aside.

Aw shit.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Colin stepped forward, holding out the Ziploc bag with the napkin in it. “You wrote this note, didn’t you? You’re him. You’re my father.”