I pull my jacket tighter around my body, stepping back toward the door. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Didn’t mean to startle you, darlin. I should have called out or something. Don’t worry, I’m not some creepy pervert. I’m—”
“I know exactly who you are. What do you want?”
The man in the leather jacket looks taken aback by this. “Really? He told you about me?”
“No. But I have eyes in my head, don’t I? It’s pretty obvious you’re his father. What can I do for you, Mr. Moretti?”
“Oh, Jack, please,” he says, waving me off with his bloody hand. I see where I broke the skin now—a small cut just below his nose.
“Mr. Moretti’s just fine,” I answer stiffly. “We’re not friends. I’ve never even met you before.”
“Surely Alex has told you about me, though?” He sounds so certain of himself. As if there’s no way his son wouldn’t have regaled me with all kinds of stories about his notorious father.
“He did tell me he thought you might be dead once,” I inform him in a chilly tone. “He also told me how you skipped out on your family when they needed you most.”
The cock-sure smile on Giacomo’s face sags, the assertive spark in his eye guttering out and slowly dying. “Yeah, well. Everything’s so cut and dried when you’re a kid. He was too young to understand what was going on at the time. Things were complicated, weren’t they. His mother was a difficult woman. You understand how these things go.”
Taking a step back, halfway through the door, I meet his eyes. I think he’s trying to cow me with his direct gaze—poor, timid little girl, unsettled by the magnetic, overwhelming presence of a grown man in a motorcycle club cut—but he’s got another thing coming. I know a bully when I see one, and I know every underhanded trick in their playbook. I’ve stared down death and I didn’t look away. I sure as hell won’t be subjugated by a washed-up, powerless old man like Giacomo Moretti. “No, actually,” I tell him. “I don’t understand. I know that your wife was sick and you ducked out on her and your two young kids when things got hard, rather than staying to figure out how to help her. Seems pretty cowardly to me.”
Giacomo smiles, emotionless, devoid of any humor. “Well, shit. Aren’t you a little spitfire? I can see why Alex likes you—”
“I’m sorry, I’m confused. Is there something I can help you with? Because you’re on Raleigh High property, y’know. I have to get to class…and I’d hate for a member of staff to see you and get the wrong impression. I know you’re not a pedophile, prowling around the English block, looking for kids to lure into the back of a van, but Principal Darhower might not give you the benefit of the doubt. Things have been kinda crazy around here lately.” Sarcasm drips from every word; I’ve really outdone myself on the passive aggressive front. On its own, my statement was polite enough. A friendly warning offered to a stranger. My tone, however, is anything but friendly, and paints a very vivid picture in which Giacomo is arrested and carted off Raleigh property without so much as a by-your-leave.
Alex’s father runs his tongue over his teeth, flaring his nostrils as he glances down at his worn leather boots. “You’re protective of him. I like that. It’s good that he has you in his life.”
“We’re good for each other,” I correct him.
“I just wanted to know if he was doing okay.”
“In that case, no, Alex is doing pretty miserably right now. His little brother just died. He’ll come through the other side eventually, though. He has me, and he has my dad. We’ll both be here to help him for as long as he needs us. Now, if you don’t mind, the bell’s about to ring and I don’t wanna be late.”
Keep your damn mouth shut, Giacomo. Just keep that stupid, filthy, lying trap closed…
He doesn’t, no matter how hard I wish it. I’ve almost managed to turn away from him before he calls out after me. “Silver? Hey, Silver. That wasn’t all I wanted.”
Sighing heavily under my breath, I spin back around. “Why am I not surprised?”
“I want to make things right with Alex. With Alex’s mom gone, and now Ben, too, it isn’t right that there be should be such a massive divide between us. He’s my son, Silver. I’m his father. I appreciate your dad for looking out for my boy, but it ain’t his job. All I’m asking for is a chance. Just one chance to fix things and be there for him.”
My emotions riot, bouncing all over the place. No way in hell should he be trying to pull the old, he’s-my-son, your-dad-should-mind-his-own-damn-business bullshit. He has absolutely no fucking right. I marshal my face into a blank mask, tamping down my thoughts. I can be mad all I want on Alex’s behalf. In the end, none of this is up to me. “Then you need to say all of that to Alex, Mr. Moretti.”
“He won’t listen. He has a shitty temper. He won’t sit still long enough for me to get the words out.”
I’m sure he’s right. Alex hates this man. He probably wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“Just…talk to him. Play devil’s advocate for me. Make him see that I’m genuine an’ I’ve changed. Convince him that I only have his best interests at heart. You can do that for me, can’t you?”
There he goes again, wheedling, turning on the charm, treating me like a naïve little girl who can’t see right through his bullshit. I laugh harshly, clouds of fog forming on my breath. “No, I can’t do that for you. I don’t know anything about you. I sure as fuck don’t know that you’re genuine. I don’t know the first thing about your motives. I’m guessing they have very little do with Alex’s best fucking interest, though. I won’t try to convince him of anything. If you’re serious about everything you just said, then you’re gonna have to show him that yourself.”
Giacomo doesn’t like my answer. He shoves his hands into his jacket pockets, slowly shaking his head. “Such a foul mouth on such a pretty little thing,” he muses.
This time, I do turn around, and I do walk away. “Oh, Mr. Moretti…you have no fucking idea.”
13
ALEX
It’s pathetic, really, stalking Silver. I’m her boyfriend for fuck’s sake. I’m done with the part of our story where I have to duck my head and hide every time she pauses in a hallway and glances over her shoulder. I definitely shouldn’t be trailing her out in the cold, hood pulled down low over my eyes, creeping around after her like I’m about to drag her into the forest and kidnap her.
We’ve been through so much shit since we met; there’s nothing I can’t talk to her about. Nothing I can’t say to her. But I was supposed to get stronger as time passed by, things were supposed to get easier for us, not harder, and after Ben’s death…
Fuck, I’m not the guy I’m supposed to be right now. I’ve always prided myself on knowing who I am and knowing what I want, fighting for my goals no matter how deep the shit I had to wade through became, but this version of me? This shattered, cored out, broken man, bereft and without even the smallest glimmer of hope? What good am I like this? I’m useless. I’m a fucking train wreck.