Chapter 14
Jack did not want to get into the truck with his father. He wanted to head inside and tell someone, anyone, that his dad was here and he didn’t want to go with him. But…John Duncan was his dad. Who would stop him? If Mr. Zarin came, he could be the one to get in trouble. Not his father.
Could he make it into the truck before his dad made it to the passenger side? He could keep the doors locked and just drive away without letting his dad into the truck.
But then John Duncan opened the passenger door. Fuck, had Jack not locked the truck up? He should have. He thought he had. Clearly not, though.
His dad climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the truck shut with enough force to rock it.
Two days. He’d had his new truck, officially, for two days and now his dad had soiled it with his stench and presence. How could he have Lilly, Jenna, or Mrs. Zarin in his truck again? Have them sit in the same seat where his father now sat, tainting the old cloth?
Jack didn’t know what business his father claimed they still had to deal with together.
He wanted nothing to do with his dad. Why couldn’t the man question Jack’s paternity as he did Lilly’s?
Then he wouldn’t care about Jack. Wouldn’t care if he was clothed, fed, or sheltered.
Wouldn’t care if he lived or died. He would leave Jack in peace and not be sitting in his truck.
Jack hated that. Jenna and he were planning on waiting to have kids.
Once they were ready to have sex, Jenna said she would go to her doctor to get on birth control, which apparently was some sort of prescription pill women could take to keep them from getting pregnant.
As much as Jack knew he wanted kids someday, it needed to remain a fantasy until Jenna and he were ready.
If Jack was concerned about being able to financially provide for Jenna once they were married, it was nothing compared to the concern that he wouldn’t be able to provide for a child if he got her accidentally pregnant.
If he knew one thing from taking care of Lilly as an infant and then a growing child, it was that kids were expensive.
But he wanted it. A son or daughter with Jenna’s bright orange hair, her beautiful hazel eyes, and her amazing smile. He could be patient, though. He would not risk bringing a child into this world that they weren’t ready for.
More than financially, though, Jack needed to ensure he was ready to be a father.
That he was the sort of man a kid could look up to, would be proud to call ‘Dad’.
Any man could father a child, but it took something special to be a dad.
Mr. Zarin had it, yet he’d never fathered any children. John Duncan did not.
Jack did not want to be anything like his father. He needed to be better—and that also meant not being a kid himself. He’d made a lot of mistakes with Lilly because he didn’t know any better. He needed to be ready as both a man and a husband before Jenna and he considered having kids.
He would not follow in his father’s footsteps.
He would not have his son ever look at him with loathing and disgust as Jack was looking at John Duncan now.
Other students milled about, heading to their vehicles. Most of them steered clear of Jack. He might not be known as the kid from Four Corners anymore, but his reputation around school hadn’t improved so much that others wanted to be friends with him.
He was still John Duncan’s son, even if he hadn’t lived with the man for a year.
Someone walked by Jack’s truck. The whiskey bottle was knocked over.
The glass clattered and clanged like a bell, rolling and rolling until it hit a pile of snow by a tire across the lane.
If Jack was accused of having alcohol on school property, he’d be suspended or expelled before he could claim innocence.
Principal Foote would not give Jack the chance to explain, too gleeful for a reason to finally be rid of him.
All because he was John Duncan’s son.
Not knowing what else to do, Jack opened the driver’s door. His dad had a bottle of liquor already in hand. The thing was so small that the man’s hand completely hid it from view and it was only the motion of hand to mouth that had Jack realizing he was still drinking.
Jack closed the truck door. He nearly gagged. John Duncan’s stench permeated the enclosed space of the cab.
Jack turned on the truck and cranked the window down. He would rather be cold than suffocate from his father’s rankness. The fact that his dad started shivering gave Jack a twisted sort of satisfaction.
As he pulled out of his parking spot, he joined the line of cars to get out of the parking lot.
Due to the snowfall during classes, everyone was driving cautiously.
Normally, Jack wouldn’t have minded and would have even been appreciative of his classmates’ care, but not just then.
He wanted to gun the truck out of the parking lot and speed away.
“I have to get to work,” he informed his dad when he couldn’t take the silence anymore.
At least he didn’t have to pick up Mrs. Zarin or Lilly.
There was that silver lining. Towards the beginning of the school year, Mr. Zarin had picked Jack up from school, switching places with him to let Jack drive, and then informed him that they needed to go to the elementary school to get the ladies.
Mrs. Zarin’s car wouldn’t start that day, which was why they were now looking into getting Mrs. Zarin a new car.
“Not anymore,” his dad snapped. Whatever liquor was in that small bottle did not last long. John Duncan finished, tossed the bottle onto the floorboard of Jack’s newly cleaned truck, reached into the pocket of his ripped sweatshirt, and pulled out a new bottle.
Vodka, Jack guessed out of the corner of his eye. The liquid inside was clear with a blue cap. Jack had to wonder where John Duncan had been recently that he had the little bottles. Weren’t those usually offered on airplanes or in hotel rooms?
Based on what he knew about his father, as well as how he was currently dressed, John Duncan could afford neither of those things.
“I’m not missing work,” Jack snapped as he pulled onto the road from the parking lot. He was not risking getting fired because of this man.
John Duncan threw the empty bottle onto the floor to join the other. “From what I hear, you don’t need to work. You’re fucking the youngest Scanlon bitch.”
Jack slammed on the brakes and forced the wheel to the right to take the truck none too gently over to the shoulder of the road. The car behind him blared their horn before it continued past.
“Don’t you ever speak about Jenna like that again!” Jack shouted, turning to face his father. Rage heated his blood so much, he was surprised steam wasn’t coming out of his ears. “You don’t say her name!”
His dad was unfazed by Jack’s outburst, though he did appear a little dizzy from the quick motion of the truck skidding to a halt. “What the fuck do you care? You’re scamming the bitch out of her money. What I don’t understand is why you didn’t bring me into it. After everything I’ve done for you—”
The laugh that escaped Jack was full of cynicism. “Everything you’ve done for me? Does that include abandoning me? Do you even know when the last time we spoke was? Because I don’t.”
“I fed you! Put a roof over your head!”
“Congrats, Dad. You did your fucking job as my father. Now you want a reward for your half-assed job?”
John Duncan’s nose flared. His face was red, though that could be due to the cold, anger, or alcohol. Possibly all three.
Unlike Lilly and Jack, who had inherited their mother’s gray eyes, his father had green eyes.
His dark hair was the same shade as Jack’s.
His face was weathered, making him appear far older than his thirty-three years.
There was nothing…pleasant about John Duncan.
The hard lines around his mouth and eyes took away from what had once been a handsome face.
His bloodshot eyes and his rotted teeth gave him a sinister look.
Jack prayed he wasn’t looking into a future image of himself. He would rather die than turn into his father.
When John Duncan reached into his pocket, Jack didn’t flinch because he assumed the man was pulling out yet another travel bottle of liquor. The switchblade took him by complete surprise and Jack was ashamed that he flinched at the snap of his father flicking it open.
The shiny blade pointed straight at his nose. Jack leaned back, his back colliding with the door but his head going through the open window. He swallowed hard. The truck was still in Drive. Jack hadn’t put it into Park when he’d taken them to the side of the road.
Mr. Zarin had been teaching Jack how to disarm an opponent.
They used a duct taped piece of wood to simulate a weapon.
Mrs. Zarin had been appalled when she’d caught them pulling splinters out of Jack’s palm after their first lesson when it had just been the rough stick of wood. Hence the duct tape.
In all his lessons, though, Jack was standing and had the ability to move, to duck and weave.
They’d never practiced in close quarters like the size of his truck.
Additionally, if Jack took his foot off the brake right now, they would go straight into the telephone pole about ten feet in front of them.
“You listen to me, boy,” his father sneered.
“I don’t give a fuck what your endgame is.
You can dip your wick into any wet cunt you feel like.
I couldn’t give a shit. But you will get me what’s owed to me.
Because if you don’t, I will find that little bastard you call a sister and I will finally end her miserable existence and that slut that whelped you will finally pay. ”
The rage that had seared his veins only minutes before was replaced with icy fear. It was an old fear, leftover from years of protecting Lilly from this man. Of doing everything in his preteen power to keep John Duncan away from Lilly.