Chapter 6 Gio
GIO
Juliet disappears behind Lex’s door without looking back, and for a second, I just sit in the drive.
Her scent clings to the passenger seat—something soft and clean.
When I first met her, I didn’t think she belonged near a guy like me, didn’t belong on the rough side of Silverwood.
Now, she’s proven she more than belongs—Juliet has proven that there’s nothing she won’t do to survive.
I grip the steering wheel until the leather creaks and force myself to back out of Lex’s driveway. Gravel crunches under the tires of the Firebird, and as I hit the main road, I punch the gas harder than I need to. A plume of dust kicks up behind me.
I want to turn around. Go back. Crawl into bed with her and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist. But I can’t.
Because he still exists. Darrio Vargas. The devil in flesh and bone.
My jaw clenches as I merge onto the highway. I have no doubt the fucker is waiting for me at home. I haven’t been back in days and I haven’t answered his text messages or phone calls. The last one was less demand and more threat. I roll my tongue into my cheek and consider that.
Everything happening with Juliet almost made me forget that he’s been the darkness in my closet for a long damn time. Our time in Silverwood is coming to an end and before we leave, I’m going to make sure to take the bastard out.
My mama might love that piece of shit, but what’s good for her and the rest of the world is his death. He doesn’t know it yet, but creating me was the beginning of the end for him.
My phone rings from the console, the screen lighting up with Nolan’s name. I reach down and swipe once to answer and then hit the speaker.
“Yeah?”
“You got Jules?” he asks. His voice is low, but there’s a gruffness in it I know too well. We both feel it. The pull to her. The need to keep her safe.
“Just dropped her off with Lex,” I answer. “On my way back now.”
A pause. Then, a moment later, Nolan’s voice comes through the phone speaker with an all-too-familiar edge of worry. “You good?”
I snort. “Probably about as good as you are right now,” I tell him honestly. We’re all fucked up.
Nolan blows out a breath. “That’s fair.” Empty air drifts into the cab of the Firebird and I wait for him to get to what he really called me about. After another beat, he does. “What do you think about her going back to school?” he finally asks. “You think it’s a good idea?”
“No,” I answer without hesitation. “But she’s not the type we can lock away.”
“She’s going to walk into that building and every single person’s gonna be looking at her like she’s the devil.”
“They already do,” I mutter, voice like gravel. “They think she killed him.”
“Morpheus,” Nolan spits, the sound of the bastard’s name making anger rise in my blood.
I say nothing. My fingers flex around the wheel.
“She didn’t do it,” he adds. “We can tell people until we’re blue in the face, but…”
He doesn’t need to finish. I know what he means.
Who would trust a couple of small-town gangsters and drug dealers?
We work for my fucking father and have for the last few years.
We might have earned respect on the football field, but outside of it?
We’re feared. No one will ever actually believe us and they're damn sure not going to believe Juliet.
“We need to figure out a plan if the truth never comes out,” I say, an idea forming in my mind.
Another beat of silence, then, “I’m listening,” Nolan says.
My lips twitch as the thoughts in my mind combine and form a cohesive plan. “What do you think about killing two birds with one stone?” I ask.
“Your old man?” It doesn’t surprise me that he guesses my intention rather quickly.
“He’s made it no secret that he hates the north side of Silverwood. He loathes anyone who makes him feel less than—Morpheus Calloway represents everything that makes a man like my father feel small.”
Nolan is quiet for a moment, but if I were to guess, I’d say he’s contemplating the pros and cons of my suggestion.
“There’s no telling how long the investigation will take,” he admits.
“If this doesn’t get resolved by the time we graduate and we’re set to leave Silverwood, I think we should make that happen. ”
The bubble of amusement that rises in my chest at the thought of my father being arrested for murder makes me practically giddy. That kind of plan will need time. The crumbs need to be laid. Lex is going to have more on his plate soon.
“Are you okay with just letting him go to jail?” Nolan asks.
I shrug before I remember he’s not in the car with me and then answer verbally. “As long as he’s away from my mama, then I don’t really give a shit. Do I want the fucker to die horribly and painfully? Yeah, but who’s to say we can’t make that happen while he’s incarcerated?”
“Good point.” There’s some shuffling on the other side of the line following Nolan’s response.
“We’ll talk about it with Lex and then put that on the back burner.
I want to see if the cops actually do any actual detective work and figure out who the real murderer is or if they’re going to try and pin it all on Juliet. ”
My grin fades at that. “Do you think we should try to figure out who it is before they do?” I ask. “Juliet’s mom is still missing. It could’ve been her.”
“If Lex hasn’t been able to find her, then I honestly think she’s probably dead,” Nolan says. “He can find anyone—plus we roped in Viks’ own hacker. They didn’t find shit on Denise Donovan. It’s as if she just vanished.”
Even though I suspect Juliet’s relationship with her mother is as complicated as the one she has with her father, I wonder how she’ll take it if we do find out that the woman is dead. I grimace at the thought and sigh.
“Okay, we’ll take a breather on that,” I say. “For now, we should probably just focus on getting Juliet back to a routine—school and… Do you think she’d go back to The Dionysus Lounge now?”
“Maybe.” Nolan sounds like he is considering. “It’s not like Ma-Ri wanted to fire her. She’s proud, but I think she liked that job. Plus, Madison is there. She’s friends with the girl and she needs that kind of normalcy.”
“You should talk to her about it,” I say. “Convince her.”
“And Ma-Ri?” he asks. “Your father threatened her. I know we handled the man responsible for that, but it was still under Darrio’s orders. Ma-Ri might not feel safe letting her back.”
“Ma-Ri’s a good woman. If we handle Darrio, she’ll hire her back. Juliet is a good employee.”
“We’ll work on it,” Nolan replies. “We should also see if we can figure out who has it out for Juliet while we’re doing all of this.”
“Has it out for Juliet?” I repeat with a frown, glancing down at the phone before I turn onto my family’s street. “What do you mean?”
“You and I both know that this much shit happening to one person can’t be a coincidence. We thought it was Morpheus—the embezzlement, the kidnapping, her mother’s disappearance. Now he’s dead.”
“His death could be wholly unrelated to her,” I suggest. “He threatened her and blackmailed her. He fucking hurt her.” My knuckles turn white on the steering wheel as I utter the words. “A good person doesn’t do any of that—he was probably involved in other shit. He was probably shady as fuck.”
“I know,” Nolan says. “But we can’t rely on that possibility.”
The Firebird’s headlights turn over the back of my father’s pickup truck as I park in the driveway. There’s an inflection in his voice that tells me there’s more he’s not saying. “What are you thinking?”
“It would make more sense if there was one person behind all of this.” I shut off the car, but don’t get out as he keeps talking.
“I found it odd that the kidnappers were originally just ordered to take her, then later got a call, ordering them to kill her. That doesn’t match up with what Morpheus seemed to want from her. ”
“You think someone else got in the middle and ordered her to be killed,” I guess. “Who?”
“That’s the question we all want answered.” Nolan’s voice is cold. “We may not know who they are, but we do know one thing—they won’t get to her again.”
Over our dead bodies, I silently agree. We’ll burn this whole damn town to the ground if it keeps her safe.
The porch light comes on and the curtains by the front window sway. It’s a warning. My dad knows I’m home and if Mama is peeking out then that means he’s in a shit mood.
“We’ll have to talk about this more later,” I say, removing my keys and slipping them into my pocket. “I’m home—gotta go in.”
“All right, I’ll see you at school tomorrow—it’ll be Juliet’s first day back. She’s riding in with Lex.”
“Roger that, see you then.” I click off the call and get out of the car.
I’m not even halfway up the sidewalk before the front door swings open and a figure fills the entryway.
My father isn’t a big man, not by height, but he is a thick man.
What he lacks for in vertical inches, he makes up for in bone density.
He fills the opening to the house in a way that is both threatening and disapproving.
I slow to a stop just before the concrete stairs and tip my head back.
“Where the hell you been, boy?” he demands.
The muscles of my back tighten all over, bunching beneath the fabric of my t-shirt and hoodie. “With the guys,” I answer. “Problem?”
He jerks his thumb over his shoulder in a command to get inside before replying. “Damn right, there’s a problem,” he practically snarls as I move up the stairs. “You ain’t been answering your damn phone.”
The second I get close, he doesn’t back out of the way to let me in as I wish he would. Instead, his hand snaps up and slaps the side of my head. I grit my teeth. My fingers curl into fists, short nails stabbing into my palms.
“You wanna let me in, old man, or you wanna try and give me a beating on the front lawn?” I ask casually.