17. Gio
17
GIO
“ C oach is trying to kill us,” Nolan groans as we stride through the door into the house.
Heavy cigarette smoke lingers in the front room, but there's no hint as to how long ago my old man was home. He smokes so damn much that the scent has seeped into the walls. It always smells like cigarettes no matter how much my ma tries to clean up after his lazy ass.
Nolan drops his shit next to the couch and practically sags into the already weak cushions that damn near go concave under his weight. Coming in last, Lex circles me and collapses next to him.
“I’m fucking dead, man.” I lean my head to one side, putting my hand on my neck, trying to crack it.
Each damn bone in my body feels as if it’s been put through the wringer. Maybe it’s because we’re set to go up against Silverwood Prep in a few weeks, but our team had been hyped today. Even with the pads on, I’d felt each and every slam from our defense.
“My bruises have bruises,” I mutter.
“Same,” Nolan agrees before he sits up straighter and nods toward the back hallway. “Mind if I use your shower before I head off to work?”
I know why he avoids using the showers at the school, but I don’t comment. Slipping in and out of clothes is one thing, but walking around naked in front of a bunch of guys when he’s sporting those scars of his is another matter entirely. Not everyone is as discreet as they should be and the fewer people remember he ever had a father who beat the shit out of him, the better.
I wave him towards the back of the house. “Fuck if I care. Go on.”
Nolan is up and off the couch as if he hadn’t just been acting like he could hardly move a minute ago. As he disappears down the hall, I grab the remote that controls the ceiling fan and take his place on the couch. I hit the button that’ll start the rotation and hopefully get some air going as the sweat on my skin starts to dry. Several moments pass in near silence. Slowly, I let my gaze drift to the man next to me. Lex has his shaggy dark hair pulled back and away from his face, tied in a knot at the back of his skull. His phone is already out and sitting in his palm as he flips through various security feeds. When he pauses over a familiar face, I let loose a long-annoyed sigh. Lex looks up at me as I scowl at him.
“I’ve never understood why you’re so hung up on that girl,” I gripe, nodding down at the black and white still of Juliet Donovan standing in The Dionysus Lounge parking lot talking to Roquel Lee. “Just because she was nice when we were kids doesn’t mean she’s going to be okay when she finds out you’ve been secretly watching her for years. She’ll be creeped out, man. You should really fix your sights on someone better. There are plenty of Public girls that’d suck your dick like a vacuum just to wear your jersey for a night.”
Lex’s eyes cut my way, but he doesn’t turn his head. “I don’t want those girls,” he states. “Besides, are there any Public girls who’d suck my dick that haven’t sucked yours too?”
My lips twitch and a grin forms. “Probably not,” I admit. “But that didn’t seem to bug you before.” My grin eases a bit and I gesture to his phone. “Not that you’ve touched anyone since Prep Girl fell from grace. You hoping she’ll give you a chance now that she’s in the gutter too?”
“Nolan said I could bring her with us.”
The reminder of that long-ago promise makes me frown. “Are you seriously still planning on her coming?” I shake my head. “Come on, man. You know Nolan only said that shit so you’d chill. There’s no way she’s going to agree to follow us. Besides, why the hell would we want a spoiled needy little girl to weigh us down? We’re trying to get out of this dump, not bring it with us.”
Lex bares his teeth at me, his upper lip pulling back over the top row of shiny whites. “She’s important to me,” he snaps, “and she’s not spoiled—not anymore.”
I blow out a long breath. Talking to him about Juliet Donovan is as pointless as ever. “Yeah, yeah.” I wave a hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean any insult or nothing—I just … I’ve never understood what you see in her.”
Those gray eyes of his, the color of smoke and burning ashes, go back to the screen. “She’s different,” he murmurs. “She cared about me when no one else did.”
I punch him in the shoulder. “I care about you, you fucker,” I snap. I wouldn’t put up with his weird stalkerish tendencies if I didn’t. “You aren’t obsessed with me like that.” Not that I’d want him to be, but if that’s all it is drawing him to her then he’s whacked out. I mean … he’s already whacked out, but he’s Lex. That’s his normal state of being.
Still, no man should ever be this caught up on some pussy.
“She was the one who reported my dad.” The words are so quiet, I almost don’t hear them. Almost.
My head whips back around and I gape at him. “What?”
Lex stares down at Juliet’s picture, her face turned to give a smooth profile of her jawline and the delicate curve of her ear. He strokes it with a thumb. “She saw the bruises, and when the teacher ignored them, she threw a fit. She said that someone was being mean to me and that it wasn’t okay. She told the teacher and when the teacher tried to calm her down, to tell her to be quiet, she refused.” He doesn’t lift his head from his phone as he stares at the nearly adult Juliet Donovan, though I’m sure he’s thinking of her as the little blonde five-year-old she was back then.
“A lot of the teachers knew how shitty my parents were, but they didn’t want to risk pissing off my dad,” he continues. “He was a dick, but he donated to the school before Prep was built. They thought they needed the money. Juliet didn’t care. She made such a big stink about my bruises that it would’ve looked bad if multiple teachers ignored her. It was because of her that they finally opened a case and then they found out all of the bullshit he was pulling behind closed doors—the gambling, the drugs.”
I don’t say a word as he tells the story I already know. When he lifts his gaze away from her image and looks me in the eye, I feel my chest cave in just the slightest bit. Parents always fuck up their kids, no matter if they’re perfectly lovely and kind. Every kid grows up just a little messed up because that’s just the way of society. Parents like Lex’s though … they are the reason psychopaths exist. If I believed in my mama’s god, I’d thank the fucker every day that Nolan and I got to Lex before that happened.
“I might’ve died if she didn’t tell,” he admits. “Or I might’ve been in the house with him when he shot Mom and killed himself.”
“Fuck.” I sag onto the couch, forgetting about the television entirely. “Sorry, man. I didn’t realize that’s how it happened. I mean I knew about your ma and dad, but…” I let my words trail off, not entirely sure what to say.
Lex shrugs but then lowers his phone as the screen times out and goes black. “No need to say anything, but if you could do something for me?”
“What?” I glance his way.
“Don’t hate her so much,” he says. “I know Nolan didn’t really mean it when he said if I could convince her to leave with us, he’d let her come—but I’m holding him to it. I want her.”
My lips pinch together. Letting go of my hate towards her, I might be able to do. The idea of her coming with us when we leave Silverwood, though? It’s still foreign to me. “What about us?” I ask him.
Lex tilts his head to the side. “What about us?”
I gesture outward. “Three guys and one girl?” I say. “You think that’s a good plan? Or are you planning on getting your own place with her? Are you gonna leave Nolan and me and go start your life elsewhere with your fallen rich girl?”
For the longest second of my life, Lex doesn’t say anything and then he shocks me. “Why can’t we just be together?”
“Together?” My brow puckers. He can’t mean… “Like … together together?” I clarify.
He stares back at me. “Yes.”
“You want us to have a relationship with her?” I shake my head. “Dude, you’ve been in love with her for years. Why the hell would you want to share her with Nolan and me?”
Not that I can’t see the benefits. I’ve done a lot of shit in the bedroom and I’ve done it with a lot of people. Nameless, faceless people. I’ve played with threesomes before. I’ve fucked a girl’s ass. I’ve done what seems like it all. Sharing with my best friends though? I don’t hate the idea.
It would be one way to keep us all grounded, to keep us all together. Friends aren’t meant to last forever. Friends grow up. They move on. I’ve heard that all too fucking much over the last year. The closer we get to graduation, the more I fear what leaving Silverwood would do to us.
We may not be blood-related, but the three of us are bound in something stronger. One girl … between the three of us? What better way to bind us all together and keep us from drifting apart when we escape this godforsaken town?
Lex puts his phone away and pulls a laptop out of one of his bags. “There’s another thing I need to talk to you and Nolan about,” he says, switching topics as he turns on the machine and his fingers speed over the keys.
“What’s that?”
“Her father called me a while back to look into his case.”
I blink. “Wait. Allen Donovan? Allen Donovan called you? To look into his case?”
“He called Scorpion.”
Holy … fuck. “You took the job.” It’s not a question. The girl he’s been in love with for over ten years’ father asks for his assistance? Yeah, there ain’t no way Lex has the kind of impulse control to say no.
“Yes, and I found something.”
I lean closer, looking down at the laptop screen, but it’s all a dark background with code appearing and jolting through various boxes that pop up and disappear too fast for me to even read them. Damn. I don’t know how he figures anything out on the damn thing.
“Let me guess,” I say. “Donovan claims he’s innocent and he wanted your help to prove it.” I roll my eyes. “Dumbass. All you’ll do is pull up the truth and then he’ll be shit out of?—”
“I think he might be innocent.” If it were possible for my jaw to unlatch completely from my skull and tumble to the floor it would do so.
“What?” There’s no way.
Lex continues to type, pulling up box after box—only these show a series of documents, some scanned and some digitally created. “I went back into his banking history—through all of the income and profits of Donovan-Calloway enterprises.”
“You’re not going to tell me that the money isn’t gone,” I snap. “A lot of our friends lost their college savings because their parents couldn’t afford to make ends meet. Silverwood is still recovering?—”
“No, the money was definitely embezzled and stolen, but whether or not it was done by Allen Donovan is still a question.”
“You’re going to try and prove that it wasn’t him, aren’t you?”
Lex glances over at me. “I’m going to find the truth. If it was him, well he’s fine out of Juliet’s life then, but if it wasn’t…”
“You know helping him and finding out that he was innocent might mean she’ll have another option than going away with you when the time comes,” I point out.
“She’ll choose us.” His gaze sharpens and I’m not sure if he’s trying to convince himself or me.
I open my mouth to say as much when the front door opens. Lex has his computer shut and stowed back in his bag before I can blink and turn my head. When my brain catches up to the fact that he’s back in his seat and the person walking in the door is Mama, I practically leap off the couch.
Carrying two plastic bags marked with the local grocery store’s logo, she glances up as I hurry towards her, reaching for the bags before she can stop me. “Oh, amore mio,” she murmurs, her Italian accent lilting, “you’re home.”
The sound of her accent soothes my anger. For a moment, I think it’s too damn bad I never picked it up, but my papino had beaten it out of me every year as I aged. Though my mother is a proud Italian, the mixture of my father’s Spaniard roots and the discrimination he’s faced since immigrating to America made him ensure that his son would never pick up those small quirks from their homelands. Even if I do know some of the language, using it outside of the house is a disrespect he’d never stand for. Vile old bastard.
Mama doesn’t fight me as I lift the heavy bags out of her hands and bend to place a kiss to the top of her head. As short as she is, I’m able to look over her and peer through the grimy storm door to the street beyond. With trash littering the sidewalks and overgrown weeds in the yards of the other millhouses in the neighborhood, the only thing out of place is the pristine black sedan sitting at the curb.
The car’s not brand new, but it’s well-kept. I’d seen a few of the dealers driving around in something similar—though I know they prefer the SUVs. The blacked-out windows aren’t different either. I can’t tell if there’s anyone inside, but there’s some warning bell inside me blaring that there is. That we’re being watched.
“I am, Mama,” I reply distractedly as I stare at the car. “Practice ended half an hour ago.”
“Hi, Lex,” Mama murmurs.
“Hi, Mrs. Vargas,” Lex replies with a nod.
“Do you want me to fix you boys something to eat?” She circles me and moves further into the house. “Is Nolan here? He’s probably got to work tonight. I can whip up some panzanella for him before he goes.”
“No, Mama,” I say, still eyeing the sedan with increasing irritation and concern. “We’re okay.” My eyes flash to Lex. He’s glaring at me still, but there must be something on my face because in the next moment, he’s up and off the couch, our spat forgotten.
“Gio, why are you still standing at the door?” Mama asks, tsking. “Go on and close it and bring those bags into the kitchen. Your papino will be home soon.”
The mention of my father has me gritting my teeth, but instead of responding, I just give Lex a look of meaning and nod out of the storm door towards the black sedan. He doesn’t need words. He merely nods and nudges me out of the way before opening the door and heading outside. I wait a moment to make sure he makes it to the car and is safe before I half-heartedly kick the door so that it swings shut, but not all the way. Then I follow my mama into the kitchen and set her bags on the scratched counter before unloading.
“Let me grab you something to drink. You sweat too much at those practices of yours,” Mama says as she moves towards the equally beat-up refrigerator.
With a sigh, I set one can of tomatoes on the counter and turn, catching her around the waist with one arm. “Mama, we’re fine,” I say, cupping her cheek. The dark circles under her eyes have grown. “You look tired. Why don’t you go rest and I’ll finish unpacking this.”
“I’m not an invalid, Giovanni Luis.” Her face tightens as she uses my first and middle name as if that’ll get me to do what she wants. It used to … when I was eight. Now, however, I stand a good six inches taller than her and more than double her body weight.
Still, I stroke a strand of her black and gray hair back and give her my most beseeching smile. “You are tired, Mama,” I repeat. “I am a grown man; I can make my own food. You’ve been at work all day. You should lay down before Pa—Father—gets home.”
The asshole will likely only interrupt what little rest she manages to get by demanding his dinner and criticizing the unkempt house that he seems to wreck whenever he comes through. It’s better she get as much now as she can.
Mama grumbles and glares at me. “You never listen to me anymore, amore mio,” she gripes. “Ever since you shot up”—she pauses to smack me—“it is as if you lost all respect for your mama. I raised you to be a better man than this.”
I bite down on my tongue to keep from laughing at her poor attempt to guilt me into letting her work. I shake my head. “Not going to work on me, Mama,” I tell her. “You raised me to take care of those I love and that’s what I’m doing.”
With firm hands on her shoulders, I turn her around and push her towards the hallway just as Nolan exits the bathroom down the dark interior. His half-naked form appears and he offers Mama a wave as he ducks his head and disappears into my room to, I assume, get changed.
Mama gripes and complains and guilt trips me every step of the way, but finally, I manage to nudge her halfway down the hall. Far enough for her to get the hint that I’m not going to let her do anything until after she lies down. Her smaller frame dips into the room she and my father share as the front door opens and Lex appears.
My gaze shoots to his and I frown. “Who was it?” I demand.
Lex tips his head around me, trying to look past the living room into the kitchen and I sigh. “I just got her to go lay down,” I say, lowering my voice as I answer his unspoken question about whether or not Mama is still there.
Lex nods and moves back towards the couch. “That was Mattias,” Lex murmurs, lowering his voice as a door opens down the hall. I look up, spotting Nolan as he moves towards us, wearing a pair of my jeans and a dark t-shirt.
I frown at him. “Wash those before you bring them back,” I say. “I don’t want them back covered in grease.”
Nolan flips me off without looking my way as he finishes towel drying his hair and then lets the worn gray fabric just hang around his neck. Shaking my head, I return my attention to Lex, less concerned now that I know it was just one of my father’s men checking up on me. I fucking hate it when he sends them without warning, but telling him to stop would only result in another fight and Mama crying. I’m tired of seeing her fucking cry.
“What did he want?” I ask Lex.
“The collection money from Ma-Ri,” Lex replies.
Nolan moves into the kitchen and starts up the task of unloading Mama’s groceries that I’d stopped earlier. “Good thing you had it,” he says. “The handover went fine?”
Lex nods and moves up next to the counter, grabbing a carton of juice and turning to stow it in the fridge. Together, the three of us make quick work of unloading the two bags and at the bottom of the second, I pull out the receipt and scowl.
“Fuck—when the hell did shit get so expensive?” I mutter, crumpling the little piece of paper before I remember that Mama likes to use the coupons on the back. With a huff, I set it back on the counter, straighten it out with the flat of my palm as much as I can, and then toss it onto the stack in the junk drawer.
“Everything’s expensive nowadays,” Nolan comments as he pops a can of soda and then starts to chug it.
I grip the edge of the countertop and bend over it, inhaling slowly through my teeth.
Even if it comes out that Allen Donovan is innocent, the damage has already been done. There will always be a dark cloud hanging over his daughter’s head and people will still believe that her father was the one that ruined half of the town’s lives.
“You should tell him,” I say, catching Lex’s gaze and nodding towards Nolan.
Nolan lowers the soda can. “Tell me what?”
Crossing my arms, I wait, but Lex remains curiously quiet. I sigh. Nolan watches the two of us but doesn’t say a word. A beat of silence slides through the room, then I throw my hands up in disgust.
“He’s working for Allen Donovan,” I offer up and sit back for the shitshow.
Nolan stares at Lex. “Tell me he’s joking.” His words are a low growl, a demand.
Lex shakes his head.
“Goddamn it, Lex.” Nolan crumples the aluminum can in his fist, the sound of sharp cracks resounding around the room. “I told you when you started that hacking shit that you shouldn’t accept work close to home.”
“Allen Donovan is being held in Hansgard Correctional Facility, three hours north.” Lex’s statement earns a hard glare from Nolan.
“He’s from Silverwood,” Nolan snaps. “You know what my stipulations meant; don’t get technical on me.”
“That’s kind of his job,” I say, reclining against the counter and crossing my arms again.
“Shut up, G.” Nolan doesn’t even look at me as he bites out the words. His sole attention is focused on Lex. It always fucking is.
I wince at that thought, but keep my mouth shut as Nolan lays into Lex about his dark web practices and taking jobs that won’t get him arrested or found out by local authorities. In the beginning, it used to be just Nolan and me. Lex was too quiet and reserved to really be of interest to a couple of five and six- year-olds. Since Lex’s dad was outed as an abuser, though, we’ve been ten times closer. The three of us realized that few people would actually care if our fathers killed us—at least they wouldn’t care until it was too late.
Unlike me, though, Lex hadn’t been able to manage normalcy for a long time. Nolan worried about him and constantly talked about keeping him under control. In some ways, it feels like Nolan and I are Lex’s keepers, and up until three years ago, it bugged the shit out of me.
Now, though … Lex is as much a part of me as Nolan is. There shouldn’t be any room for jealousy. Yet … their abusers are gone. Both are dead either by our hands or by their own. Mine remains in the same house as my mama and me. I can’t help but resent the fact that my monster still lives when theirs are long gone.
“—what I want when it comes to her, this involves her.” I withdraw from my thoughts and take in the last bit of Lex’s words.
I don’t have to hear what he said before to know what he’s talking about. Everything concerning Juliet Donovan is under Alexio Medicci’s purview. He knows all when it comes to her. He knows her favorite soda, her preferred music, and probably even down to the color of her thong on any given day. At least, she strikes me as a thong wearer. Maybe, along with all of the other things that have changed about her in the last several months, that has too.
“Helping her criminal father is not something I would be okay with. You knew that,” Turning, Nolan tosses the now-crumpled soda can into the trash bin before fixing Lex with his impenetrable gaze. It’s the same look he gives to some of my father’s men when they think they can fuck with the three of us just because we’re younger than them. “I want you out. I don’t care what you have to tell the bastard, you end the job.”
Lex is already shaking his head. “No.”
Nolan’s expression darkens further and before his top can blow, I step between the two of them. When I originally outed Lex’s little secret, it hadn’t been to cause a fight between them, but because for our group to work, we can’t keep secrets like that from each other.
“Alright, that’s enough,” I say, pressing a hand against Lex’s chest when he leans forward. “You two need to take a fucking pill. She’s just a girl.”
“Not to him.” Nolan jerks his chin in Lex’s direction. He’s right. To Lex, Juliet Donovan is an idol, his savior, his perfect woman.
I blow out a breath. “Regardless, the fact of the matter is that if you want shit to continue smoothly with Darrio and after we graduate, then we need money.” And no doubt if Lex manages to find out that Allen Donovan is innocent of the charges against him, the payday from that will set the three of us up for a good long while after we get the fuck out of Silverwood.
“We don’t need the money that badly,” Nolan argues. “I’ve been pulling more shifts at the shop and with the income Darrio generates?—”
“That income won’t last forever.” I cut him off, letting my hand drop from Lex’s chest as I turn to face one of the two men I’d both kill and die for. “You didn’t just make a deal with Lex when you decided that we’re out after graduation,” I remind him. “You made one with me too.”
At the end of this year, it’ll all be over. No more Darrio. No more constantly looking over our shoulders to see what bullshit my psycho of a father has dragged down on all of our heads. He’ll be gone. Mama will be safe and we’ll be on the road straight out of town.
Nolan doesn’t say anything for a long moment, his gaze switching from mine to Lex’s as the big man stands behind my shoulder. It’s rare for us to form a front against Nolan. More than that, though, this is the first time it’s ever been about a damn girl.
She’s beautiful, I’ll give Lex that much. Hot as hell and stronger than I would’ve given a prep girl credit for. She’s a fighter. When I first learned that she hadn’t skipped town like her mother, I assumed she’d be out before the end of the year. I was wrong.
Juliet Donovan is not the same girl from years past. I don’t know if that girl had been a facade or if this one is, but I’m rapidly growing curious about her. Fuck . To think I’d given Lex shit about her over the last thirteen years and then end up just as interested in her as the lovesick idiot. Is crazy a disease you can catch?
Nolan finally straightens away from the counter at his back. He tilts his head, first at me and then Lex. Something passes between the two of them, a silent conversation. I try not to let the fact that I’m being left out of whatever is being said get to me again. I really fucking do, but the longer the silence reigns, the tighter my muscles wind.
With a sigh, Nolan shakes his head. “You’re right,” he finally says, his gaze returning to me. “I made a promise to both of you and I’ll keep it, but Juliet Donovan is a distraction none of us need.” Despite his words, when he says her name, there’s a glimmer of something in his eyes. I know what it is.
It’s a dangerous curiosity.
Nolan glances back at Lex. “I know I can’t convince you to just let it go, but at the very least, I hope you’ll keep us in mind—whatever actions you take don’t just affect you, they affect all three of us.”
Whether we want to admit it or not, Juliet Donovan is affecting us all.