Chapter 3
Teddy
“What the fuck?” Jesse cried from the back seat, jolting me from the haze I’d fallen into.
I wrenched my mouth away from the kiss, but the man—Curtis—held me steady just inches from his face.
“You got eyes on you,” he said, the thinnest thread of apology in his voice. “You pick up your man at the bus station, you kiss him hello.”
“My man?” I asked dumbly, only long experience keeping me from looking past him to try to find who he thought was watching us.
“Scoot over, baby,” he ordered, letting go of me so he could reach for the door handle.
I stared in disbelief as he threw the door open and reached down for his bag.
Then, because if I hadn’t moved, it seemed like he would’ve climbed into my lap, I scooted across the bench seat.
He set his bag on the floorboard at my feet and the flannel between us as he closed us into the truck together.
“Who are you?” Finn asked in confusion, finally lifting his head.
“Curtis,” the man replied, rolling up the window. He started the truck as he looked at Finn in the rearview mirror. “Who are you?”
“I’m Finn.”
“Hey, Finn.”
“Hey, Curtis.”
“Hello?” Jesse called, leaning up to poke their head over the seat. “This is your friend?”
“Jesse,” I said, lowering my voice in warning. The last thing we needed was Finn soaking up every word of our conversation in order to bring it up later.
“Hey, Jesse,” Curtis greeted as he backed out of the parking spot. “Buckle up, yeah?”
Jesse threw themselves backward and buckled in, but I could feel their eyes on the back of my head.
“You filled up the tank,” Curtis said, smiling over at me. “Good.”
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, a little dumbstruck at the sight of that smile pointed at me again. “We’re all set.”
“Saw that,” Curtis murmured as we pulled out onto the road. “You think you used enough tie-downs?”
“There’s no way anything is falling out…” My words trailed off as I realized he was joking. “It’s better to use too many than too little,” I huffed. “I didn’t want our shit falling out onto the freeway.”
“It definitely won’t do that.”
“How long until we get there?” Finn asked.
“About seven hours,” Curtis replied.
I closed my eyes in frustration just as Finn yelped, “What?”
“Takes about seven hours to get to Eugene,” Curtis said, switching lanes like he drove my truck for a living.
“We’re moving to Eugene?” Finn yelled in disbelief as I turned to look at him. “That’s in Oregon!”
“It is,” I confirmed, watching as emotions from excitement to horror flickered across his face.
“But what about all my friends? I can’t go to my school if we live in Eugene.”
“Dude, you knew we were moving,” Jesse said in exasperation. “Why did you think you’d go to the same school?”
“We always go to the same school,” he spat back. “We moved before, and we went to the same school!”
“We’re moving farther this time, pal,” I said calmly, trying to cut off the spiral before it happened. “You’re gonna make tons of new friends up there.”
“I like my old friends!”
“You can call them,” I replied. “Or write them? You guys could do letters like you’re pen pals.”
“That’s not the same.”
“No, it’s not,” I conceded. “But it’s gonna be good. Okay? Trust me.”
“This sucks!”
“Oh, knock it off,” Jesse said in exasperation. “You were all excited to move like half an hour ago.”
“I thought we were moving to an apartment like Hayden’s! With a pool!” Finn growled back.
“Enough,” I snapped. “Fighters, to your corners.”
Both kids immediately went silent and turned to look out their windows.
“Nice trick,” Curtis murmured, glancing at me.
“They outnumber me,” I replied, facing forward again. “I had to come up with something that immediately stopped the arguing. The trick is to not use it often. Packs more of a punch that way.”
“They didn’t know you were movin’?” he asked.
“They knew,” I hedged.
“Since about an hour ago,” Jesse added grimly.
“Got it.” He looked in the mirror again. “Just rented a big house. You’ll have your own bedrooms.”
“We already had our own bedrooms,” Finn grumbled.
“Big yard,” Curtis continued. “But it needs some work. My son, Dylan, will help with that, but we could use an extra pair of hands. Either of you up for that?”
“Pass,” Jesse replied flatly. “Wait. We’re going to live with you?”
I stared at the side of his face, wondering the same thing. What the absolute fuck?
“You have a son?” Finn asked hopefully. “Is he ten?”
“Nah, he’s seventeen,” Curtis replied as we pulled onto the freeway. “But he’s cool. You’ll like him.”
“Fucking fantastic,” Jesse whispered angrily.
“Teenagers don’t hang with kids,” Finn replied to Curtis.
“Says who?”
“Everyone.”
“Dyl will hang with you, I bet. He’s cool with kids. Plus, he’ll be glad for the help outside.”
Finn went back to forlornly looking out the window without replying.
Once the truck was quiet, I silently freaked the fuck out.
When the Aces first made contact, I’d told them the truth—I couldn’t see a way out.
Since Mike died, his father, David, had kept us under his thumb.
Oh, he wouldn’t have put it that way. He would’ve explained it as looking after his grandson and the love of his son’s life, but we both knew the truth.
Once Mike was gone, the buffer between his family and mine had disintegrated.
I’d known that Mike was bad news from the beginning.
We’d been part of the same circle for years before he’d made his move, and I’d known who he was.
But I’d been a single parent of a four-year-old, living with my dad in a trailer that was one step up from a camper, and Mike had been exciting.
He had money that he was generous with. He happily spent time with Jesse and me when I couldn’t get a sitter.
And for once, I’d wanted a fucking life outside of work and trying to figure out how I could pay both bills and buy groceries at the same time.
I couldn’t call it a mistake because without Mike I wouldn’t have Finn.
But that didn’t mean that it had been the right choice.
I’d known that since the moment I told him I was pregnant and he’d told me that he’d kill me if I got an abortion.
Ending the pregnancy hadn’t even been on my mind at that point.
I’d still been too shocked that it was happening at all.
But I knew as soon as he’d said it that he was serious. He would’ve killed me.
What followed were years of putting up with Mike whenever he deigned to visit, which thankfully wasn’t often.
He’d been proud of Finn in a beating-his-chest kind of way, but he’d never been an actual parent.
Before the morning sickness had even kicked in, he’d basically disappeared beyond sending me money once in a while.
He had no interest in dirty diapers and colic and the ear infections Finn had dealt with as a baby.
He’d just wanted the ability to say that he’d created a son.
Then he’d died, and I’d thought we were free. I should’ve known that life was never that simple.
“You guys eat?” Curtis asked, glancing at the bag of snacks beside his duffel on the floorboard.
“Yeah, we had something before we picked you up.”
“All right.”
“We can stop if you’re hungry.”
“Nah, I can wait,” he replied. “I’d rather put some distance in, yeah?”
I nodded as I fiddled with the silver cuff around my wrist, running my finger over the large turquoise stone set in the center.
My pop had found it at some swap meet when he was a teenager and worn it until the ambulance came to take him away for the last time.
I missed the old jackass more than I thought possible.
He’d been the last bastion between me and the world.
The older man from the Aces who’d contacted me was named Grease, and I remembered him vaguely from the times he’d come to see my pop.
From what I could recall, he was nice. Handsome, even though he was old enough to be my grandfather.
I’d instinctively trusted him when he’d said that my pop had called him before he died.
It was something my father would’ve done.
Trying to get his ducks in order before the cancer took him.
At first, Grease had ordered me to go to the Aces’ clubhouse in Sacramento.
He’d assured me that the men there would keep us safe and get us free, but I’d known better.
If it looked like I was going for help, all hell would’ve broken loose.
David Granger wasn’t a man who allowed anyone to best him, and the Aces drawing a line in the sand around the kids and me would’ve started a war. I wasn’t willing to do that.
A couple of months later, Grease had reached out with another idea.
A year later, he reached out again. Then again.
And again. Until finally, the day before, he’d called and told me that they knew exactly how to get us all the way out.
Out of Sacramento. Out of California. Out of David Granger’s sphere of influence.
And while I still had my doubts, the situation had become untenable.
I had to do something, and it was the first time the Aces had offered to move us out of state.
Deep down, I’d also wondered if at some point they’d give up on us.
I’d shot down every idea they’d had up to that point, and I figured my chances were running out.
I had to get my kids away from the slime that had coated us for as long as they could remember.
The Aces were promising a new life, free and clear of the Grangers.
They had it all worked out. A man named Curtis would be at the bus station the next day.
All I had to do was have us packed and ready to leave as soon as I picked him up.
Less than a day later, we’d be living our new life.