DAY 3 — THE REED LAND, NORTH CAROLINA
Now playing: Chariot - Gavin DeGraw
The first few days of house arrest were a blur of nervous energy and heavy silences.
We spent a lot of time just…existing. I’d catch myself staring at him across the kitchen island, wondering if we’d ever be Deadlock and Timeless Silas again, or if those versions of us had died on the sidewalk in Wilmington.
On the second day, we made the trek over to Maverick’s house. I spent most of the visit mentally dissecting the dynamics between Scott, Maverick, and Silas like it was my new job. It was a fascinating and jagged triangle of masculinity.
Maverick was the volcano: loud, intense, and prone to outbursts of protective rage.
Scott was the mountain: immovable, stoic, and carrying the weight of the Reed legacy like a physical burden.
And Silas? Silas was the bridge between them.
He connected both the intensity and family burden, while trying to please two men who expressed love through old-school toughness.
Both of them were enraged, but not at us. They went into full-blown protective-dad mode, hovering around the living room like they were prepping for a cage match.
“Presley is a little bitch,” Maverick rumbled, pacing the length of the hardwood floor while Shannon tried to get him to sit down. “He doesn’t understand the business is built on blood and truth as much as it is on scripts. He’s scared because he can’t control the narrative.”
“We’ve got your backs,” Scott assured us, his hand coming down heavy on Silas’s shoulder.
“If they try to freeze you out, they’re going to have to go through us.
But, you gotta play the game for a bit, boys.
Stay inside. Protect the business. You keep the truth between us until the office figures out how to sell it.
Kayfabe may be a bitch, but she’s the one who pays the bills. ”
It was a weird kind of comfort. To know they supported us, but still believed in the sanctity of the industry. That they wanted us safe and happy, but also wanted the Reed name to stay untarnished. It made my head spin, trying to navigate their loyalty to family, versus loyalty to the sport.