JackParent’s Day - 4 Weeks Ago
The tent flap was ripped back, letting in light and an unwanted audience.
One look at their faces, and I knew I was fucked.
Five fucking years of peace. Then, the disaster that was last summer.
I only just managed to sort out a plan last August and now…
shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. They weren’t supposed to find out this way.
Panic chilled the blood in my veins as I stared at Cole and Brennon.
They weren’t supposed to be out here. They should have been busy with all the parents, kids, and chaos of the day. Instead, they were getting in my face.
These two could bring all my plans, years of waiting and working, crashing down around me.
One wrong word to their parents, to Blue or Carl and Franklin Barrett wouldn’t just ruin me.
He’d make sure I spent the last days of my life locked in one of his fucking cages praying for death.
My nose was supposed to stay clean in all of this. And now…fuck!
I scrambled as Brennon asked, “Who’s Daniel?”
“What happened to Holly?’’
Usually such a joker, right now, Brennon looked ready to kill.
Not that he could. Those lanky arms were good for guitar and not much else.
I doubted he had the strength. The same couldn’t be said for Cole.
With the training his father put him through as a young kid, he probably could’ve killed me years ago had he known about any of this shit.
And I had no doubt that if he learned the truth about my current plans or about just how involved I’d been with the events of the past, that Cole Michaels would strangle me right here and now.
But maybe, just maybe, I could play these boys the same way I was playing their parents.
Well, not Carl, because who gave a shit about Carl?
But it would be risky. Then again, my whole plan had been full of risks from the start.
So, I waited, let Brennon drill me with questions until he repeated the one I needed.
“Who the fuck is Daniel?”
“Nobody. If you’re smart. He’s nobody. He’s a name you’ll never say again if you know what’s good for you Brennon Grace.”
The words themselves were dark and ominous, while I fought the smile that threatened at the edges of my mouth.
My non-answers, the threat, the mystery would, I hoped, send them scurrying, like lab rats, in exactly the direction I needed them to.
While I wove a new plan, just in case. At this point, I was a master at covering my own ass and I knew just what, or who, I needed to make that happen.